Losing the Plot

The Times reports that Rotherham Council has lost vital information about a large-scale sex-grooming scandal in South Yorkshire which affected 1,400 children over a 16-year period between 1997 and 2012.

Now the background is very different and the impact on so many vulnerable children is far more serious, but if you ask me the unexplained 'disappearance' of important data in North Lanarkshire Council is every bit as scandalous in its own way.   

Because how can a large and well resourced local council which proclaims to be operating to professional standards get away with arguing that such vital information has simply disappeared?

In Rotherham, at least, another independent inquiry is underway and the council's chief executive is standing down whereas in North Lanarkshire nobody has as yet been held to account for the mysterious circumstances surrounding the disappearance of data relating to the council's job evaluation scheme. 

So maybe some resignations in North Lanarkshire will follow or even an independent inquiry into the Council's behaviour because that would be perfectly justified, if you ask me.

Council lost details of Rotherham abuse
Martin Kimber during evidence to a parliamentary inquiryParliament TV

By Andrew Norfolk - The Times

Reports that provided the first detailed evidence of a large-scale sex-grooming scandal in Rotherham have disappeared from the council’s archives, it was revealed last night.

The admission was made by Martin Kimber, the scandal-hit local authority’s outgoing chief executive, during evidence to a parliamentary inquiry.

Shaun Wright, South Yorkshire’s beleaguered police and crime commissioner, also came under further pressure when he was accused of failing to show colleagues an internal report on sex-grooming crimes in Rotherham.

Mr Wright, who has defied demands for his resignation from the prime minister and Ed Miliband, is said to have chosen not to share with senior Labour members of Rotherham council a 2008 report that “raised serious issues”.

The claim was made by Joyce Thacker, the council’s director of children’s services, during her evidence to the inquiry. She said the report revealed that it was suspected that 58 children in Rotherham had been groomed and used for sex in the previous 12 months.

Ms Thacker told the Commons communities and local government committee that she had sent the report to Mr Wright, who from 2005 to 2010 was the Labour councillor with responsibility for children’s services in the town, but that he “did not allow it” to be sent to other members of the council’s cabinet. She said: “If the report had gone to cabinet, it still wouldn’t have stopped child sexual exploitation, but the ownership might have been there for the issue much better across the council.”

Mr Kimber and Ms Thacker were making their second appearance before MPs in two days after an independent inquiry found that 1,400 Rotherham children were groomed and sexually abused over a 16-year period from 1997.

The inquiry by Alexis Jay drew attention to three reports on sex-grooming, from 2002, 2003 and 2006, which presented compelling evidence of serious crimes that were not being investigated or prosecuted.

Mr Kimber told MPs that despite making extensive inquiries to find the reports among the local authority’s records, he had seen only a section of the 2002 report, had still not been able to read the 2003 report, and saw the 2006 report for the first time last weekend.

Of the missing reports, he said: “I cannot find them. They’re not within the council’s archive.”

Ms Thacker said she did not know whether the reports had been deliberately destroyed in an attempt to conceal information.

Louise Casey, the head of the government’s troubled families programme, was appointed yesterday to conduct an independent inspection of the council’s handling of the abuse claims, which will examine whether it covered up information about them.

Destroying the Evidence (22 June 2014)

I'm told by a highly reliable source that one of the many revelations to emerge from the ongoing Employment Tribunal against North Lanarkshire Council is that senior managers ordered the destruction of important paperwork about the Council's job evaluation scheme (JES).

Now this is shocking on a whole number of counts.

First of all, the new JES was the most significant human resource issue to be dealt with in a generation and senior officials within the Council were well aware of the importance of keeping efficient and accurate records detailing how different jobs were scored and graded by the JES process.

Secondly, the outcomes of the Council's JES was already being vigorously challenged in the Employment Tribunal and so to destroy vital evidence when litigation was underway looks to be a deliberate act - an attempt to bury the evidence, if you like.

Thirdly, in this modern day and age absolutely no one, especially one of Scotland's largest councils, would be dumb enough not to 'back up' important records on a hard disk to keep them safe and secure for future reference.

So the big questions for senior officials within North Lanarkshire to answer are:

1. Exactly which records have been destroyed?
2. Which jobs have been affected?      
3. When was this instruction issued and by whom?
4. Why were the paper records not backed up?
5. Who is being held accountable and in what way for this shocking mess?

And you would think that local politicians would take these points up, on a cross party and all party basis, and help get to the bottom of exactly what has been going on.