Less than two months following publication of the Jay report into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham we learned that Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council have both ordered an urgent investigation into historical allegations of child abuse in care homes across the area.
If we travel back in time to 1992 we discover that the Dawson Report revealed that “something is badly wrong with Nottinghamshire’s social services ... in the past 18 months in Nottinghamshire 18 children have died at the hands of those with a duty to care for them.”
Then in 1993 during the trial of Colin Leat, who was convicted of murdering his three-year-old stepdaughter Leanne White, the trial judge criticised the County’s Social Services for having failed to protect Leanne, despite repeated calls from relatives and neighbours.
Ten years later, Christopher Atkins, 31, of Cotgrave, was jailed for a horrific sex attack on a girl, which left her with life-threatening injuries. The girl, under five years of age “had been in Nottinghamshire for nine weeks and was already subject to a protection plan because of neglect.” Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board carried out a serious case review. This review criticised certain aspects of practice which included “a lack of robustness in assessing the child’s circumstances following the move to Nottinghamshire, in leadership of the child protection plan and in the responses to injuries sustained by the child.”
When announcing the new investigation, Nottinghamshire County Council Leader Alan Rhodes said, “It is also important to say that children’s social care services are unrecognisable today compared with even 20 years ago. Councils now operate differently and under much tighter controls and are monitored by Ofsted and independent Safeguarding Children Boards.”
These and other cases beg the question why is Nottinghamshire suddenly interested now, when there has been a recognised history of failure in this area? Just how independent are the public bodies which have a statutory duty to protect our vulnerable children, and are they fit for purpose?
Even before the County and City Council investigations, Nottinghamshire Police had already set up Operation Daybreak to look into the matter. 80 complainants who attended five homes, including Beechwood, in Mapperley, have come forward.
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