Thread by @Andrewwood17

Things in Tower Hamlets are often worse than you think they are
We knew Children's Services had major issues after OFSTED failed them quite badly in 2017 but 4 children mentioned in this report had issues mainly post OFSTED
Report more critical of Police than Council &
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some signs of improvement in the report but by providing detail on cases across 6 Boroughs (4 in TH) it provides a snapshot of problems & makes recommendations
But quotes from those involved were stronger then official report
standard.co.uk/news/uk/rochda…
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The problem as a Councillor responsible for scutinising the Council is that we almost never get to see information like this unless somebody external writes a public report
The understandable need to protect children's anonymity = makes it easy to hide what is really going on
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Child CSA-22
"CS-A22 was found in 2017 with injuries suggestive of serious sexual assault after a two-day episode of going missing...The evidence demonstrates that she was the victim of sexual assaults from 2018 to 2019...There was some evidence of victim-blaming"
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Child CS-A77
CS-A77 was in care in Tower Hamlets from 2015. In 2017/18 and 2018/19 she went missing 40 and 47 times respectively from an unregulated placement...In late 2018, an assessment considered CS-A77’s life was potentially at risk due to a range of factors"
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CS-A81
"The risk assessments did not record the age or date of birth of CS‑A81... accepted that she should have been graded high risk & that the assessments were generally “on the back foot” & “reactionary” Overall, it recognised that CS‑A81’s case was “of the utmost concern”
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CS-A90
"CS‑A90 was a frequent missing child in Tower Hamlets and was attending parties in hotels when he was only 13 years old...frequently went missing from home or care without any effective responses...was deemed to be a victim of modern slavery"
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Appendix 4 from page 180 has an overall summary on Tower Hamlets
Report is here
Every Councillor & political candidate needs to read this report
iicsa.org.uk/reports-recomm…
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Reminder both the Councils Children's Services & Police are covered by this report
"In 2018, HMICFRS identified concerns about the extent to which children reporting sexual exploitation in Tower Hamlets were listened to by Metropolitan Police Service officers and staff"
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The report does talk about improvements
& there have been some changes in snr leadership in Police & Council recently
The culture of the previous Director of Children's Services though was to not talk about bad news (will talk later about serious case review for Syrian girls)
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But eventually, bad news does come out, why I said earlier things are nearly are often worse than you think they are inside Tower Hamlets
Things need to change which I will discuss later
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