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Redemption is an affirming human capacity which sometimes can change the world. I had no faith in Margaret Hodge when she took over as the first minister ever in this country to be in charge of the rights and needs of children. As leader of the council in Islington, London, she failed to protect children in care from institutionalised abuse and then defended the indefensible. When she was appointed to this job she cast aspersions on individuals who had suffered at the time. Her behaviour reflected the arrogance of New Labour perfectly.

I was not wrong to doubt her and I was not alone. Many others were uneasy about Hodge's ability to overcome her own ambitions and to serve the public. But she has come back valiantly to confront such sceptics. She appears to have taken up the cause with true passion and has delivered, on paper at least, with the Children Act 2004. The horrors of the Victoria ClimbiŽ case demanded no less than an overhaul of the legislative framework and here we have it, the rights of the child established, stated and restated so the nation understands and consents to what really is a profound change of values. The law now expects integrated planning and inspections, a statutory duty is placed on key agencies to co-operate and share information - which might have saved Victoria's life - and arrangements are in place for better accountability with a children's commissioner to set up inquiries when there are breaches and failures. (The post should be given much more power to instigate investigations, but perhaps that will come as the limits of the post show up.)

For the act to make a difference, much depends on local authorities. The new provisions demand levels of professionalism and knowledge which are probably beyond the means of most local councillors and workers. There is to be a designated director of social services committed to and answerable on children's rights and well-being. A member of the council is expected to become a lead advocate for children in the borough and new statutory local safeguarding children boards are to replace previous non-statutory area child protection committees. Where are we going to find such people?

I can see in my mind's eye the sort of person we need: dynamic, super-bright and a motivator, with energy and zeal and an immovable passion to make things dazzlingly better. Most such people avoid applying to work in town halls, even if salaries are competitive and the authorities make the kind of grand promises they increasingly do in job adverts. There are some exceptional local authority professionals but not nearly enough for the demands made by the new act.

Large numbers of idealistic and able individuals prefer to go into think-tanks where the pay is far lower but ideas soar, or increasingly in the non-governmental sector which is fast becoming savvy, modern and effective. I am sorry if this offends the hard-working people who do decent service in housing and social services departments. But I know enough of them to know how ground down they feel and unmoved by any new bright wheezes that central government comes up with.

Elected members reflect the same fatigue, except at election time when it seems to matter a lot to them that they should be re-elected. Perhaps I am being unfair; there must be local councillors who genuinely want to take up this responsibility and have the ability to do what is expected. Say they got themselves selected, what then? Who gives them the training they will need to understand the basics of the act itself and the complicated business of child protection where there needs to be continuous balancing between state intervention and parental freedom, between disclosure and privacy?

For the director, the one solution might be to open up recruitment and think beyond the usual suspects. A person who, for example, has been demonstrably brilliant working for Oxfam abroad could make an equally effective overseer of the new deal for children. Members of the safeguarding children's boards too need to be wholly different from what we have come to expect - the great and the good. Councils should search out individuals who run small but effective children's charities and institute new models of collective influence and accountability - citizens' juries for example.

There will, inevitably, be other horrendous and unavoidable deaths of children in our society. But after this act there should never be a death which local authorities could have prevented happening. And that is a challenge I fear few of them can rise to at present.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist and broadcaster.