A NEW child safeguarding boss has been appointed in Southampton to oversee the welfare of the city’s most vulnerable children.

The new role has been specially created by city council chiefs and will come into force in the new year following the resignation of the current children’s services boss, who quit her Cabinet post today with immediate effect.

And it comes as attention is heavily focussed on children’s and social services in the city following the deaths of four little boys in unrelated circumstances in 2011.

As reported by the Daily Echo, Jayden and Bradley Adams, Blake Fowler and little Nico Maynard all died in unrelated circumstances, with their parents quizzed over their deaths.

Inquests were held in November this year that saw coroner Keith Wiseman point to failures within agencies involved with their care. He also said that children’s professionals “had work to do”.

As later revealed, serious case reviews have now been launched into the deaths of Blake Flower and brothers Jayden and Bradley Adams to try and determine what lessons should be learned to avoid such tragedies happening again.

They will scrutinise the roles of all agencies involved, including council, police, housing and medical staff.

A review into the death of Nico Maynard is the only one to have been completed. It found that agencies had been kept in the dark about the baby’s father, who had previous child cruelty convictions for which he was jailed.

Councillor Sarah Bogle, the woman in charge of children’s services in Southampton, announced she was stepping down from her role at this evening's Cabinet meeting.

Her job will now be split into two posts, with Councillor Dan Jeffery taking charge of the city’s schools, while Councillor Mark Chaloner, a city barrister and Shirley ward representative who was only elected last year, has been given the job of child safeguarding.

Cllr Bogle, who had been in charge since May last year, revealed her plan to step down followed a new job as a project manager at the University of Southampton.

Council leader Simon Letts said the creation of the new post was vital.

He said: “With the serious case reviews coming up next year, we wanted to be able to have someone with expertise in that area within the cabinet, and I am delighted that Mark is joining the cabinet.”