petition details

Chief Executive of RMBC please write a letter to the former Interim Deputy Strategic Director of CYPS

We the undersigned petition the council to to ask the Chief Executive of RMBC to write a letter to the person appointed as Interim Deputy Strategic Director of CYPS on 6 April 2015 asking her to answer six questions that adult survivors of CSE in Rotherham want answers to

The questions adult survivors of CSE want the Chief Executive to ask the former Interim Deputy Strategic Director of CYPS are:

Q1 Were you part of the DLT (Directorate Leadership Team) when the DLT agreed to seek some independent, expert guidance on the content of Voices of Despair Voices of Hope?

Q2 Who first made you aware of the concerns raised in the Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 16.9.15 and on what date?

Q3 Were you the author of the FOI response dated 7.12.15 and the statement “Two copies of the document were sent with an explanation about why an independent view was being sought”?

Q4 Did you initially provide all of the information that you held including notes and emails when responding to the FOI request dated 16.9.15?

Q5 Did you discuss the document Voices of Despair Voices of Hope and RMBC’s 1500 copies - A Response to FOI Response (7.12.15) - 15.12.15 with the Acting Director of Children’s Services, before this officer met one of the co-authors of Voices of Despair Voices of Hope on 30.12.15?

Q6 What date did you first contact the so-called “independent, expert”?

Note

The person who became the Interim Deputy Strategic Director of CYPS was appointed by letter on 23 October 2014 as Independent Investigator to Review Cases A to O. The Council agreed to pay fees of £675 per day inclusive of all expenses. Before this officer completed her report in May 2015, she was appointed as Interim Deputy Strategic Director of CYPS, RMBC. The Chief Executive has stated that this officer was appointed to the authority on 6 April 2015. The officer was employed by RMBC until 9 June 2016 and was subsequently paid further by RMBC.

This petition ran from 28/02/2019 to 19/08/2019 and has now finished.

3 people signed this petition.

Council response

Dear Mr. Harron,

Thank you for submitting your petition which was reported to the Council meeting held on 22 May 2019. I apologise that you have not received a response sooner.

Your petition called on the Chief Executive to write a letter to the person appointed as Interim Deputy Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services on 6 April 2015 asking her to answer six questions that adult survivors of CSE in Rotherham want answers to.

As your petition was supported with more than 20 signatures, it was reported to Council for information as you were unable to attend that meeting to present the petition in person. I am writing to you to provide a response in accordance with the authority’s petition scheme.

I would refer you to the letter sent to you on 20 July 2018 which provided information in relation to the publication ‘Voices of Despair Voices of Hope’. In the letter I outlined my position that after the provision of this information I did not intend to correspond with you further on this matter, and my position on this has not changed.

Therefore, as the petition pursues lines of enquiry that relate to the publication and information has been previously, I do not propose to provide any further information that than currently provided.

Yours sincerely,

Sharon Kemp
Chief Executive