He wasn't the Head of Children's Services

He was a Cabinet Member with responsibility for children's services.

What's the difference? Well the Head of Children's Services is a paid member of staff and, in this case, will have been paid well over ?100,000 per year to deliver that very specific role and all the safeguarding responsibilities that go with it.

This is slightly different to big Government where ministers are far more 'in charge' of running departments. Councillors work hard, but council officers do the actual jobs.

Is he a wrong un? Well, he resigned from his post at the council as a direct result of preliminary findings in Rotherham and was then elected by the people of South Yorkshire following his widely publicised departure and the emergence of the scandal. The Labour Party will have nominated him in the first place; the Labour Party now calling for his resignation.

Now, in his role as PCC, he has sought to tackle many of the issues which came from the initial findings and, again, has done so very publicly.

So he, quite justifiably, may feel that he hhas been stitched up here. The media are on full witch hunt mode and clearly politicians are falling over themselves to be seen to damn him whether they believe it privately or not.

Yes, h probably will resign and might just be best all round if he does. But the headlines don't tell the full story and he certainly isn't the man ultimately responsible for the scandal no matter how much the press would like to suggest.

Posted By: norway on August 28th 2014 at 18:11:34

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