THE COUNCILLOR with responsibility for Tameside’s ‘inadequate’ children’s services department is set to stay in his post, at least for the short term.
But its leader has admitted it invested money in the wrong people.
Cllr Bill Fairfoull has come under criticism – even from Labour MP Andrew Gwynne – after Ofsted highlighted ‘ineffective senior leadership’ as it dropped the borough’s department back to its lowest ranking.
He was also in the role when the council was subject of a critical Ofsted and Care Quality Assessment of its SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities) provision in June 2022.
The damning Ofsted report into children’s services said: “There has been ineffective senior leadership in Tameside since the last inspection, which has resulted in too many not receiving effective services that meet their needs.”
But as a Government ‘commissioner’ is being brought in for three months, leader of the council, Cllr Gerald Cooney, believes the focus should be on the officers who ran the department, not the councillors.
He said: “I’ve come to the conclusion that a bad car costs more money than a good car over a year.
“If you’ve got a bad service, it costs you more.
“In a ratio, we spend more money than anyone on children’s services and I’ve got to say we’ve not been successful at that, have we?
“We’ve got to be honest with ourselves – some of the people we’ve paid good money to run children’s services weren’t delivering.
“That’s the reality of it.
“At long last, we’ve come to the conclusion it was never about the money, but it was about the management of that service.
“Ofsted has told us we’re inadequate, I’m not going to defend that. What I and the children of this borough need is someone to say, ‘How do we move forward being excellent?’
“That’s what we have to put in place. That’s what all of us want. We’ll look at the whole service – how we do it, the scrutiny of it, every single area.
“I think we’ve now brought the right people in, who have a proper focus and a proper direction.”
Cllr Cooney revealed his colleague asked whether he should step down in the wake of the Ofsted report.
Conservative Cllr Dan Costello asked: “How long will this council bury its head in the sand when it comes to children’s services and refuse to deal with the elephant in the room?
“We’ve long been of the opinion that budget is not the big issue here, we’ve since had it confirmed or echoed by reports from Ofsted and indeed by an opinion from local Labour MP Andrew Gwynne that the real issue is the failings of political leadership.
“The fact Cllr Fairfoull is still in that position says there’s no accountability and there are no consequences.”
But he was told to stay, at least until the Labour group’s annual general meeting, when it will be reviewed.
And Cllr Cooney feels people looking to pin all the blame on the man in political charge are wrong.
He added: “We fail if we think it’s just one person, that’s never been the case.
“There’ll be no change. Bill asked, ‘Should I go?’ I said, ‘No, firstly let’s get things in place. There’s an AGM in May and we’ll look at that but we’re not going to react today because of Ofsted.
“How we will react is by starting to put things in place. Ofsted said it sees the leadership we’ve brought in as right. Once we get it going properly, it will save money as it will be a good service.
“We’re a corporate parent and it’s our role to make sure children can achieve the best they can and live the best life they can in the safest way possible.
“We will, not because an MP made a remark, also look at the Ofsted report and then view that all the way down.
“I’m not going to blame a politician, that’s dead easy. It was never about the politician – it was about how we managed it.
“The politician then has an involvement to an extent – we all do, we should all take responsibility. I’ve got nothing but 100 per cent support for Bill.”
And our children continue to suffer….