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By ROB PARSONS - June 22 2022
Launched a full eight years ago, the Independent Office for Police Conduct's Operation Linden probe into industrial-scale child grooming in Rotherham was the watchdog's second biggest after its investigation into the Hillsborough Disaster.
But as the long-awaited report into more than 200 allegations of police failures in relation to child sexual exploitation was published at midday today , South Yorkshire's elected police commissioner said it “fails to identify any individual accountability” and “lets down victims and survivors”.
South Yorkshire Police admitted “we got it wrong and we let victims down” after the report concluded the force “failed to protect vulnerable children”. A total of 47 current and former officers were investigated by the IOPC after it was revealed at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed in the town between 1997 and 2013.
But the final report confirmed that no officer lost their job despite 265 separate allegations being made by more than 50 complainants. Of the 47 officers investigated, eight were found to have a case to answer for misconduct and six had a case to answer for gross misconduct.
Five of these officers received sanctions ranging from management action up to a final written warning. Another faced a South Yorkshire Police misconduct hearing earlier this year, and the case was found not proven by an independent panel.
The IOPC’s investigation catalogued how teenagers were seen as “consenting” to their abuse by officers, who were told to prioritise other crimes. One parent concerned about a missing daughter said they were told by an officer “it was a ‘fashion accessory’ for girls in Rotherham to have an ‘older Asian boyfriend’ and that she would grow out of it”.
The watchdog identified systemic problems within South Yorkshire Police at the time, detailing how CSE in Rotherham was dealt with by a small “overwhelmed” unit, which had a number of other responsibilities.
But South Yorkshire’s Labour police and crime commissioner Alan Billings said: “I am disappointed that after eight years of very costly investigations, this report fails to make any significant recommendations over and above what South Yorkshire Police have already accepted and implemented from previous investigations some years ago.
“It repeats what past reports and reviews have shown – that there was unacceptable practice between 1997 and 2013 – but fails to identify any individual accountability. As a result, it lets down victims and survivors.”
Dr Billings said: “A great deal of time and money has been spent for few new findings or accountability.” He said it was unfair officers have had allegations of misconduct “hanging over them for so long”, but said the force was now “on a path of continuous improvement”.
North East 'set to take the hardest hit from Brexit'
Voting 58-42 in the 2016 referendum, the North East was one of the areas which backed Brexit most strongly. But a new study says it will likely take a bigger economic hit than any other region as the seismic exit from the European Union damages Britain’s competitiveness in the years ahead.
The left-leaning Resolution Foundation said today that leaving the EU has reduced how open and competitive Britain’s economy is. The reliance of North East firms on exports to the EU means it economy will suffer the most, it added. Yorkshire and the Humber is the second hardest-hit region.
The report, in collaboration with the London School of Economics , said the immediate impact of the referendum result has been clear, with a “depreciation-driven inflation spike” increasing the cost of living for households and seeing business investment falling.
It added: "The North East, one of the poorest regions in the UK, is highly exposed to the EU market and by 2030 will see manufacturing output fall by 2.7% relative to the baseline, as well as falls in regulated services such as professional, scientific and technical, and finance and insurance of 4.1 and 4.0%. This is likely to further increase the region’s existing substantial productivity and income challenges."
In response, pro-Brexit Tory MP Jacob Young , representing Redcar on Teesside, told this newsletter: "While acknowledging the outright failure of previous economic predictions, this report is now confidently predicting that wages will be hit by Brexit.
"The report lacks reference to Teesside or the huge changes happening here, such as the freeport that's bringing thousands of jobs to our area.
"It's just another gloomy weather forecast from a report that begins by acknowledging how poorly they managed to forecast the weather yesterday. We've heard it all before."
Did you know it was the Midland Hotel in Manchester where engineer Henry Royce was introduced to dealer Charles Rolls in 1904, a meeting that led to the creation of luxury car giant Rolls-Royce ?
And the city has now been chosen as the new headquarters of Rolls-Royce's mini nuclear power station division. Rolls-Royce SMR will be at 11 York Street and will operate alongside existing locations in Warrington and Derby.
The announcement comes shortly after Rolls-Royce confirmed that it is targeting sites in North Wales and West Cumbria, as some of the best sites to locate the first Rolls-Royce small modular reactor (SMR) power plants.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng praised the move, saying Rolls-Royce were "helping us turbocharge plans for more clean, affordable, homegrown energy".
'I drank some whiskey and tried to pull my tooth out with pliers'
Desperate people in the North have resorted to pulling their teeth out with pliers while children are seen in hospital for routine appointments, as the wait for an NHS dentist reaches two years in some parts of the region.
More than 2,000 dentists quit the NHS last year, leading to some areas being described as "dentistry deserts". A lack of NHS dentists is seeing children’s oral health suffer, with tooth decay causing 16,685 children - 15 a day - in Yorkshire to attend hospital for teeth extractions in the past three years.
Leading a debate on dentistry in the Commons, Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting described the “agony” of one West Yorkshire resident who wrote to their MP Yvette Cooper explaining how they tried to pull out their own tooth after failing to find a dentist, writes Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue .
He said: “He was told he would have to wait two years for an appointment. He wrote in an email, and I quote: ‘I am in such agony that I took ibuprofen, drank whiskey, and tried to pull it out myself with pliers, but they kept slipping off and it was agony’. What kind of country have we become?"
Lancaster and Fleetwood MP Cat Smith added: “I think one of the most difficult advice surgery appointments that I’ve ever had to sit through was a constituent who came to me and put on the table in front of me the teeth he had pulled out of his own mouth."
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the challenge with NHS dentistry "predates this pandemic". He added: "It's not just about the number of dentists in England but it's about the completely outdated contracts that they're working under and those contracts were signed under a Labour government."
Has devolution made Greater Manchester healthier?
With talks set to start with the Government next month, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is hoping to persuade Ministers to hand over more decision-making powers as part of a 'trailblazer' devolution deal.
But Greater Manchester is already a step ahead of other Northern areas in the devolution race after becoming in 2016 the first region to take on control of the health and social care budget from central government.
Has it made any difference? At an event hosted by the Institute of Government yesterday Mr Burnham revealed the findings of an as-yet-unpublished sponsored by the Health Foundation on five years of health devolution in Greater Manchester.
He told the audience that the findings - which he stressed had not yet been peer-reviewed - suggested that between 2016 and 2019 local life expectancy was 0.196 years higher than expected and had been protected from the falls seen elsewhere.
The mayor added: "The overall conclusion is Greater Manchester had better population health than expected following devolution. The benefits of devolution were most apparent in the most deprived and poor health areas suggesting a narrowing of inequality."
Among the changes he cited was allowing health visitors to assess the school-readiness of children using a digital care record that could be seen by different services, rather than relying on paper records.
In West Yorkshire , Mayor Tracy Brabin says her region is being "hamstrung" by rigid Whitehall rules which govern how cash is spent locally.
The Mayor said "continually having to go back to Government for sign offs and checks" was hampering the mission to level up. Ms Brabin, appearing before MPs yesterday, also hit out at the number of funds local authorities were being encouraged to bid for as part of the levelling up process.
Since 2015 the Government has launched more than 120 “competed funds", with many often having complex formulas for how cash is awarded.
"I think the beauty contests and the way that we're having to bid for funding, we have to get away from that", Ms Brabin said. "We have to be given the autonomy to help Government deliver on their mission statements."
Middlesbrough's 'ground-breaking' bid to keep children in school
It's been identified as one of 55 areas of England where poor performing schools are damaging children's life chances. And now Middlesbrough has been selected as the first area to take part in a government pilot scheme to combat low school attendance rates.
The £5m attendance mentors pilot project will deliver targeted one-to-one support for persistently and severely absent pupils. Mentors will work closely with children and their families to address any reasons why they may not be attending school, writes Local Democracy Reporter Emily Craigie .
The project will start in Middlesbrough and then roll out to four other areas in year two and continue in all five areas in year three. Last year, the Teesside town had an absence rate and persistent absence rates higher than the national averages.
Cllr Mieka Smiles, the council’s executive member for children’s services, has welcomed the scheme. She said: “We want our children and young people to have the best possible start in life, but too many are missing school, and in doing so are harming their life chances. We’re not alone in this, but it’s vital that we build on the great work we already do to ensure students fulfill their potential and don’t get left behind.
“We’re happy to be working with the DfE on this ground-breaking programme that has the potential to shape lives for the better, not just in Middlesbrough but across the country.”
Another intriguing government scheme on Teesside will see £500,000 pumped into efforts to reduce time motorists spent stuck at traffic lights and other snarl ups by moving cars, buses, and wagons more efficiently.
The Department for Transport has granted the Tees Valley Combined Authority a six figure sum to use new technology to boost “urban traffic management and control” in the region. This network minimises delays and impacts on the road when there is an incident by tweaking signal timings to move traffic around more efficiently.
Middlesbrough Council’s Craig Cowley believed it would be “really scary but in a good way”. He told a meeting: “The way technology has advanced in the last two or three years, with cars communicating with the network via Bluetooth, it will be a bit like [1990s science fiction movie] Terminator.”
Tory candidate rues PM's absence from Wakefield by-election campaign
Boris Johnson's absence from the by-election campaign trail in Wakefield has led many to speculate that the Tories have written off the seat. With opinion polls showing Labour in the lead, the Prime Minister cancelled a visit to the constituency on Friday in lieu of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Local Tory candidate Nadeem Ahmed said he understood the decision, but added that it would have been "good" to have had the Prime Minister on the ground in Wakefield at some point during the campaign.
Cllr Ahmed, a former leader of the Wakefield Tory group, was defiant when asked if Mr Johnson's no-show was an indication that the party had abandoned hope of retaining the seat.
"Definitely not", he told Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue . "We've had pretty much every single cabinet member from Dominic Raab to Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, we've had all the main people.
"Yes, Boris was supposed to be here on Friday. But he called Saturday morning on the mobile and explained the reasons behind him not coming, which was obviously Ukraine. I respect that decision but I think he's personally popular in Wakefield and it would have been good to have had him down."
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Northern Stories
Blackpool Council has taken the decision to remove a 'Wild West' display from Blackpool Illuminations following complaints that the display reinforces "racial stereotypes" about Native Americans . Located to the north of Blackpool Promenade, the light display dates back to the 1960s and depicts six men in headdresses around a totem pole. But Tony Perry, an NHS manager, author and member of the Chickasaw Nation tribe, filed a complaint to Blackpool Council over the display.
A book which was borrowed from a library in West Yorkshire in 1946, has finally been returned and is on display . The book, This Way To The Tomb a play by Ronald Duncan, was borrowed from Bradford Council’s Keighley Library almost 76 years ago and was discovered by Charlie Studdy when he was tidying up some bookshelves. The overdue book is believed to have been taken out by his late mum Eileen Hoyle, who grew up in nearby Haworth. Bradford council said Mr Studdy would not be charged for the overdue book.
Chester MP Chris Matheson has warned that plans to put barbecue boats on the city's River Dee would create "mayhem" and be a danger to other river users. He expressed concern about the idea of trusting people to stay sober while skippering the donut-shaped boats, which would be located on The Groves in this busy tourist hotspot. The controversial development was given planning permission by Cheshire West and Chester Council's planning committee in May.
A council finance boss says North Yorkshire’s new unitary local authority is facing a possible black hole of close to £50m a year , largely due to deficits it will inherit from district councils and high inflation. North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for finance, Gareth Dadd, said the council did not wish to see potential savings from local government reorganisation used to cover inflation. Due to the range of uncertainties including the ongoing impact of Covid-19, he likened setting the council’s budgets to “trying to juggle two bowls of jelly”.
A Tory councillor in Warrington has made a shock switch to Labour . During a full council meeting it was confirmed that Cllr Phil Eastty has defected from the Conservative to the Labour group. The Rixton and Woolston councillor won his seat for the Tories in May 2021. It is understood that his decision is not linked to Prime Minister Boris Johnson or the Conservatives nationally.
Bolton Council are seeking a new chief after it was announced that Tony Oakman is to retire later this year after a bout of ill health . Mr Oakman, chief executive the council, announced he will retire in October, stepping down from the post he has held since 2018. He has worked in local government and the NHS for over 35 years and started out as a social worker in Nottinghamshire. He came to Bolton in 2018 as chief executive.
