And unless things improve quickly, the Government could intervene.

“Some children have spent too many years of their childhood in unacceptable situations,” according to Ofsted inspectors.

“The quality of their lives has not been good enough and their life chances have significantly deteriorated due to the lack of earlier intervention.”

The damning verdict comes less than a month after an internal inquiry by Calderdale Council led to the suspension of two members of staff and some middle managers being “moved on.”

But Calderdale councillor Craig Whittaker, who has had Cabinet responsibility for children and young people’s services for the past three years, says he is not responsible for what went wrong and has no intention of resigning, despite calls for him to consider his position.

“By commissioning our own report into safeguarding and looked-after children’s services, we have already made a good start on tackling the issues which Ofsted had highlighted.

“That said, there will be no let-up in our work to improve services,” said Coun Whittaker (Con, Rastrick).

Ofsted ranked nine out of 15 key safeguarding issues as inadequate but only two out of 18 relating to children in council care.

The records of 420 young people are being scrutinised to ensure they remain safe. The consultants were brought in after a review of the circumstances surrounding the neglect of a six-week-old girl in Hebden Bridge last year, which went unchecked by care workers.

The baby, known as Child H, was left blind and severely disabled by her abusers, Rizwan Patel and Alliah Bradshaw, who were jailed for three years for neglect.

Last year, the council apologised for serious failings after the deaths of two babies in 2007.

Following the internal inquiry report last month Liberal Democrat Coun Olwen Jennings (Todmorden) expressed her dismay at how long the situation had lasted and the problems in getting it right.

“It begs the question about what the lead member Coun Craig Whittaker has been doing the last three years he has been in the job,” she said.