Copy of my Letter of Cllr Graham Newman, Porfolio Holder for Children and Young People's Services

As the County Councillor of the children who we were planning to move to Risby I wanted to get in touch following this week’s news in the EADT.

I am aware of Councillor Ereira’s communication on the day the story broke. I share his concerns, as I believe do all Councillors. As `corporate parents’, we risked acting in a way not consistent with the trust placed in us by the law, which is, of course, deeply regrettable.

However, my view, as someone who runs an organisation himself, is that things do occasionally go wrong - in all organisations. I also know for a fact that the most successful organisations are those with the capacity to review serious incidents and deal with them in a calm, rational and open way. Such organisations recognize that while human-error often has a role to play, serious incidents are mostly attributable, at root cause level, to bad information systems, unstable processes, weak internal management or an operating culture in which there is insufficient built-in challenge. Or, often, a combination of all of the above.

What is the right response? Well, a fevered, panicked atmosphere of recrimination simply succeeds in diverting energy away from problem-solving and encourages back-covering. Blaming a particular person normally fails to lead to any long-term reduction in risk of repeat.

Far more preferable, I would argue, is a calm, deliberative and transparent review of the chain of events in the context of the whole system which led to this situation. The quid-pro-quo here is that the Council needs to be open with the Opposition, CYP Scrutiny and the wider public about exactly what happened and work together, with all Members and external appointees, particularly from the various relevant Scrutiny Committees, to avoid a repeat.

As those children’s Councillor, I do not, personally, want to see heads roll. That, I believe, will solve very little. Rather, I want to be confident that we, as a Council, have the built-in ability to learn. This is the best way to contribute to children’s well-being . Therefore, I would plead that we, as a Council, go about dealing with the fall out from this issue in the right way: Collaboratively. Calmly. Openly. And, perhaps most important of all, inclusively.