Ennis elected as children's services chief

Last updated 28 Jan 2009 12:30 0 Comments

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Local election count gets underway

READING'S new children's boss will have to hit the ground running to fix the problems in his department.

Labour's housing chief Cllr John Ennis was elected to the post last night (Tuesday) with cross-party support, replacing Cllr Pete Ruhemann who stepped down last week under opposition pressure following an Ofsted inspection branding child protection 'inadequate'.

The scrutiny process came under fire in the report so the Tories, Lib Dems and independent councillor Tony Jones will now have a bigger role in child protection, receiving constant updates and attending meetings that would previously have been in private.

Tory spokeswoman Cllr Isobel Ballsdon said: "We will never know the full extent of suffering caused to our children and families by what Ofsted called the inadequate, dangerous and unacceptable level of care provided for the protection of Reading's vulnerable children. But we now have the opportunity to move on."

Cllr Deborah Edwards will replace Cllr Ennis at housing, itself very busy at the moment with a parliamentary inquiry next month into all aspects of housing finance.

Cllr Ennis, warmly welcomed on all sides of the council chamber as a fresh start, said: "This group and this administration takes totally seriously the issue of child protection, it's one of the most important issues this council deals with. I intend to bring a report as soon as possible to Cabinet to look at how we can all scrutinise what's happening in children's services."

The council confirmed that allegations of bullying in the department, as reported in last week's Chronicle, will be investigated.

Lib Dem spokeswoman Kirsten Bayes said: "We cannot ask for perfection but we can ask for the highest standards. There is no place for bullying or witch-hunts. The council must improve but it must never be unfair."

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 28 Jan 09

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