Doncaster council ‘should be stripped of children’s services’

Doncaster council should be stripped of control of its children’s services because of a “legacy of failure”, a review has found.
The independent review recommends appointing an independent trust to run the service, which has been under government supervision since 2009.

It calls for a “decisive break” to escape a “cultural legacy of failure”.

Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones said she was “deeply disappointed”, adding: “Doncaster does not need experiments.”

In March 2009, the government ordered a takeover of Doncaster’s children’s services following the deaths of seven children in the district through abuse or neglect over five years.

Less than a year later a serious case review found the attacks in the nearby town of Edlington in which two young boys were tortured by two brothers, aged 11 and 12, had been “preventable”.

The new report said: “There needs to be a line drawn under the historic failure, a separation that permits the development of a new culture – one of development, improvement and innovation, instead of one of frustration, disillusion and stagnation.”

The review, commissioned by Education Secretary Michael Gove, was written by academic Julian Le Grand, Alan Wood, the director of children’s services in Hackney and Dame Moira Gibb, chair of the Social Work Reform Board.