Telford & Wrekin Council has apologised ‘wholeheartedly’ after an inquiry concluded more than 1,000 children were sexually exploited over at least 30 years.
The council said it accepted the inquiry’s 47 recommendations for improvement and was already carrying out many of them.
Inquiry chairman Tom Crowther QC said for decades child sexual exploitation (CSE) ‘thrived in Telford unchecked’ and agencies including the council were ‘aware of it in detail,’ adding: ‘Failure by agencies to investigate emboldened offenders; failure to safeguard put children at risk.’
Mr Crowther continued: ‘So far as both the council and WMP [West Mercia Police] were concerned a number of features appear to have contributed to this shocking failure to address CSE: a focus upon abuse within the family, at the expense of extra-familial exploitation; over-caution about acting in the absence of hard evidence – a formal complaint from a child – about exploitation; and a nervousness that investigating concerns against Asian men, in particular, would inflame racial tensions.’
He also criticised the ‘glaring failure on the part of a generation of Telford’s politicians’ not to regard a CSE response as an ‘essential service’ in the period before 2016.
The council pointed out the independent inquiry acknowledged it had made ‘significant improvements in recent years’.
