Rotherham

Of course they must take some responsibility Clive..its their job to oversee....whats the point paying them their overinflated salaries if they just give everywhere a clean bill of health when its actually a paedo's paradise..a complete den of sh1te.

Ofsted gave the place a clean bill of health ..twice... i believe whilst this was going off..they had someone from Ofsted on Radio sheffield months ago trying to explain how they never spotted anything.

there is very little point in having a checking agency if they don't do their job is there?..a load of fluffy jobs Ofsted is

its obvious why the councillors covered it up..but I can't be having that reason for the police though..because if that is the police excuse..then its countrywide isn't it?..they are non political, the attitude won't just be confined to Rotherham

i still believe this is the tip of a very large iceburg
 
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The problem is that at the time the girls were failed. It happened at the time, not in 2015 with the benefit of hindsight.

I commend the lady who lifted the lid on this scandal at the time, and whose conscious and common sense knew it was wrong at the time.

I can sit at home tonight, not as a qualified police officer or local authority worker, knowing.....that it would have never happened on my watch even I was in a position to oversee the scandal.

But many people won't put their jobs on the line will they...........
 
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It's a difficult one Marb, although when it's presented in the media as it is, it seems so straight forward. It isn't I'll promise you.

Very, very few people normally have the substantive evidence, but will have heard loads of heresay from ostensibly credible sources. That no one has acted on these 'rumours' previously only leads you to conclude that no one will, and that if 'I know this' then the people above me who need to, must do also. You can't bring a case against someone based on what a third party told you, almost certainly that thitd party will deny it. My own experience over the years however watching some of this play out in-situ, is that the rumours have an uncanny knack of being very close to the truth.

Now that's not an apologists position in case anyone thinks it is, it's much closer to an explanation as to how these things work. How many of you have been suspicious of the activities of your own management? How many of you felt able to report it to the authorities?

Local authorities are political institutions and they're a hive of rumour and counter rumour. You have to take a view of the source your information is coming from, and the frequency with which you're hearing it. The fact the 'rumours' which are seemingly 'open secrets' never get investigated only leads you to conclude they'll get covered up. One of the most remarkable quotes from Pickles's statement today to my ears at least was the bit where he said "as a government, we couldn't with a clear conscience, turn a blind eye to this". Just dwell on that, and then ask some really probing questions as to what the minister was inadvertantly admitting
 
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It's very difficult to be a whistleblower under any circumstances . Agree. I don't believe any blame can lie there.

the report is extraordinary. Surely there could be criminal charges in the air?
 
marble said:
But many people won't put their jobs on the line will they...........
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My wife has done on a number of occasions..and paid with losing her job because of it.

I can tell a story about the Care Quality Commision..well before the recent revelations about what a disgrace they are, and they have been a disgrace for years imo.

The CQC were given a report by my wife of abuse in a home for people with learning difficulties after she expressed concerns about a number of issues within the home she worked at..she was the designated person for that duty along with her normal duties..she was the Safe Guarding Adults person...within the home her concerns were ignored

So she contacted the CQC..bear in mind that is confidential..they should not reveal who has made a complaint. The CQC then alerted the home that my wife had raised issues..they told them what the issues were and who had told them...so they then could cover it up...which they did...they then moved my wife to another home..suspended her for 6 weeks.. and got a number of staff to tell lies about her ..make statements..and tried to sack her..we fought it for a while..kept going to the disciplinaries but eventually she realised she couldn't work with people who don't care about people they are supposed to look after..just money coming in..which they were also fiddling from social services. She resigned and got a lot better job.

My view at the time was that this was a wide spread practice..the CQC working hand in glove with homes to make sure nothing ever blows up and gets in the news..a complete disgrace. This confirmed with the revelations over the last couple of years..this with my wife was 5 years ago.

The whole care home game is disgraceful...and how its covered up what goes off in them..yes you get isolated incidents where someone leaks stuff or films something...but generally anyone who does their job..in a safeguarding role..will lose their job or be bullied out out if they rock the boat by trying to make these places run as they should be..for those in them...not money.

Whistle blowing is a very brave act..but unfortunately not one i would recommend to anyone unless you are prepared to have your own reputation severely damaged.

bear in mind..part of my wife's job was Safeguarding Adults..so she wasn't really whistleblowing..but doing her job for the benefit of vulnerable people

the care home system in general needs a lot of sorting..lip service paid to people being safe..but thats all it is..they just want money

i'll imagine a lot of the above bullying practices has happened in Rotherham..probably more than has been already recorded in teh reports
 
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Thanks for sharing your wife's case with us EC1. Interesting you mention the CQC.

For years I had a bit of time for them as a service because I felt (I was part of a patient group fighting failures in the NHS) that the Care Quality Commission were the best service patients had to oversee how the NHS operates. Or maybe just the best of a bad bunch if I could put it like that.

But then I was at a conference about three years ago, (speaking on the day as a patient service/user representative), and it became clear that The Care Quality Commission were getting closer and closer to hospitals, (the people they were meant to be overseeing/watching).

I warned the man representing the CQC on that actual day in front of about 500 delegates, that his job was not to cosy up to hospitals and simply try to 'persuade' them to do better which is what he was saying on the day. I could see what was happening then.

It was like as a senior member of the CQC he didn't actually know his own organisations mandate and what its supposed to be doing....a few months after this conference the big case about them covering things up at a hospital came out too.
 
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The CQC have some frankly terrible examples of punishing whistle blowers. They're probably the worst of the lot.

What I think is moderately interesting is to see how a truism that never actually was, gets adopted into an organisations rules. That is to say people who join an organisation are told they can't do something, but when you trace the genesis of the instruction back to its origination it invariably comes down to a feckless manager in cahoots with local councillor. I note for instance one of the areas that Rotherham got salughtered for in particular was licensing. I don't know the details, but I'd speculate it involves a councillor giving out hackney carriage licenses to his friends and family. Still at least at Westminster we've got the house of commons home affairs committee to protect our interests in this area!
 
The councillor gave out taxi licences to firms that assisted the a users that included a relative of his. His identity is clear now and it seems like he's a little too close to a lot of this. I hope he gets his head kicked in.

looks like there could be criminal charges against the councillors and hopefully jail. Fair play to Sarah champion who is claiming that the numbers abused are probably ununderstated.

Had to laugh at the councillors defence that the whole business is down to the "Murdoch press". No denial tehre. They must spend time on this forum.
 
i'd like to see councillors and police officers do bird.

I'd like to see Roger Stone made to explain why his leadership seems to have be a big problem here...he wasn't even present at the meetings in parliament last year...looks like he will get away without having to utter a word

in fact he seems like an untouchable..when in fact he should be the one they are after the most..protected?

i'd like someone from ofsted to explain how they gave the procedures a clean bill of health.

I somehow though think none of the above will happen.

They will let minions take their punishment..the big ones will get away
 
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clivex said:
This is incredible
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i've been listening to stuff like this on Radio Sheffield for months Clive..it goes beyond not having "procedures" in place

both the authority and police have aided criminals ..letting them go about their dirty business unchecked.

i'm a bit tired of hearing that the procedures weren't what they should be..this is far worse than that..anyone that spoke out was threatened or bullied ..thats not procedures not being quite right..its blatantly and purposely ignoring crimes and suppresing anyone that wanted to do the right thing

it really is a disgrace how this procedure thing is being used to try and hide what has really happened
 
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There is something very, very, sinister here

I've seen incompetance, and I've seen medium grade corruption before, but this is endemic and cross agency. I'm very, very, suspicious that there is something underneath this whole thing that goes beyond this

What I can't understand either, is this 'whistle blower' was on secondment from the Home Office. She was their employee to discipline. Rotherham Met couldn't send her on their training courses. She should be able to turn round to the Home Office and report her findings and experiences to them and fall under their protection. She would have to obey reasonable instruction from the secondee managing, but not on things like contract of employment, she was a civil servant, not a local authority employee

The thing is, these people aren't really the rich and powerful, Pakistani taxi drivers? They aren't the sort of people who will normally enjoy protection. If in doubt, money is normally where you look for the next explanation, but this must have been on some scale. It has traces of organised crime about it. Is some Pakistani Godfather figure lurking behind the scenes somewhere, who was either buying up co-operation or coercing it

Incompetance normally gets found out (eventually), there's got to be at least 4 inspectorate regimes who've failed here, or been put onto the wrong scent, that looks deliberate. Something just doesn't add up.
 
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Clive,

I was in London today and picked up a copy of the New Statesman for the journey back to Paris, hoping it had improved (used to be a decent read). I think with your views on this thread you should read Peter Wilby's column - I found it hard to stomach and ended up putting the magazine down afterwards,
 
I had a look.

Like you I didn't want to give it the time of day. These people are clueless aren't they? They are so out of touch it beggars belief. You would have thought the rapists were the victims
 
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