Two straight-talking professionals take over with reform top of agenda

John Coughlan, 48, has been seconded from his £150,000-a-year post as Hampshire county council's director of children's services to take over from the suspended Sharon Shoesmith.

The former president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, is a respected local authority chief with more than 20 years' experience.

A father-of-two, he studied English and History of Art at Leeds University before working in children's homes in Birmingham.

Unlike Ms Shoesmith, whose background is in the education system, Mr Coughlan has spent his entire career in social services.

He was brought in to work alongside Ms Shoesmith last month, but will now be taking over the department until at least next month. Among his first tasks will be to decide what action will be taken over the social workers named in the Baby P investigation.

He was hand-picked by Ed Balls as a troubleshooter but has been critical of government policies.

Mr Coughlan has described the high numbers of young people in custody as a "national disgrace" and called for a reduction in red tape to allow councils to operate without being encumbered by time-consuming bureaucracy.

The new chairman of Haringey's Local Safeguarding Children Board is Graham Badman, who retired as Kent county council's director of children's services two weeks ago. In his seven years in the role, Mr Badman has been credited with introducing a tough code of conduct to prevent child abuse.

The former science teacher has more than 35 years' experience and was awarded a CBE for services to children this year.

He spoke about the Baby P case to a committee last month when he said no system could guarantee the safety of all children.

He said: "Do we have procedures I am confident about? Yes, we do. Do we have the resources that I would wish? No, we do not. That is because in any process of dispensing public money, there is a rationing and conflicting priorities that members have to balance."

His appointment to the safeguarding children board, which is responsible for investigating social services failures, will at least give the body some independence as Ms Shoesmith had jointly held the post despite an apparent conflict of interest.