Readers will remember the article we ran yesterday (Wednesday) regarding Cllr Gary Taylor’s complaint against Cllr Chris Welsford over child death claims made at a scrutiny meeting last week.
In response to the official complaint made against him, Cllr Welsford told OnTheWight, “It is interesting to see the amount of energy that is being devoted to challenging me over this issue when compared with the lamentably poor effort made by the Scrutiny Panel in challenging the lack of effective performance management and corporate monitoring in respect of the Child Protection function.
“The Ofsted Report is truly shocking and tells us they have totally failed to provide the necessary independent and effective service assessment above the operational level that is required to deliver Child Protection Services of an adequate standard for Island Children.”
Abraham’s statement resulted in call about death
Pointing out that issue of the child death would never have been raised in the chamber had it not been for the comment by Cllr Barry Abraham, he continued, “They have completely forgotten that it was an irresponsible statement made in public by Cllr Abraham that caused the telephone call about the child’s death. A complaint could have been made about that but it wasn’t.
“No room for political mischief-making”
Cllr Welford continued, “There should be no room for political mischief-making in situations like this. Cllr Taylor was only Chair of that committee for a moment but he has managed to demonstrate exactly why that committee failed to deliver over the last few years and why it allowed our Child Protection services to become inadequate.”
“Spare a thought for the hard working social workers”
He finished by saying, “Whilst the prime concern should be for vulnerable children who may not be protected as a result of these failings, we should spare a thought for the hard working social workers who are caught in the middle of this senior management and politically led disaster.
“They just want to do their jobs properly. They are hardly doing it for the money! Their morale must be at rock bottom right now and so I hope some energy can now be exerted in supporting them and ensuring that they have the support resources they need to do their jobs.”
