Rotherham children’s services chief ‘accepts responsibility for role in failings’

THE beleaguered director of children’s services in Rotherham, where 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation over more than decade, has told MPs“all of us could have done more”.

Joyce Thacker was giving evidence to the Commons Communities Committee the day after a different influential group of MPs urged her to step down.

Asked by Labour MP Chris Williamson whether she could have done more to stop the exploitation of children, Mrs Thacker said: “With the benefit of hindsight, absolutely, all of us could have done more. Absolutely, with- out question. What I do know is that we did the best we could with the resources available at the time.”

Mrs Thacker, who has been head of children’s services since 2008 and was deputy head for two years before that, said: “I do accept responsibility for my part on this.”

Mrs Thacker appeared before MPs alongside the council’s chief executive Martin Kimber. Mr Kimber announced last week he was stepping down in the wake of the report of Professor Alexis Jay that outlined how hundreds of children had been subjected to trafficking, rape and other sexual exploi- tation between 1997 and 2013 and how their plight had been ignored by range of agencies.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson has called for an independent inquiry in response to the Jay report.