I agree wholeheartedly with this comment and I too, also believe that grooming is still going on in Rotherham – I cannot believe, despite the Jay & Casey Reports with all the knowledge, evidence and relatively few imprisonments that have occurred (in my opinion, not enough perpetrators have been caught, sentenced and jailed for their crimes), and the horror that rocked the town of Rotherham when the news finally broke, that RMBC and the Commissioners sent in by the Government can now feel that the scandal of CSE has been dealt with and that the Commissioners can be withdrawn and full responsibility passed back to RMBC!!

This beggars belief – how can Councillors sleep at night or have a clear conscience after allowing, by their inactions, this truly horrific situation to unfold and develop??

They still met frequently as a Council whilst Rotherham’s citizens were learning through newspapers on a daily basis, of the absolutely terrifying situation that existed in their town but yet, the Council, Councillors and Officers together with South Yorkshire Police did nothing!! What exactly did they all do during this period apart from ‘wring their collective hands’, keep their heads down whilst gossiping about it amongst themselves and hope that the dust would settle and it would all go away!?? We’re not talking about a situation that only existed for a few days/weeks – it went on for bloody years and years!!!

As Prof Jay stated in her 2014 Report, “no-one can say they didn’t know”. level of education diploma Our Elected Councillors certainly knew, the majority of them had attended the now infamous Seminar in April 2005 run by Risky Business staff where they were made aware of the existence of CSE in Rotherham and the work of the Council’s own Risky Business Project set up in 1999 to try to help the children and young people affected by CSE – I can remember watching a video of a Council meeting through the Council’s own televised services, where CSE was briefly mentioned and 2 Councillors, Ken Wyatt and Sue Ellis, by way of an answer to a question from the public gallery, ‘broke rank’ and admitted that they attended the Seminar and did know of CSE – Councillor Wyatt saying something to the effect that they were told the situation was “being dealt with by the Police” and Councillor Ellis stating something to the effect that, “as a mother of 2 daughters, doesn’t anyone think that she would have done something if she had known” – well, what I want to know is why they and their fellow Councillors failed to ask questions of the Council Officers and Police on a regular basis? Didn’t they ask for regular updates during the vast number of Council meetings they must have all attended over the years? Didn’t it ever occur to the Councillors that their constituents were reading the numerous newspaper reports around at the time and that they were likely to be asked about CSE and what the Council (and they) were doing about it? Didn’t they receive reports from the many Council Committees, meetings and related paperwork relating to CSE in Rotherham during the period or didn’t they read them? Why did they remain silent and why were they apparently content to leave this issue for ‘someone else’ to deal with?

So yes, Xinsider, I do agree that the Councillors should be held to account along with Council Officers and South Yorkshire Police for the nightmare scenario that exploded in Rotherham – the Commissioners, in my opinion, should have not just held the Council Cabinet responsible for their failures and omissions whereby they resigned ‘en masse’, but also ordered a fresh election for all Councillors as well so that the electors could hold them to account for their part in the cover up!

Apologies for my rather lengthy response to your original comment but I remain unconvinced that things have changed or that lessons have been learned – too many people have yet to atone/account for their failures, omissions and inaction and their complicity in the cover up. secondary level of education in india In 2020, we should not forget the Rotherham CSE scandal/cover up as the electorate appeared to do in 2016 when many of the Councillors that were on the Council throughout this dark period were simply re-elected – we, the voters, can try to help secure some justice for those many children and families affected by the scandal of CSE through the ballot box – unlike RMBC Councillors, we can DO something!