Reading councillor quits after 'inadequate' inspection
Janaki Mahadevan
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A Reading councillor has blamed "shoddy politics" for his decision to step down as lead member for children's services.
Pete Ruhemann stepped down from his position at a meeting of the council's cabinet on Monday night, following a critical joint area review (JAR) published by Ofsted last week.
The councillor had come under fire from opposition members who were due to take a vote of no confidence next week.
Reading Borough Council was judged as inadequate for safeguarding and was said to have "significant weaknesses" in main areas of child protection.
The JAR follows a critical annual performance assessment last month, which also judged safeguarding in the borough as inadequate.
Following the meeting Ruhemann said: "This is pure, bitter, shoddy politics and I decided there was no point in drawing things out.
"There has been a major restructure of the department and disciplinary action has been taken against some social workers and managers. There has been more investment in staff and we have conducted an external audit of our chid protection services.
"When I became aware of the problems in the service my job was to press for urgent action to improve the service, which I have done."
