Andrew Dismore

Dear editor,

Every word of the Ofsted report rating as “inadequate” Conservative led Barnet Council’s Children’s Services reveals  a series of disastrous failures in the Council’s   services for children in need of help and protection, looked after children and care leavers, as well as the effectiveness of the Safeguarding Children Board.

If ever we needed further conclusive proof of the Conservatives’  administration of the Council  not being fit for purpose, then  this is it.

I am appalled and sickened that services supporting the youngest and most vulnerable in our society have been allowed to degenerate to this rotten state. Nothing screams “Barnet Council” and the utterly uncompassionate way they serve those who really need help than their total failure to manage children’s services. This is not something any Council in the country can afford to get wrong:  the impact is felt by children for life. 

Barnet Council has become a by-word for a toxic combination of incompetence and heartlessness. We see it in their housing and planning policies, we see it in the way the fail to look after the environment. But totally failing vulnerable children is a new low, even for them. 

Barnet needs a real clean out of the Augean stables. There needs to be proper accountability from the top for once, not just yet another passing on of the buck. If the Leader of the Council and the Chair of the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee had any decency now is the time for them to go- though  ‘political accountability’ appears to be a foreign  language  to the leadership of Barnet Council.

This cannot be allowed to continue. Surely it’s time the Department for Communities and Local Government sent inspectors in to sort them out.

Andrew Dismore AM

Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden