Council admits failure over abuse

A council has admitted failing children who were sexually abused by a foster couple in Yorkshire.

An independent inquiry was launched after Ian Wathey and Craig Faunch, from Pontefract, were jailed in June for a catalogue of sex offences against boys.

The inquiry's report said Wakefield Council staff failed to act on suspicions for fear of being seen to be discriminatory.

The council said a "rigorous overhaul" of children's services was needed.

Pat Garbutt, the council's portfolio holder for children and young people, said: "Some of the practice and management systems we had in place at the time covered by this inquiry failed children in our care.

"Action has been taken by senior management to rectify those failings."

Brian Parrott, chairman of the independent inquiry, presented the report to councillors at a meeting on Wednesday.

He told them that the fostering panel which approved Faunch and Wathey was "deficient in a number of respects".

He said: "From the outset inappropriate children were placed with them, presenting challenges which the foster carers were not sufficiently skilled to meet.

"Issues arose in the first longer-term placement of two children, including potential indicators of child sexual abuse, which were inadequately investigated, analysed, understood or acted upon."

He added: "It seems to us that some staff members failed to exercise the professional judgement which they should for fear of being seen to be discriminatory".

Mrs Garbutt said: "Our first concern in this care is and always has been for the young people who were abused by this couple.

"We realised through our own early investigations and through the findings of this report that those children were put at risk. This should not have happened."

She said the council commissioned the independent inquiry because it knew there was "much to learn and we wanted to make sure that we were in a position to assess what happened - and why - and what we could do about it to safeguard all children in our care.

"I am confident that things have improved - and are improving - since this very sad case came to light."

Mrs Garbutt said an action plan of improvements had been drawn up to cover all the report's recommendations.

She said: "It represents a rigorous overhaul of our services to children in our care. We will learn lessons from this inquiry."