A row has broken out over a long-drawn-out review into child sexual exploitation allegations in Oldham as Tories called again for the Home Office to step in. The review, commissioned in 2019, is examining the effectiveness of multi-agency responses to child sexual exploitation (CSE) in the borough.
After being delayed for several months it was promised to report at the end of January, before that date was also moved with a further ‘short delay’ being confirmed. However after new ‘significant evidence’ was brought forward to the review team there is now no publication date in sight.
The review is being carried out by Malcolm Newsam, a former commissioner for social care in Rotherham, and Gary Ridgway, a former Detective Superintendent of Cambridgeshire Police. The pair were behind the blistering report into Operation Augusta in Manchester which found serious failings within council social services and Greater Manchester Police.
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When the latest delay was announced, Mr Newsam stated: “We must balance the need to get the report out as quickly as we can while ensuring that we have approached the review fairly and that no stone has been left unturned.” The remit of the review is to examine historical allegations relating to child sexual exploitation in Oldham and to consider whether the council and its partners – including GMP – provided an appropriate response to protect children.
At a full council meeting on Wednesday the Conservative group moved a motion asking members to agree that they had lost confidence in the ‘ability or ambition’ of the Mayor of Greater Manchester to publish the results of the CSE review with the ‘urgency and expediency’ that the victims and residents deserve. It called on the council’s chief executive to write to the Home Secretary asking for ‘urgent and immediate direct government intervention and assistance’ to ensure the report was not subject to any further delays.
The motion also asked to establish whether previous delays could have been avoided, and whether there had been influence to delay the report until after the May local elections. It is the second time the Tory group have called for the Home Office to intervene in the CSE review, after writing a public letter on the issue in 2020.
Councillor Dave Arnott, who represents Royton North ward, said the issue had hung over Oldham ‘like a dark cloud for years’.
“It is not my intention to promote conspiracy theories, make unfounded accusations or enter the wider debate that takes place outside of this chamber,” he added. “Would anyone really say that after nearly two and a half years the residents of Oldham feel in any way assured or reassured?
“These allegations relate to horrible, disgusting and unbelievably cruel involving the grooming and rape of children in this borough. And to whether those agencies, officers, politicians, and police officers did enough to protect the most vulnerable in our society.
“This review has failed to deliver with the urgency and expediency that concerned residents demand and deserve. Now is the time for the council to put all other considerations aside and ask the Home Secretary to intervene and bring this review over the line.”
Liberal Democrat Coun Sam Al-Hamdani said that if the Home Office could provide support, then the council should ask for it. However he told the meeting that the independent review team of Mr Newsam and Mr Ridgway would decide when it should be published, not Mayor Andy Burnham.
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“If the Home Office could provide support to make sure that this investigation happens more quickly in a better fashion then we should ask them to do that,” Coun Al-Hamdani added. “But the people who are doing this report are not people who pull punches and they are the experts in this.”
Earlier in the meeting, in response to a question from a member of the public, Council leader Arooj Shah said that ‘unfortunately’ the ‘abhorrent and disgusting crime’ of child sexual abuse ‘is still being committed in Oldham’. Speaking on the CSE motion she added: “We all share a desire for the review to publish its report so that victims’ experiences can be acknowledged and we can start to rebuild and restore confidence in the services that current victims rely on.
“We must respect the integrity of the report and trust the independence of the review team. They have told us that this latest delay is due to a need to gather additional testimony from victims whose voices have not yet been fully heard in the review.
“If the investigation concludes that there are failings that need to be addressed then we must and will accept it without reservation. Child abusers do not abuse based on political control of an area, they do so because they are despicable and evil individuals.”
The motion was defeated, with opposition councillors – including the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, and Failsworth Independent Party – supporting, and Labour councillors voting against.
