Balls wants urgent report to check lessons have been learnt

children’s services Coun Andrea Milner, and added: “Andrea has virtually become a member of the staff of the department. She has neglected her own business for that.

“She has an office in the department where she is working on an almost full-time basis to deal with the issues we are facing. Andrea and the former interim head of children’s service Nick Jarman should be applauded by the Government and the people of Doncaster for their work so far.

“They have laid the basis for a better standard of safeguarding for children in Doncaster, and although Ofsted have said we are not out of the woods yet from the low ebb we started with, they are reasonably happy with the progress we have made.”

Mr Davies said the report Mr Balls had requested would be dealt with in the same way that all other Government intervention and inspections into the council had been, and he would provide the leadership required to ensure it was carried out.

Doncaster Council has suffered further upheaval over the past week with issues surrounding the appointment of Tim Leader as the authority’s interim chief executive – an appointment the mayor has opposed and legally challenged. A marathon six-hour meeting was held on Wednesday to examine whether Mr Leader had been properly appointed with councillors rejecting the mayor's arguments and deciding he should continue in the job on an initially temporary basis.

Disagreements have also emerged about Mayor Davies’ budget, which would see council tax cut by three per cent, which opponents call “insanity”.

The results of an unannounced inspection carried out by Ofsted last month are due to be made public on Monday, just a week after the council’s new permanent head of children’s services Chris Pratt started in his job.