Moves to improve care for children
SOME Calderdale children have been left at significant risk of harm over many years due to the council's failings.
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.
The council had to look forward, get to the bottom of it and put it right, she said.
Both Calder Valley Labour MP Chris McCafferty and Steph Booth, Labour Parliamentary candidate for the Calder Valley seat at the next election – Coun Whittaker is the Conservative candidate – also called on Coun Whittaker to consider his position.
Following publication of the Ofsted report Mrs McCafferty said she was “astonished by the litany of failure” it outlined and had met with Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to discuss the issue as a matter of urgency.
She said she expected both council leader Coun Stephen Baines and Coun Whittaker, as portfolio holder, to be summoned to the department to discuss the council’s ability to make the necessary improvements to its services.
Mrs Booth said the council must end “a culture of secrecy and denial around child protection services” following the inspection. “Some children have spent too many years of their childhood in unacceptable situations. The quality of their childhood has not been good and their life chances have significantly deteriorated due to the lack of earlier intervention,” she said.
It was time the people running the service took responsibility for a ‘catalogue of errors, and be honest about their failure to act earlier,’ she said.
“Where does the buck stop at Calderdale Council? This culture of denial and refusing to accept responsibility is extremely unhealthy and is damaging public trust in vital services,” she sai
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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