Agenda item

Statement by the Leader of the Council

Minutes:

The Leader responded to the presentation by report authors and confirmed it was now three years since the publication of the Jay and Casey reports and two and half years to the day since he was newly elected as Leader of the Council.

 

The publication of reports received by the Council on the day of the meeting  would inevitably bring memories of those days flooding back, the relief and horror of the truths that were heard and the reality that life would never be the same again.  Questions were asked then how could this have happened, who knew, who could be held to account were what brought us to these publications and it was because the Council  owed it to those children who were so let down that these independent reports were commissioned to shed more light on the failings of the past and those responsible.

 

The reports set out as clearly as possible all the information that the independent investigators had been able to establish and they were thanked for their work and in collecting and collating together, which had been a substantial task.

 

The reports were published on the Council’s website and the meeting had been webcast to be as open as possible. 

 

The Leader reiterated his comments from March, 2015, that time he had no time for anyone in denial, but who would split hairs.  As Leader of the Council he stated that he must accept the reports in the same spirt and take assurance that the systemic failings in the Council were being addressed, issues raised were familiar and work was long underway to rectify.  The reports did not bring to light substantial new themes or challenges and Members of the Council could take confidence from that.  The cover report detailed some of changes already completed covered by the period of the report and where there were any specific new recommendations including those relating to individuals the Council was ensuring that these would be actioned.

 

None of the conclusions from the reports and presented to the meeting were any less disappointing or frustrating.  Of course the failings in Rotherham were profound and continued for years.  Not everyone who worked for the Council over that time period was badly intentioned and it went without saying that such failure could not rest solely at any one person’s door, but the failure to establish individual culpability was difficult to swallow.

 

The Gowlings report had confirmed former senior staff missed opportunities to take stronger action and improve the Council’s response to child sexual exploitation and the Council knew the consequences of this happening.  Moreover, those who refused to take part, including those former Labour councillors, must understand the consequences of their choice, our survivors deserved far better than their miserable silence. 

 

The Leader reflected that, like most in attendance, there had not been a day in his life where he had not thought about what went wrong and how to make tomorrow better.

 

He reiterated that public services were great civilising forces and made heroic differences to people’s lives every day.  Where those services failed there were consequences for the most vulnerable residents, which could be and were catastrophic.  There was no choice, but to make fundamental changes to the Council which have been done. 

 

The Leader was conscious people were watching, who had not followed the Council’s progress over the last few years.  A new Senior Leadership Team was now in operation, the majority of the Councillors were newly elected since 2015 and there was more external scrutiny than ever before.  Huge investments had been made to Children’s Services, bringing down social work caseloads and holding staff to a high standard. Services were being rebuilt to tackle child sexual exploitation and improve support services to survivors.  The taxi licensing policy was held as best practice in Councils across the country and, as a result, the Government’s unprecedented intervention into Rotherham Council was rolling back.

 

Twenty-six perpetrators of non-recent and current child sexual exploitation offences were in jail today for a total of 360 years for the historic suffering the children had endured.  There were many more prosecutions likely over the next few years as work continued to support the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the biggest investigation in British history into child sexual exploitation. 

 

The reports were based largely on people who volunteered to take part.  It was not beyond the realm of possibility that with criminal investigative powers there was some more to be learned about some on the people who failed Rotherham.

 

The publication of the reports marked another step in the journey that so many children were let down and so many abusers have walked free for too long in Rotherham.  Survivors and their families were present at the meeting and as a Councillor, a member of the Labour Party, a citizen of Rotherham, the Leader expressed his deep sorrow for what went wrong. 

 

The past could not be changed, but it was hoped the reports gave some solace and hope helped to prevent further suffering. 

 

The Leader himself grew up in Rotherham during some of the time covered by the Jay report. It was personal to him. The Council had been changed and would keep doing so to give every child the safety and opportunities that he had had in Rotherham and would this would be a beacon to the rest of the country. He indicated that should be the Council’s resolution from the publication of the reports.