The leader of the opposition on Northamptonshire County Council has called for the cabinet member for children’s services to resign following serious criticism of the way vulnerable children in the county are looked after.
Councillor Brendan Glynane (Lib Dem, Delapre) has made the unusual move of tabling an official motion to the council calling for cabinet member, Councillor Andrew Grant (Con, Brackley East), to resign following an Ofsted investigation into the way children are looked after in the county.
The opposition leader said: “In the Ofsted report it talks about a lack of leadership, so he really has to take responsibility.
“The right thing for him to do is to resign.”
The Chron revealed last month that Ofsted inspectors had been invited into Northamptonshire County Council and Northamptonshire Police to pilot a new type of inspection.
The issues they found were so serious inspectors were sent back to the county to look at the services again.
The findings of the original Ofsted inspection have been seen by some councillors, but the second report has not.
A spokesman for the Conservative party at County Hall said the fact the second report had not yet been published meant it was not appropriate to call for Councillor Grant to resign.
He said: “Councillor Glynane is calling for a resignation over a report he has not yet seen, which suggests he’s playing politics in the run-up to an election rather than concentrating on the safeguarding of children.”
The second Ofsted report will be made public during a meeting of the county council next week.
At the same meeting, councillors will discuss the Liberal Democrat motion calling for Councillor Grant to stand down.
The motion said: “This council recognises that it has failed in its duty to safeguard vulnerable children.
“This council believes that the serious issues raised by the Ofsted report on safeguarding children need to be addressed as a matter of urgency and calls for an immediate cross-party approach to tackle these issues.
“To recognise the failure at the highest level and to enable the council to move forward, this council also calls for the immediate resignation from the cabinet of Councillor Andrew Grant.”
Councillor Grant was unavailable for comment, but he is expected to make a full statement on the issue during next week’s council meeting.
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