Scott Collins, Candidate for Silverstone Division and Parliamentary Spokesman for South Northamptonshire

The Leader of the Opposition at County Hall has today reacted with disappointment after the Conservative Cabinet Member responsible for child protection refused to resign after a devastating OFSTED report into child protection in Northamptonshire. A motion put before Full Council by Cllr Brendan Glynane was defeated by the Conservative majority.

Scott Collins, Candidate for Silverstone Division and South Northants Parliamentary Spokesman, said “It is almost beyond belief that after the OFSTED report that exposed a lack of direction, control and political leadership from the administration and more exactly the cabinet member responsible for the protection of vulnerable children, that the Conservative group still feel party loyalty is more important than taking a moral stance and holding to account those criticised for the countless failures over a prolonged period.”

Councillor Grant only attended 1 of the 6 meetings covering this hugely important area showing a desperate lack of regard for this area of council responsibility.

OFSTED judged Northamptonshire County Council as inadequate in all 4 categories and identified that:

•  “Children and young people are not effectively protected from harm”
• “Inspectors saw a number of cases where children had experienced significant harm, and remained at risk of further harm”
• “Children remained at risk and, in some cases, continuing to experience harm”
• “There is a legacy of children and young people who have been exposed to chronic, and periodically acute, harmful experiences of which some are unlikely to have either been assessed or addressed”
• Vulnerable children are not listened to
• Children have been “stepped down” from child protection plans without robust assessments
• “Leadership has not been effective in supporting and driving improvements”
• “Senior leaders and elected members have not focused sufficiently on ensuring the quality of services is effective”

The County Council’s own report further identified that

• “children who go missing from home or care and those affected by domestic violence are not adequately helped or kept safe”
• “the out of hours response is inadequate for children and families needing urgent help, and young people are being kept overnight in police custody instead of safe alternative arrangements

Cllr Glynane said “I am very disappointed that the Cabinet Member responsible has refused to resign, and that his Conservative colleagues have closed ranks to protect him. The failure to keep children at risk of harm safe is unforgivable. The responsibility in law for child protection lies with the Cabinet Member – he should have done the decent thing and resigned. How are the public supposed to have faith in him fixing the deep catalogue of shocking failures? I sincerely hope that in the days ahead he will reflect on the danger that children have been left in on his watch and reconsider this decision.”

“What is really important now is that we move quickly to set up a cross-party action group to fix this broken system and keep vulnerable children safe.”

The report is available on OFSTED’s website at:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/northamptonshire