Shropshire Council criticised over Telford CSE inquiry responses

The Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) was published last week, and delivered a series of shocking findings, stating that CSE had "thrived unchecked" in the borough for decades.

Inquiry chairman Tom Crowther QC concluded that more than 1,000 young girls had been exploited in Telford and Wrekin going back to 1989, and delivered a series of recommendations for improvements in the protection of young people.

While Telford & Wrekin Council and West Mercia Police were heavily criticised in the report, Mr Crowther has also spoken out on his concerns over Shropshire Council's willingness to help the inquiry.

Although the inquiry was commissioned by T&W, the Telford authority has only been in existence since 1998.

Prior to 1988 Shropshire County Council – which later became Shropshire Council – was responsible for children's services in Telford & Wrekin.

Although Shropshire County Council 'handed over' 'live' social care records to Telford & Wrekin Council in 1998, Mr Crowther still had a number of requests for outstanding documents and cases considered 'closed' in 1998.

In his report he outlined his discussions with Shropshire Council over access to documents saying its reaction to requests has not always been "helpful".

He said: "It is clear that there has been something of a reluctance along the way to spend time and resources on locating documents, and consequently the responses received have not always been viewed as helpful to the inquiry’s cause and could, at times, have been viewed as combative."

Shropshire Council has defended its response, with a spokesman saying it provided "significant information", requiring "significant time and cost".

Mr Crowther said he had requested copies of 25 children's case files, which were identified as being of interest due to their early involvement with CSE, but none could be located.

He also asked for documents on safeguarding policies, procedures and guidance from 1989 to 1998 but was also told they were not available.

A request for documents from area child protection committee meetings from 1989 to 1998 also turned up a blank.

Mr Crowther said that he had also been told the council could not provide any index of complaints about CSE without specific details of cases – because complaints are filed under a family name rather than the reason for the complaint.

In his report Mr Crowther said: "For those records that were not transferred over to Telford, for example closed case files, Shropshire Council also confirmed that its historic files are not archived on the basis of issue, but are stored by family name, so it would be very difficult to identify archived files which related to CSE for example, without further details to allow a targeted search to be undertaken, for example a name or date of birth.

"Shropshire Council also made clear that they were not prepared to trawl their files in order to identify potentially relevant cases, and were not willing to provide the inquiry with access to files to do the same, for reasons of data protection and protecting the identities of individuals."

Mr Crowther also said that he had requested a complete list of taxi licenses dating back to 1989, to cross refer against names of interest in the inquiry.

The council did provide a list of records with indications of CSE against licensees but did not provide the full list, saying the request was 'disproportionate' and went against data protection rules.

Mr Crowther has also outlined how Shropshire Council had also raised the issue of more "challenging" requests during an initial meeting.

He said: "Shropshire Council also expressed a concern at that first meeting about the time and resources that may be needed to address any requests for documents.

"It was made clear to me that Shropshire Council intended to fully cooperate with the inquiry, but they registered a concern that this was an inquiry that Telford & Wrekin Council had made a decision to hold, and to fund, and that it was not a Shropshire Council inquiry; they said they were happy to assist the inquiry with simple requests, but if the requests were more challenging on resource, they would have to consider this."

Mr Crowther did say that despite the difficulties he did not believe the authority was trying to hide anything.

He said: "There will be conspiracy theorists that may read into this that Shropshire Council has something to hide and therefore has deliberately not provided documents.

"I want to address this head on; I do not believe that to be the case.

"When they have said that documents cannot be located, I believe that is the case and that searches have been undertaken; when they have said that documents no longer exist, I believe that is the case; many of the documents requested are historic and were created at a time when records and documents were not digitised and stored in the way they are today.”

A spokesman for Shropshire Council said: "The inquiry is Telford & Wrekin Council’s inquiry and Shropshire Council has provided significant evidence to it. This has required significant time and cost to Shropshire Council.

"Some of the evidence initially requested by the inquiry, for example covering all taxi and private hire licences held since 1989, could not be provided as it would have breached personal data rules.

"With respect to the licensing information, the council believes it engaged with the inquiry proportionately and in a reasonable manner and provided the inquiry with information that was more relevant to that which was originally requested.

"The council also helped the inquiry to contact and receive evidence from former employees.

"I would also add that when responsibility for social care in Telford transferred to Telford & Wrekin Council in April 1998, social care records were also transferred to Telford & Wrekin Council and we expect this formed part of the information that was shared with the inquiry by Telford & Wrekin Council."

The spokesman also pointed to Mr Crowther's comments dismissing the idea of a 'conspiracy'.