Prime Minister Shocked By Rotherham Council Report

The Prime Minister has told us lessons need to be learnt across the country following the Rotherham grooming scandal He's met with the town's MP's Sarah Champion to discuss how to support charities like Barnados who are working with abuse victims. David Cameron has also been reacting to yesterday's report which heavily criticised Rotherham council forcing the whole cabinet to resign

"It is a shocking report and I think it is absolutely right for the government to step in in the way that it has."

“The role of the commissioners will be effectively to run the council and to make sure that proper services are delivered and safeguards put in place” It comes as the council's current chief exec issues a statement apologising to people in the town for the authority's past failings

Jan Ormondroyd, Interim Chief Executive of Rotherham Borough Council, said: “Louise Casey’s report describes a catalogue of cultural and system failings, and we have accepted its findings. The Council could and should have done more in the past and we apologise for the devastating impact that this has had on the lives of the people of Rotherham.

“What Rotherham needs now is a move towards stability, a clear way forward and the fresh start which Louise Casey and her team have called for.

“We understand the impact of the current uncertainties around the future leadership and management of the Council on the people of Rotherham, and also on staff in the Council. I have written to the Department for Communities and Local Government, urging them to confirm urgently who the five Commissioners who will take over the running of the Council will be and to ensure they are in place as soon as possible. “Given the scale of change which the Council is now facing, it is inevitable that there will be questions that people will have that we can’t answer immediately. However, we are committed to sharing information and providing clarity as soon as we can.

“In the meantime, the people of Rotherham will not see any disruption to the way in which we delivery our day-to-day services for citizens.”

The council's outgoing leader Paul Lakin and Cabinet Member Mahroof Hussain have also issued a joint statement

Statement from Paul Lakin and Mahroof Hussain

"As members of the cabinet that took the decision yesterday to resign immediately following publication of the Casey Report into Rotherham Council, we fully supported that decision. We had hoped to facilitate an orderly transition to control by government commissioners as soon as possible.

"Since then, it has become evident that we can no longer continue to serve as a Rotherham Borough Councillors and accordingly we have tendered our resignations.

"After the publication of the Jay Report in August last year, it became clear that there were many people in Rotherham more anxious to guard their reputations than protect the children of Rotherham. In our view, none of those appointed to the new cabinet at the full council meeting on 10 September 2014 was in denial. The whole cabinet tried its best rapidly to heal the town’s wounds and rebuild trust in the council, but a culture established over decades is difficult to overhaul completely in a few weeks.

"We are disappointed that we failed to move sufficiently quickly and hope that another fresh start will prove more successful in protecting vulnerable children and young people in Rotherham from sexual abuse.

"The decent people of Rotherham, of all ethnic origins, want to see the perpetrators of these vile crimes apprehended, prosecuted and convicted. It is unacceptable that years after many of the events took place we still have no knowledge of how many investigations and arrests there have been let alone the sight of these criminals brought to justice. We wish the incoming government commissioners more success with holding the South Yorkshire Police to account than we managed to have."