Statement from the Conservative group on Sefton Council regarding Childrens services

Following the announcement that a central government Children’s Commissioner is being sent to Sefton Council to review the service due to the recent Ofsted report, the Leader of the Conservative Group on Sefton Council, Cllr Mike Prendergast, is calling for further changes to be made.

Councillor Prendergast said, ‘The system of overview and scrutiny in Sefton has clearly failed. We have an Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Children which has a Labour Chair and a Labour Vice-Chair, how are Labour Councillors, closely connected with the leadership, going to hold Labour to account? 

As a minimum, opposition members of the committee should hold the chair and vice-chair roles to ensure more effective scrutiny.  This failure in the scrutiny system, as a result of Sefton Labour decisions, has led, at least in part, to the damning report received from Ofsted. 

We can’t continue to have a system were Labour Councillors are effectively marking their own homework so I’m calling on the Labour leadership to agree to allow opposition parties to hold the position of chair and vice-chair on the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services, this will ensure genuine oversight rather than the light touch approach we seem to have now.

I have written to the cabinet member to ask that this is put in place as soon as possible.”

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