Loughton blasts DfE for failing children and families

Giving evidence to a cross-party group of MPs at an education select committee meeting, Tim Loughton also spoke out against the department’s failure to act on child abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Savile case.

Loughton, who lost his job in the government reshuffle of September last year, described how his role to oversee children and families’ issues with former children’s minister Sarah Teather was a “declining priority” within the DfE during his time in government.

“At times it was difficult for the children and families agenda to get a look-in with the bulldozer of the schools agenda,” he said.

Loughton told the committee about his experiences within the department, condemning government and the DfE for it’s “extraordinarily inefficient” way of working.

He also compared Education Secretary Michael Gove to the inept manager of the fictional Grace Brothers department store depicted in the television sitcom Are You Being Served?

“Officials have rarely met the Secretary of State other than when he will troop out a few chosen people for the New Year’s party,” said Loughton. “Mr Grace – like from Grace Brothers – tells us we’ve all done terribly well then disappears. That is no way to run an important department.”

On child protection, Loughton said the DfE had adopted “complete radio silence” at a time when “sexual exploitation and abuse of children has never had a higher public and media profile”, following revelations about the television presenter and DJ Jimmy Savile.

“If you look on the department’s website you won’t find a single press release relating to Savile and questions seem to be taken up mostly by the Home Office,” he said. “Yet the responsible minister is the children’s minister within the DfE. That is deeply worrying.”

The DfE refuted Loughton's claims in a statement issued after the select committee meeting, saying that children’s welfare was “at the heart of this government’s wide ranging reforms”.
 
“The accusation that we are sidelining the children’s agenda is completely unfounded,” said the statement. “We are making radical changes which include taking action to better protect children in care, speeding up the adoption process, focusing child protection on the child rather than the process and making childcare more affordable.
 
“Children’s minister Edward Timpson is regularly meeting with child protection leaders to ensure momentum is being maintained on the government’s child sexual exploitation action plan so we are better able to raise awareness, support victims and put more abusers behind bars.”

Loughton’s concerns around child protection were echoed by Lisa Nandy, Labour's shadow minister for children and young people.

“Just a few days after the police and NSPCC report into Jimmy Savile, a former minister has lifted the lid on David Cameron and Michael Gove's education department, warning that they are failing to make child protection a high enough priority. That is an incredibly serious issue,” she said.

Last week, Loughton launched a bid in Parliament to introduce legislation designed to protect children who appear in theatre and on television in reaction to the Savile scandal.