Council to get back some powers but social services ‘still remain high risk’

By The Press Association22nd January 2016News EnglandChild Abuse, Local Authorities, News England, Rotherham, Sexual Abuse

The Government intends to hand back some of the decision-making powers it took from Rotherham Council in the wake of child sexual exploitation revelations.

The entire political leadership of the authority resigned in February last year over the revelations and the Government decided to intervene in the running of the authority with commissioners put in charge of many services.

But the Communities Secretary Greg Clark announced in a written statement that he plans to return some of the powers to the authority.

He said that nearly a year on challenges still remain “but there have been significant areas of progress”.

“Today I am therefore proposing, on the recommendation of the Commissioner team, my intention to return certain functions to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council,” he said.

The functions being returned include education and schools, public health, leisure services, housing and highways maintenance.

However, the returned functions do not include licensing, children’s services, adult social care, audit and other functions which are deemed to “still remain high risk”.

Mr Clark said: “I am confident that this is the right time and these are the right functions to return to the council.”