OPPOSITION councillors have welcomed the change of political leader of Tameside Council’s under-fire children’s services department.
But they feel the authority’s head, Cllr Gerald Cooney, should have acted sooner – they have also accused him of ‘dishonesty.’
Cllr Bill Fairfoull has been replaced as the head of the service, rated as inadequate by Ofsted, by Cllr Teresa Smith.
However, many feel it should have happened much sooner and the Conservative group has hit out at the way it was handled.
The seven – Cllrs Doreen Dickinson, Liam Billington, David Tilbrook, Phil Chadwick, Andrea Colbourne, Dan Costello, and Chris Halligan – said: “We the Conservative Group welcome the change in Executive Member for Children and Families.
“It is imperative that this most important department, responsible for the protection of our borough’s most vulnerable citizens, is well led in order to give it a chance of achieving the significant improvements required to its performance.
“We wish Councillor Theresa Smith every success in taking up her new role.”
As they welcomed the change, the Tories took aim at how the process was handled by Cllr Cooney, and how he ‘backed’ Cllr Fairfoull despite one of ‘the worst failures of any department in Tameside’s history.
They added: “We must express our disappointment at the indecisiveness of the Executive Leader of the council, in allowing the previous failure of a political leader to continue in post for so long, and for his dishonesty with us, and Tameside’s electorate, in defending Councillor Fairfoull on several occasions.
“Councillor Fairfoull has presided over one of the worst failures of any department in Tameside’s history.
“Ofsted report after Ofsted report has pointed to serious failures in the performance of the department under his direction, including a report published in 2022, which specifically identified failures of political leadership and described instances of children being placed at risk of significant harm.
“As corporate parents – a role which the Executive Leader frequently reminds all councillors that they occupy. We are aghast that such a failure should have been allowed to continue for two years, without challenge.
“This demonstrates weak leadership from an Executive Leader more focussed on shoring up his own power base within the Labour group, than on protecting vulnerable children within our borough.
“The latest Ofsted report, published in 2024, demonstrated further decline in the performance of Children’s Services under Councillor Fairfoull, but in the meeting of Full Council immediately following its publication, the Executive Leader, when questioned, said he had “nothing but support” for Councillor Fairfoull, adding “100 per cent” to firm up his position.
“It is disgraceful that the Executive Leader allowed such a dreadful state of affairs to drag on for five further months before coming to the obvious conclusion that Councillor Fairfoull should be removed from his position.
“A conclusion which we have called for several times over a number of years.
“The Executive Leader needs to be transparent with Tameside’s public – either he was dishonest in the Council chamber in March when he stated his certainty of support for Councillor Fairfoull, or something significant has changed in the last five months.
“If the latter, the public has a right to know what.”
The Correspondent approached both Tameside Council and Cllr Cooney for a response.
After being advised on August 6 the leader will respond directly because of its political nature, no comment has yet been received.