Telford & Wrekin Council issues update on action taken since inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation

In July last year Mr Tom Crowther QC led an independent inquiry that revealed child sexual exploitation (CSE) had “thrived unchecked” in the borough for decades and that over 1,000 girls had been exploited.

Mr Crowther made 47 recommendations which have been broken down into 148 actions.

The recommendations and actions are shared between the council, West Mercia Police, West Mercia's Police & Crime Commissioner and the Integrated Care Board.

The council has ‘sole responsibility’ for implementing 29 recommendations, comprising 82 actions.

The inquiry included provision for Mr Crowther to return two years after the publication of his report to ‘assess the progress’ in the implementation of his recommendations.

“Following publication of the inquiry report, the leader confirmed that the council would engage with three highly respected individuals with lived experience of CSE and commit as much time and resources as necessary to work with partners to enable the independent chair to be invited back six months earlier than originally scheduled,” said an update on the council’s progress released this week.

In July this year the council stated that they had completed over half (42) of the actions recommended.

A further update has been provided by the council which will be discussed at its full council meeting next week.

This says that the council now has 75 per cent (61) of the actions ready for assessment.

“Of the remaining 25 per cent, 20 per cent ought to be ready for assessment by the end of November with the remaining 5 per cent due to be assessment-ready by the end of December,” the update says.

“The 25 per cent that are not quite ready for assessment are those that are complex and have required systemic change; for example, a change in contracts with suppliers of services.

“The council is very mindful that it is the independent chair who will reach a position as to whether or not actions have been implemented effectively.

“That being the case, the approach taken to date through our delivery plan is not to mark an action complete but, rather, to mark actions ready for assessment by the independent chair.”

The update says that for each of the council’s recommendations lived experience consultees have been consulted and provided with ‘evidence to demonstrate that an action is assessment-ready’.

Telford & Wrekin Council says that prior to inviting Mr Crowther to return to the borough their internal audit team will review the evidence of implementations ‘to ensure that the information to be provided to him effectively demonstrates what action the council has taken in respect of each recommendation’.

Councillors will be asked at Thursday’s full council meeting to approve a recommendation that Mr Crowther is to invited to review the steps taken to implement the recommendations. The council’s ‘intention’ is that the invite will be issued by the end of December 2023.