Esther McVey has accused Cheshire East Council of failing local children – and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
A damning Ofsted report found children’s services at the council was “inadequate” and “requiring improvement” in many of the assessed areas.
The Tatton MP Esther McVey said some of the most vulnerable young people in the area had been badly let down.
She said: “It is clear our young people have not been given the support they need or deserve but instead have suffered due to incompetence, lack of management and scrutiny. Every child and young person deserves the best start in life but instead they have been let down by the very people and organisation that should have been supporting them.
“I was extremely shocked by the levels of failings found in the report and want answers as to how this was allowed to happen. Failings like this do not happen overnight – people must have known. Why was it allowed to continue?
“In 2018 the council was Conservative run and it received praise from Mark Riddell, the government’s national implementation adviser for care leavers, for its exemplary work in relation to those leaving the care system. Now five years after Labour took control of the council, we have this awful situation whereby our young people are being failed.”
Ms McVey said the lead member for children’s services had serious questions to answer and those at the top of the organisation also must come clean over what they knew.
The Tatton MP has written to Cheshire East Council following the report and also written to ministerial colleagues setting out her concerns regarding the council’s ability to run children’s services.
Some areas detailed in the report needing improvement or ranked inadequate, included quality of care plans, frequency of visits to children and quality, consistency and responsiveness of support, advice, and guidance for care leavers, including those who are homeless with additional needs and those over 21.
Ms McVey also expressed concern about the financial capabilities of the council, pointing to figures which showed the outgoing Conservative administration had a £1.6 million surplus for Children’s Services but now the Labour-independent administration had accrued Special Needs debts of £90 million.