THE former boss of Dudley children's services has apologised in the wake of a scathing Ofsted report which highlighted "serious and widespread weaknesses" within the department.

Councillor Tim Crumpton, former cabinet member for children's services, issued a heartfelt apology at Monday's council meeting - a week after the publication of the damning report which rated Dudley Council's safeguarding services and services for looked after children as "inadequate".

The report criticised the Labour-controlled authority for not taking "sufficiently swift or robust remedial action to ensure the most vulnerable children and young people are protected" and the NSPCC described it as "deeply concerning", with a spokesman for the children's charity saying: "Vulnerable children are being failed. Dudley Council must improve its services as a matter of urgency.”

Cllr Crumpton, who is now the authority's community council spokesman, always maintained he had done his best but he said he accepts the findings of the report and he told the full council meeting: "As the cabinet member for the period May 2012 through to May 2015, I feel it is only right that I apologise to the children and families who we have not supported as well as we should have done during that period and, in my opinion since the formation of children's services."

He said from May 2012, when Labour took over the council from the Tories, up until June 2013 it "became increasingly apparent that we lacked management capacity and experience that not only minimised the problems we faced but also was incapable of providing the strategic resolutions to these".

But he added: "Ofsted recognise we now have the players in place to make the changes that we all know our children and families deserve."

Opposition councillors Paul Brothwood from Dudley's UKIP group and Patrick Harley from the Conservatives had called for the senior Labour councillor's resignation in the wake of the critical report following an inspection in January and February.

But many senior figures within the council chamber welcomed the apology and pledged to unite and put party politics aside to help bring the service up to scratch.

Top Tory councillor and former authority leader Les Jones said: "I'd like to thank the councillor for his apology - it's right and proper. We must not make it into a political issue."

He added: "We should hold our heads in shame because we got here but hold our heads up high to say we can fix this. What we have to do is work together."

UKIP councillor Dean Perks said he felt "physically sick" when he read the report but he added: "I welcome the apology but it's not down to one individual. We have to take a collective responsibility. We need to learn from our mistakes."

Councillor Dave Vickers praised cllr Crumpton for his frank admission and said: "It was well meant but it means we have let the children of this borough down - something I'm ashamed of totally."

Tory Group leader, cllr Patrick Harley, said it was "pleasing to see some changes already taking effect" and he praised the handling of the situation by councillor Ian Cooper, the current Labour cabinet member for children's services, and added: "We do acknowledge the work being done to try and rescue children's services from the disastrous position it was in."

Cllr Cooper said new managers were "working tirelessly to address the situation" and he added: "We as a local authority are not in denial. We're not a Rotherham. We know where we need to improve."

He said progress was being made with the launch of a child sexual exploitation team, increased payments to borough foster carers - and the setting up of an improvement board to support children in need and he stressed everyone was "pulling together to transform a service which must and will get better".

Cllr Paul Brothwood, who wrote to Ofsted and alerted the press when he became aware of problems in the department, was accused by many in the council chamber of speaking critically in order to grab headlines but he said: "I did the right thing by highlighting my group's concerns to Ofsted in August 2015."

And he added: "We can only address these systemic failures if children's services is opened up to more scrutiny."