Clive Betts: Stark lessons from Rotherham abuse scandal

But while it would be a mistake to think that what happened in Rotherham was only the responsibility of the politicians in charge at the time, of Shaun Wright or Roger Stone, it would also be dangerously misguided to think that child sexual exploitation isn’t happening in other places across the country.

Over recent months, the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee, which I chair, has heard evidence that organised child sexual exploitation is prevalent across England. In recent times, we’ve heard of cases in Rochdale and Oxfordshire. We also heard, in Anne Coffey’s recent report, that sexual exploitation of vulnerable children was becoming the social norm in some parts of Greater Manchester.

In this context, Rotherham appears not as an outlier but rather as a warning of a widespread problem and of serious failures in our systems for protecting children.

It’s striking that it was the Press which finally stimulated action on child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, not the council, nor that of any of the regular Ofsted inspections. In what should be a warning to other local authorities across the country, we found that Rotherham Council had in place a panoply of child protection policies and plans, but that these were never effectively checked by councillors or senior council staff.

The arrangements on paper were fine but there was a complete systemic inability to recognise child sexual exploitation was taking place and to tackle it.

Rotherham has stark lessons for local government. The complete failure of scrutiny, governance and leadership could happen elsewhere.

The circumstances found within Rotherham Council – policies divorced from reality, single party supremacy and a dominating personality with predominate influence – are likely to be found in other local authorities of all political colours.

Local authorities across England have to take a fresh look at their scrutiny, governance, and leadership to ensure they are fit and ready to identify and combat child sexual exploitation in their communities.

Louise Casey, who runs the Government’s Troubles Programme, is currently undertaking a compliance inspection of Rotherham Council on behalf of Eric Pickles and, once she reports, we as a committee shall be questioning her on our concerns about council scrutiny and governance.

While the police and Rotherham Council have rightly received criticism, it is clear that there are also serious questions for Ofsted to answer.

This begs the question in how many other cases have Ofsted have not been up to the task of identifying where local authorities are failing to protect children?

Given the systemic failures at Rotherham, it was right that senior officers and the former leader of Rotherham Council should leave their posts. But the buck doesn’t just stop with them.

Professor Jay highlighted abuse over a period from 1997 to 2013, beyond the periods of their direct involvement.

As a matter of public policy, we really need to look at ensuring responsible senior individuals are held to account, even if they depart to work at a local authority elsewhere.

Rotherham exposed a litany of local government failure and cannot be dismissed as a tragic one-off.

Local and central government must learn the lessons of Rotherham, exposed by Professor Jay, and our councils must do all they can to protect children in our communities from sexual exploitation.

Clive Betts is chair of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee and Labour MP for Sheffield South East.