'I have a commitment. I am here for the long haul and I will stay until the job is done'

As an authority, Doncaster Council has been slammed by Government inspectors, held up for wide-ranging criticism and been forced to publicly apologise for failing children in care, with the fallout from the Edlington attacks the latest in a string of crises.

At present, the department is under intense Government scrutiny, with officials from the Department of Children, Schools and Families

spending time with staff, making sure failures which led to the attacks and the deaths of seven other vulnerable children can never happen again.

Mr Pratt, who was born in Doncaster, says he is confident that all this will change. He admits it will take time, but as a qualified teacher and the former head of children's services at successful Trafford Council in Greater Manchester, he believes he has a good chance of success.

First impressions, he says, are good. A lot of improvements have been made but there is "still a lot to do". Many commentators would say that is an understatement, but Mr Pratt believes there is a real sense of purpose about shedding the horrors of the past.

Education watchdog Ofsted carried out a snap inspection of the

department in January, and although the findings have yet to be published, Mr Pratt predicts they will show that many improvements have been made in the last six months.

But he adds: "I don't think we should be under any illusions that there is a long way to go. I have been very welcomed here and I have just found a lot of people who are really committed and enthusiastic about changing things. There have been a number of improvements, for example, on fostering which is a crucial service for children in care. That has been judged to be inadequate on two occasions and is now adequate, which is a sign of some real progress.

"Similarly in children's homes, three of the nine were judged to be inadequate. They are now all judged to be adequate, and quite a few good. But we need to strengthen the staff team, get managers in place, and manage case loads for social workers, which is a key issue."

After the publication of an executive summary into the failings that led to the Edlington case, where two young brothers attacked two other boys in the former mining community, Mr Pratt's predecessor Nick Jarman said children's services had been "broken".

Mr Pratt insists they have been fixed to a degree but admits: "They are not as good as they should be, but I don't think you could describe them as broken. Ofsted and the Government are clear that improvements have been made and I want to give more focus and accelerate those improvements.

"Safeguarding is absolutely critical – it has been a major issue in Doncaster and what we are about is providing children with good quality lives so they can grow into confident and responsible adults because they are the future of Doncaster.

"Again, the immediate safeguarding issues are to do with staffing, because although we have recruited over the last six months, we have still got gaps. There is a dearth of social workers and social work managers nationally.

"The job is not seen as fashionable, which is understandable given the publicity, but it is a very important job, a worthwhile job and we are just about to launch another campaign to recruit social workers here in Doncaster."

The Edlington report described social work as a "difficult job and a vulnerable job" and said some in the profession were "reluctant" to engage with the offenders' violent and chaotic family. The key to changing that culture is, according to Mr Pratt, "getting the management of the safeguarding service strengthened" and "getting sufficient numbers of competent, confident staff on the ground because they make the difference".

But major stumbling blocks remain – not least the fact that Doncaster is now seen as somewhere many social workers would not touch with the proverbial bargepole.

Recruiting has been an historic problem. In the past, managers were often recruited from outside social work, one even came from the frozen food industry, and they had no idea how to support staff dealing with vulnerable children.

"I think it is a challenge – there is a reputational issue, but we have been successful in recruiting some good people," says Mr Pratt. "But I think the feedback I am getting is that staff are feeling more and more supported. The vulnerabillities that social workers feel mean that they stay somewhere where they feel supported.

"What I think my appointment marks is some permanance. I am going to be here for a number of years, and we have recruited senior managers, assistant directors, who are going to be here a number of years.

"We need to get stability in senior management posts, that's what staff are saying to me.

"They are welcoming me being here because they have had a series of interim people, people haven't been here long so I think my arriving starts another phase in Doncaster's process."

Another challenge Mr Pratt has to face is financial. Mayor Peter Davies wants to cut 40m from the council's budget in the next four years and although safeguarding children will not be affected, other parts of his department will and the situation will get worse when Government

funding cuts start in 2011.

An investigation into the Edlington case is also planned and Mr Pratt has vowed that the findings will be made public so that taxpayers can see action is taken against staff who failed to do their jobs.

He says: "This is about which staff were involved with this case, and whether they acted in an appropriate manner. I think it's right that it takes place now.

"What we certainly won't be doing is naming names, I think that is

wholly inappropriate but I think we will be making known the general findings of it.

"It is the case that up until recently the job wasn't being done

properly and the public are quite within their rights to be outraged by that.

"But, equally, the staff within the service don't feel comfortable about it either, so there is a real determination to be seen to be part of a service that has got a reputation of being among the best.

"They are determined to remove this poor reputation. It has an effect socially when people ask what you do. You can imagine what people have been saying to me when they heard I was taking on the Doncaster job.

"I was born in Doncaster so I have a commitment, a personal commitment, to Doncaster. I am here for the long haul and I will stay until the job is done."