Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Erin Aston, Andy Burford, Andrew Eade, Thomas Janke, Gilly Latham-Reynolds, Peter Scott, Paul Thomas, Bill Tomlinson, Karen Tomlinson and Rachael Tyrrell.

None.

RESOLVED –that the minutes of the meeting held on 8 November 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

To receive a verbal update on the progress of the CSE Inquiry.

The Leader of the Council and the Director: Policy & Governance presented an update on the Council’s progress following an independent inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in Telford and Wrekin.

The presentation set out the steps that had been taken by the Council to commission an independent inquiry and the work that had been delivered so far as a result of the recommendations made by the Independent Chair in July 2022.

In 2018, a meeting of Full Council agreed to commission an independent inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Telford and Wrekin. The Council adopted a “double independence” approach to the commissioning of the inquiry which commenced with the procurement of an independent Commissioning Body, Eversheds Sutherland, who took responsibility for the procurement of an Independent Chair in consultation with the Survivors’ Committee which later resulted in the appointment of Tom Crowther KC.

Mr Crowther commenced his work in Summer 2019, reviewing documentary evidence from various organisations including Telford & Wrekin Council, Shropshire Council, West Mercia Police, the Police & Crime Commissioner and Voluntary Sector organisations. A total of 170 witnesses were interviewed over a period of two and a half years.

Shortly after Mr Crowther’s report was published on 12 July 2022, the Leader of the Council announced that the Council would be working in collaboration with three individuals with lived experience to shape the Council’s response to the recommendations. Since then, consultees and Council officers have continued to work diligently to ensure the recommendations are inclusive and address key issues identified in the report. The report contained 47 recommendations with 148 actions, 82 of which are for the Council alone to implement.

Following the publication of the report, the Strategic Implementation Group (SIG) established which consisted of representatives from all partners, the Independent Chair, and the three Individual Lived Experience Consultees (ILEC). The group served as a forum where all partners had the opportunity to present their progress and seek agreement that a recommendation was ready for assessment by the Independent Chair. Actions were not marked as complete by the partners themselves but instead, it was the Chair's responsibility to decide the effectiveness of the work carried out.

Each organisation involved in the inquiry had its own internal governance arrangements and the Council had continued to hold assurance meetings every 4 to 6 weeks to monitor progress of each Directorate against the recommendations and actions outlined within the report. Other organisations such as West Mercia Police and Health sectors had several recommendations for which they were solely responsible and were accountable to their own organisations for the delivery of these recommendations. Members were informed that although reference had been made to Police and Health sector recommendations, detailed information on these recommendations had not been provided to the Council except where there were multi-agency recommendations involving the Council, which were set out as part of the presentation.

The role of Individual Lived Experience consultees involved regular weekly meetings to review recommendations and actions including proposed approaches to delivering the recommendations. Workshops  ...  view the full minutes text for item SA9