Rotherham DCS quits in wake of abuse scandal

The Yorkshire council confirmed Thacker’s departure in a short statement issued on Friday evening. It said: “Joyce Thacker, strategic director for children and young people’s services, is to leave Rotherham Borough Council by mutual agreement, with immediate effect. The council will be making no further statement at this stage.”

Last week, Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs committee, called on Thacker, who had been DCS at Rotherham since 2008 and was last week signed off on sick leave, to resign “as a matter of conscience to cleanse the council of the leadership”.

It followed the publication last month of an independent inquiry report that estimated at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The report was highly critical of the handling of CSE by both Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police.

At last week's committee hearing, Thacker maintained she would not resign because she remained "accountable to the people of Rotherham".

She told the committee: “I’ve worked extremely hard to improve services in Rotherham, to protect frontline services and to raise the issue of CSE."

Thacker said that she had tried to raise the issue of CSE but no action had been taken by the council or police. But the independent inquiry report concluded that the problem had been “underplayed” by senior managers and that “nobody could say ‘we didn’t know’ ”.

Thacker, who was awarded an OBE for services to children in 2007, is the third senior Rotherham figure to lose their job in the wake of the CSE scandal.

Shaun Wright, the former lead councillor for children’s services, resigned as South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner this week, while Roger Stone, the Labour leader of the council, stepped down when the report was published. Martin Kimber, Rotherham Council’s chief executive, has previously said he will leave in December.