On Keith Skirman's desk is a fuchsia- pink box of tissues. You'd be forgiven for thinking he may have used them rather a lot during his first 15 months in what has to be one of the least popular jobs in local government - that of a social services director in a zero star-rated department. But judging from the twinkle in his eye and his chipper demeanour, Skirman has most definitely not been quietly weeping in his office.

Swindon is well known for being the hometown of Never Mind the Buzzcocks presenter Mark Lamarr and having eight interlinking roundabouts. A fact that it wouldn't want to add to this illustrious list is that its social services department received its second zero star rating from the Social Services Inspectorate in November 2003. To make matters worse, it was the only zero star department at the time deemed not to be showing any significant signs of improvement.

But Swindon's fortunes are about to change - or at least, this is what Skirman and his colleagues are hoping. Theirs has become the first local authority in England to form a strategic partnership with a three-star local authority to improve its social services department. Under the unique agreement, senior officers from Kent Council will guide and help their Swindon counterparts over the next three years. Kent is being paid £3.7m for the pleasure and the contract is due to go live in the middle of this month.

The concept of bringing in an excellently performing local authority to act as a buddy for a failing council has received firm approval from the government. So much so that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is providing a whopping £1m of the initiative's costs. Swindon is using cash from a rate rebate to finance the rest.

But why did Swindon's cabinet agree to spend the money in this way? Ian Dobie, deputy lead councillor and the council's lead member for social services, says he had a fight on his hands convincing the cabinet to support the plans. "What was in my favour was the ODPM saying to us that while there were a few green shoots here, progress was not fast enough."

The move is just another step towards helping Swindon's ailing social services department to recover, according to Skirman. It started in July 2003 with his - and a new management team's - appointment.

Skirman has already experienced working with a failing social services department. He joined the London Borough of Hillingdon as an assistant director in 1999 when its social services department was on special measures and helped turn it around. So does he see himself as a problem-solver - is he the "turnaround king"? "I wouldn't put myself in that position, no," he laughs. "There are other directors who are doing much more challenging things than me in bigger councils, with bigger problems than here." He joined Swindon because he thought he could make a "significant difference".

The top priority for Swindon is to regain control of its financial position. The social services department overspent at the end of 2003-4 by just under £2m on a net budget of £33m. Its current spending commitments are pushing the department into an overspend this year, too. Skirman admits it is a serious problem for the whole council.

A key element of Swindon's deal with Kent is to achieve a two-star rating in three years. Does going for two stars mean that if the council achieves only one it can still say it has improved? Skirman says Swindon social services are ambitious, and their motivation is to "leapfrog" from behind to being ahead of the game. "There are real dangers in just aspiring to one step up, because if progress isn't maintained we may slip back."

Kent won't lose out even if Swindon achieves only one star. The contract contains no penalties, financial or otherwise, because Skirman is confident Swindon will achieve two stars. However, the agreement does have financial incentives for both councils if the contract is finished early.

The contract contains four elements: first, Kent provides interim management - mainly middle and senior managers - to act alongside Swindon's managers. Second, there is identification of Kent systems and processes that Swindon may wish to adopt. In particular, Skirman says, they are keen to look at Kent's human resources function and how they develop their staff. The third strand of the contract is the coaching, mentoring and training of Swindon staff. "We want to embed Kent's best practice culture in what we do and how we do it," he says. The final element is for Kent to provide strategic analysis and advice to Skirman, Swindon's chief executive and elected members, about their performance and the department's direction.

Constantly hearing that your authority is failing is demotivating for staff. Jean Pollard, the assistant director for children's and families, says: "People do feel the good practice does not get recognised. There are issues about staff morale, and they are trying to climb out of a hole."

Uan Harrison is a support worker in Wick House, a council-run residential home for older people. When Swindon received its second zero rating he and his colleagues were disappointed: "Everyone had put a lot of work in and this didn't reflect well on us." But he is not averse to receiving mentoring from a Kent-based support worker. "Everybody does their job really well here, but I would be open to Kent teaching me something," he says.

So will Skirman's mentoring sessions with Kent social services director Peter Gilroy take place on the golf course? No, says Skirman, he's not a golfing man. And nor, he stresses, will his relationship with Gilroy be one of traditional mentoring but more of a strategic partnership. "It means we will have an open book in terms of what we do and how we do it with our Kent counterparts, and we can use their expertise to advise and support us."

With the money Swindon is spending on its contract with Kent, it could have afforded to buy in the services of 10 performance action teams (PATs) - the more traditional route to knocking a poorly performing authority into shape - and have change left over. Skirman wasn't tempted to go down that route again after the government sent in a PAT between January and October last year. The difficulty for the PAT, he says, was that the local authority did not have an effective management team in place to work with them. "They were maintaining basic services but were not able to devote to real strategical or practical recovery plans."

So what is Swindon's worst-case scenario? Graham Pearson, assistant director of adult services, says this is for a great deal of time and energy to be put into working with Kent but for Swindon's recovery programme not to accelerate.

Dobie, who spent 33 years in the military, has a different take. "There is no worst-case scenario because I don't believe in failure," he says. "It is in Kent's interests to succeed. They will not tolerate failure either because it won't look good for them."

Three years is a long time in local government. Is Skirman already planning Swindon's last day with Kent? Is the champagne on ice? "Yes!" Skirman beams. He isn't going to let Swindon rest on its laurels and is keen for the authority to share its experiences with other failing authorities once its contract ends with Kent. "Authorities that have pulled themselves out of special measures have skills and expertise that other local authorities could really benefit from."