Nottinghamshire recommendations from child sexual abuse inquiry have already been enacted, city and county councils say

Politicians and public authorities have come under intense scrutiny this week on action to prevent abuse of children in institutions and by grooming gangs.

The pressure follows comments posted online by Elon Musk, on the X platform (formerly Twitter) which he owns.

Musk, who has 211 million followers on X, accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” during his time as director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013, for failing to tackle grooming gangs.

Conservative and Reform UK MPs have also been calling for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.

The Labour Government has pointed to the fact a major inquiry into child sexual abuse has already been held, spanning seven years, and concluding in 2022.

Prof Alexis Jay ran the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which looked closely at several areas – including child social care Nottinghamshire after hundreds of people came forward in the 2010s to say they had been sexually or physically abused in the local care system, dating back decades.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Professor Jay said “locally people need to step up to the mark and do the things that have been recommended” in response to the calls for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs.

She said any new inquiry would delay the implementation of her recommendations.

The care system in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire was one of 15 major investigations she oversaw, due to the high number of allegations of sexual abuse of children under the care of both authorities and agency-commissioned foster carers.

The inquiry received some 350 Nottinghamshire complaints dating back to the 1960s.

The true number is considered likely to be higher, and the inquiry concluded the sexual abuse of children was widespread in both residential and foster care during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Two recommendations were made in the specific report relating to Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County Councils, first published in 2019.

The first recommendation stated both councils should assess the potential risks posed by current and former foster carers directly provided by the authority and agencies in relation to the sexual abuse of children.

Both the city and county councils say this recommendation has been implemented.

The second recommendation related to the City Council, in that it should – alongside partners – commission an independent, external evaluation of practice concerning harmful sexual behaviour, including responses, prevention, assessment, intervention and workforce development, to be followed up with an action plan.

Coun Cheryl Barnard (Lab), executive member for children, young people and education at the City Council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We’ve done all the recommendations in the report.

“At the time we went through all of our foster carers, both present and historically, we went through all the records and made sure there was nothing in there that would cause us any concerns. We did an extra vetting of them all.

“The historic ones were particularly important. We have done all that and we are quite satisfied that all children are safe.

“There weren’t any concerns that we uncovered. Across time we do have concerns raised about foster carers, just under general safeguarding, and [social workers] will remove a child if there is a safeguarding risk. Then there is an investigation and foster carers then get de-registered if there is a concern.

“We have worked with our partners to strengthen our safeguarding to make sure people are equipped to deal with any issues. We’ve even trained councillors. It is really important people look beyond what they see.

“I would say we are never complacent.”

Colin Pettigrew, Nottinghamshire County Council’s executive director of children’s services, added: “The safety and protection of children in our care is our highest priority at all times.

“We acted swiftly to put that recommendation into practice and to publish our response.

“Through this work, we were also determined to improve and strengthen practice where possible, including re-establishing the council’s corporate parenting panel to ensure clear oversight of the safety and care of children who are looked after by the council.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published 19 reports in total on 15 investigations covering a wide range of institutions.

Prof Jay helped produce a specific report into grooming gangs in February 2022.

The inquiry’s final full report, published in October 2022, then made 20 recommendations.

These include setting up a national child protection authority and making not reporting abuse a criminal offence. However, these national changes are yet to be implemented in full.

The Labour Government, under Sir Keir Starmer, has rejected calls for a new inquiry and instead says it will seek to enact reforms set out by the Jay Review as quickly as possible.

Sir Keir also insisted he tackled grooming “head on” in his former role and accused Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch of “jumping on the bandwagon” after Musk’s posts. He also said “lies and misinformation” had affected the debate.