Senior social work adviser will lead child sex inquiry

Alexis Jay, who has spent more than 30 years working for councils in Scotland, will head up the inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse cases in the town between 1997 and the present day.

The inquiry was announced in September by Rotherham council leader Roger Stone, who apologised to victims let down by the authority’s safeguarding services.

It will run alongside three reviews into child sex abuse ordered by South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Shaun Wright the previous week.

Four women are planning to sue Rotherham Council over its alleged failure to protect them from abuse, and in August deputy council leader Jahangir Akhtar announced he was standing down temporarily while an investigation is carried out into claims he knew about a relationship between a girl in care and a relative who is a suspected child abuser.

Ms Jay, who was awarded an OBE last year, took up the newly-created post of Chief Social Work Adviser to Scottish Ministers in 2011 before retiring in March.

She will be supported by Sheila Taylor, chief executive of NWG, a charitable network of more than 1,600 staff in the voluntary and statutory services working to tackle child sex abuse and trafficking within the UK.

They were brought in to work on the inquiry with the help of the Local Government Association and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

Rotherham chief executive Martin Kimber said: “We are extremely pleased that we have secured the services of such high-calibre individuals to undertake this crucial piece of work, and who feel able to dedicate the significant amount of time that will be required from their busy schedules.”