Rotherham set to regain control of children's services
Tristan Donovan
Monday, July 23, 2018
Rotherham Council is set to regain control of its children's social care services, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire has announced.
The government stripped the council of control of children's services in February 2015, appointing commissioners to oversee provision, after the scale of child sexual exploitation in the town came to light alongside the authority's repeated failures to address the abuse.
In a statement to parliament, Brokenshire said the council has made strong progress since then.
Having carefully considered evidence provided by our commissioners, I am minded to return all powers," he said.
"This is not a decision I take lightly, but I am assured the council has turned itself around and is now providing the services that its residents deserve and expect."
He added that while he intends to give the council control over the service again, he would be doing so on the condition that an independent review of the service is delivered before 31 March 2019.
"This will enable a last check of the council's performance once the commissioners have left," he said.
The decision is, in part, a response to the quality of children's services moving from "inadequate" to "good" following an Ofsted inspection.
"Keeping children safe is paramount and I am pleased to see the vast improvements Rotherham has made to its children's services, shown through its recent ‘good' Ofsted rating," said children's minister Nadhim Zahawai.
"We all know that for too long, children and young people living there were failed by the authorities in charge of protecting them."
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The government will make a final decision on whether to hand control of children's services back to Rotherham sometime after 16 August to allow time for representations on the issue.
Rotherham Council leader Chris Read has welcomed the announcement.
"The council today is a very different organisation to the one I became leader of in 2015," he said.
"It is more open to challenge, more focused on priorities, more disciplined in delivery of services. Critically that means that the way we respond to the needs of our most vulnerable children and families has been transformed.
"It also means that whilst we are proud of the progress we've made, we will not lose sight of the challenges ahead and the continuing need to change and improve over the coming years."
If the government proceeds with the plan, the three commissioners sent in to help deliver change within the services will be withdrawn.
Lead commissioner Mary Ney said the commissioners are "confident that the leadership of the council is strong and that Rotherham Council will continue to improve".
The news comes shortly after Rotherham named Jon Stonehouse as its new director of children's services, after the departure of previous director Ian Thomas.
The government's intervention in Rotherham followed a 2014 independent inquiry led by Professor Alexis Jay that estimated that at least 1,400 children in the Yorkshire town had been sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013.
