Bury Council has responded to the publication of an inspection report into children's services by Ofsted.
Councillor Tamoor Tariq, deputy leader and portfolio holder for children and young people, said:
"We are absolutely committed to keeping vulnerable children in Bury safe and we apologise that we have not provided the high quality services that our children and families rightly expect.
"We accept Ofsted's findings and recommendations and we will respond to them positively.
"The council and its partners began work earlier this year to improve our children's services and we have already taken immediate action to keep children safe.
"We are determined now to make a positive difference quickly while at the same time putting in place the long-term improvements needed.
"I remain completely committed to making sure these improvements happen."
Geoff Little, Bury Council chief executive and accountable officer of NHS Bury CCG, added:
"The service is under new management. Jeanette Richards comes to Bury with an impressive track record of improving children's services at Blackpool Council and before that Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.
"She will lead our improvement in how we protect vulnerable children. There can be no higher priority than keeping children safe. She will also support our social workers - theirs is a tough job and we will support them to reduce their case loads.
"Our new improvement board is chaired by an independent expert in children's services who is providing us with challenge and support and will work with us at pace.
"Our ambition is to achieve a status of 'good' or better. We know have a great deal of work to get there. We will provide the support our front line social workers need as they work together with families, schools, health services, police and the voluntary sector to keep children safe and to support them achieve their potential in life."
Owen Williams, Chief Executive of Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Fairfield Hospital in Bury, said:
"The safety and wellbeing of our most vulnerable children and young people is everybody's business and we will work closely together with our partners across Bury to respond to any concerns, both now and into the future."
Bury Council will respond to the Ofsted report by submitting an improvement plan to the Department for Education before 31 March 2022.
Publication date: 17 December 2021.