Reading Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats today condemned what they called a “devastating catalogue of failings” in Reading’s Children’s Safeguarding (child protection) services in the Joint Area Review (JAR) published today (13 January). They have tabled a series of questions to the next Council meeting (27 January) on the service, and are now calling for the resignation of the Lead Councillor responsible for the service, Cllr Pete Ruhemann (Lab).

The Joint Area Review of Reading Children’s Services Authority Area, conducted by Ofsted during 2008 and published today, revealed:

• “Key child protection assessment and planning processes not being completed within acceptable timescales.”
• “Significant shortcomings in the work of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board [LSCB]“
• “Weak performance management within the local authority’s social care service and the wider partnership.”
• “Personal information on children not being stored in a way that it is easily retrievable.”
• “Poor arrangements for ensuring that social care files are systematically audited.”
• “Poor monitoring and a lack of challenge by the local strategic partnership, the LSCB and elected members”.

The report also outlines a series of failings in other areas of the Childrens’ Services department, including rating services on preventing teenage pregnancy as ‘inadequate’ (the lowest possible rating, and the rating also given to the Safeguarding Children service).

Cllr Kirsten Bayes, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education and Children’s Services on Reading Borough Council said:

“This is a service characterised by fundamental failures and worsening performance under Labour. The report describes a service failing to meet its own timescales, with its documentation all over the place, where management guidance and audit were severely lacking. It is simply unacceptable.”

“Most damning of all was the clear view of Ofsted that the child protection service had failed to implement key actions from the latest serious case review and that the review itself was inadequate. There really was nothing to stop that terrible case happening again.”

Cllr Gareth Epps, Liberal Democrat leader on the Council said, “This devastating catalogue of failings is a damning indictment of Labour in Reading. Performance has fallen and the level of risk for our most vulnerable children is now so high that further radical action must be taken – now.

“We want to see constant monitoring of the action plan, and we will not hesitate to call for further fundamental changes unless there is clear and sustained improvement. There must not be another case like that of Trae-Bleu Layne.

“We will hold Labour firmly to account for putting Reading’s children at risk. Cllr Pete Ruhemann is responsible as Lead Councillor for this mess, and the lack of effective scrutiny highlighted in the report is his. For those reasons, he must go – and go now.”