Strategy to keep Rotherham children safe from abuse

Rotherham town centre

A five-year plan to protect children in Rotherham from abuse and exploitation has been set out on the 10th anniversary of the town's grooming scandal.

The Jay Report, published in 2014, criticised Rotherham Council for failing to protect around 1,400 child victims of sexual offences committed by adults.

A National Crime Agency investigation has since brought many of the offenders, who were active between 1997 and 2013, to justice.

The council's new strategy has been produced to prevent "complacency" around future harm after the authority was told it had not addressed the "scale" of grooming prior to 2014.

'Continuing support'

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the plan sets out how potential victims would be identified at an early stage, agencies would intervene in their welfare and safeguarding systems would remain in place along with "continuing" support for abuse survivors.

Independent scrutineer Darren Downs said the actions of the Rotherham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership had been "highly publicised and rightly scrutinised".

He added: "We will never be complacent about the threat of harm to local children.

“The Partnership will continue to do all we can to support the victims of child exploitation, whilst ensuring that offenders are brought to justice."

He said that the new strategy defined the roles and responsibilities of key partner agencies and how the council would work with the police.

The Jay Report, authored by Professor Alexis Jay, found that girls as young as 11 had been raped by "large numbers" of men. Multiple attackers trafficked them to towns and cities across the north of England. "Collective failures' of political leadership were identified by the inquiry.

'Significant strides'

The National Crime Agency's subsequent Operation Stovewood secured 34 convictions, with 50 more investigations ongoing.

Rotherham Council's cabinet member for children and young people, Councillor Victoria Cusworth, said that approaches to safeguarding had improved since 2014.

She said: “Over the last 10 years, we have been committed to listening to the voice and lived experience of victims and survivors in order to drive improvements in services.

“We have made significant strides forward in the way that we tackle child exploitation in Rotherham and the council’s children’s services have been graded as “Good” consistently by Ofsted since 2017."

South Yorkshire Police's district commander for Rotherham, Det Ch Supt Laura Koscikiewicz, said the Jay Report was a "watershed" moment.

"Since then, we have worked tirelessly to deepen our understanding and share that knowledge to tackle exploitation in all its forms."

She added that the strategy was designed to tackle "ever-evolving" types of offending.

NHS South Yorkshire representatives said they had also worked closely with the council and police to support grooming victims.

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