The "insane" decision to continue with the closure of the county's children's centres has been slammed after Ofsted once again branded the council's children's service "inadequate" last month.

In a letter to the Bucks Free Press, councillor Majid Hussain, from Bucks Labour, called for Bucks County Council's (BCC) "irresponsible" plans to close 35 children's centres to be halted until a commissioner has reviewed Ofsted's findings and delivered recommendations.

The Early Help Review, under which the children's centres will be axed and replaced with nine centralised hubs, was reaffirmed earlier this month, despite the decision being 'called in' for reassessment  by councillors.

Cllr Hussain fears implementing the Early Help Review will increase the risk of breaches of confidentiality within the children's services, and hopes the commissioner will recommend that the failing service will be taken over by central government.

He said: "When Bucks Children’s Services was assessed inadequate four years ago, non statutory measures were taken, meaning that Bucks County Council was trusted to make changes and improvements on its own. 

"This second report has concluded that those changes are inadequate. Any concerned clear-sighted observer can now have no confidence that Bucks County Council will be able to raise the standard of its Children’s Services to anywhere near an acceptable level without external intervention."

He also attacked BCC for ignoring the "damning" Ofsted report, and branded top chiefs "a council leadership in denial."

Cllr Hussain added: "It was Albert Einstein who said that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing again and again while expecting a different result. By this definition, the decision by Bucks County Council to push ahead with implementing the Early Help Review is, at the very least, not rational. It also suggests a hugely worrying lack of intent to enact changes in light of Ofsted’s findings."

Despite the criticisms BCC confirmed the Early Help Services will go ahead and provide a more co-ordinated service for those most in need of help.

Spokesman for BCC, Alison Donovan, said: "The new service will be made up of teams who will work closely with children and families from nine community bases. 

"They will bring together a range of council services to provide a much more coordinated offer, which will be targeted at those who are most in need of our help.

"By giving the right support, at the right time, we can prevent small problems from getting out of control and help families to better deal with their problems in the future."