Letter from Hilary Myers to the Halifax Courier, 8 February 2010:
Having read in detail the external report on “Children’s Social Care at Calderdale Borough Council” (Anger at child-safety failings, Halifax Courier, 2nd Feb) I am writing to express my grave concerns for the vulnerable children of this borough under the current administration.
The report highlights “considerable difficulties” and “significant areas of concern”. The main weaknesses lay in the systems and practice standards of the Initial Response Teams and the Family Support and Child Protection Teams. Operationally, these are the responsibility of management. But the management is accountable to our elected representatives, first and foremost in this case the Portfolio Holders for Children’s Services, Cllr Craig Whittaker, who has held the brief for three years, and his immediate predecessors, all Conservatives. It was their job to ensure that children’s services were competently managed and they are ultimately accountable for the failings.
However, the working of the Council has a form of safety net in the shape of the Scrutiny Panel system. But if you look at their track record on the Scrutiny Panel for Children’s Services, chaired by Labour, issues of Education have dominated the agenda and issues of Care have been sidelined.
Both parties have been in positions of control and between them they have let our children down.
I am confident that the Scrutiny Panel, now under the Chairmanship of Cllr Mrs Olwen Jennings, will not make this mistake again. But as for Cllr Whittaker, who has faced much criticism already for his poor performance on education, and has now been found wanting, in this highly critical report, on the vital issue of children’s care, isn’t it time he resigned his portfolio?
Hilary Myers