UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Editorial
It is more than two years since the infamous revelation that BBC Newsnight had dropped a report exposing Jimmy Savile as a serial sexual abuser. It is seven months and two false starts since Theresa May promised an inquiry into allegations of an establishment cover-up of abuse in Whitehall and Westminster, and it is six months since Alexis Jay uncovered the extent of abuse in Rotherham. At last it feels as if the end of the beginning has been reached.
There have been never-again moments many times before in the history of abused children, but the Savile affair has been a watershed. It has triggered an extraordinary moment of national catharsis. Now the home secretary has finally grasped the scale of the challenge and, by setting up a new inquiry on a statutory footing, has set in motion what promises to be an investigation into institutional failure that will carry the confidence of all those involved. At the same time, the report of the Whitehall official in charge of the troubled families programme, Louise Casey, into the catastrophic failings of Rotherham council has prompted the communities secretary Eric Pickles to send in the commissioners to run the council’s key services. Its cabinet is resigning and the whole council will have to stand for re-election next year. There is, at last, action on a broad front and at the highest level.
Events in Rotherham since the publication of Professor Jay’s report in October show how deeply entrenched self-deception can become. Most observers thought the report left no doubt about the council’s inadequacies. Yet Louise Casey found a jaw-dropping refusal to face up to failure. More than two-thirds of councillors were refusing to accept Professor Jay’s findings. Casey described deep-seated poor governance, a pervading culture of bullying and sexism, and a misplaced political correctness that only cemented failure. She reported that whistleblowers were silenced and that there was an unhealthy climate where people feared to speak out. There was not even a permanent chief executive in place to start the process of turning the council around. “Both today and in the past, Rotherham has at times taken more care of its reputation than it has of its most needy,” she concluded.
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