EAST Riding Council staff who worked at the scandal-hit Rotherham council should be made available to assist with inquiries into failings to protect children, a councillor has claimed.
The call follows Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles' decision to order an inquiry, days after South Yorkshire Police also announced an independent investigation into Rotherham's failings.
The investigations follow a damning report by Professor Alexis Jay, who criticised Rotherham's failure to stop the sexual exploitation of at least 1,400 children by gangs of men.
East Riding Council's head of children and young people's support services and safeguarding Pam Allen was Rotherham's director of safeguarding from 2004 to 2009, during the period of unchecked child abuse.
The Mail understands two East Riding managers working under Ms Allen, Annie Redmond and Grace Davidson, also worked at Rotherham.
East Riding Councillor Paul Hogan insisted ex-Rotherham staff should be made available to assist with the inquiries.
He said: "I would expect the council to make available anyone who was at Rotherham. That's an absolute minimum.
"All councils should be doing that. If they can contribute anything to these inquiries the council should encourage people to come forward and do that.
"It's important we keep this issue in the public eye.
"It has to remain in focus for everyone who has responsibility for looked-after children, vulnerable children and safeguarding.
"It has to be one of the biggest priorities."
Cllr Hogan insisted lessons must be learned from the failings at Rotherham so it can never happen again.
The Labour councillor for Hessle also wants East Riding Council to set a timeframe for the scrutiny of its own systems and processes.
He said: "I don't want this kicked into the long grass.
"I would like to know how long this will take and when we will see recommendations.
"People want to know is it happening in the East Riding? How do we know it's not?
"The public want to know and be reassured. You don't want to wait 12 months, you want a reasonable timeframe for answers."
In her report, Prof Jay said: "By late 2009, when the Minister of State served an improvement notice, there is no doubt the systems and operations for protecting Rotherham's children were unsafe."
She related what Ms Allen's full-time successor, Gani Martins, described to her on taking up the post in 2010.
Prof Jay wrote: "There were significant vacancies, a lot of agency staff were being used, there was a lack of management oversight, poor accountability for casework, poor monitoring of unallocated work and the quality of professional supervision was poor.
"Staff were overwhelmed and disempowered and felt senior staff were invisible."
A spokesman for East Riding Council said: "The independent inspection is in its very early days and the council has not been approached by Louise Casey, the head of the Government's troubled families programme who is leading the investigation.
"In the wake of any national reports involving safeguarding issues, local authorities regularly review their policies and procedures and East Riding Council's children and young people overview and scrutiny committee have already announced they will be undertaking a review with a focus on child sexual exploitation."
East Riding review to be held in privateA review of safe-guarding in the East Riding in the wake of the Rotherham scandal is to be held in private, despite a call for a public examination of the service.
Councillor Geraldine Mathieson told East Riding Council's overview management committee: "This is of national interest, the subject of child protection, so I would like to suggest this is held in public, as we will not be discussing individual staff."
She said it would be "counterproductive" if the review was held in private.
She said: "What has been in the press and what is the public perception is that councils close ranks when there is a problem."
But Councillor Felicity Temple, vice-chairman of the committee, opposed a public examination.
She said: "I can't see any useful public interest.
"At the end of the day, the report will be made public."
Councillor Kerri Harold, who will chair the review by the council's children and young people overview and scrutiny sub-committee, insisted it was paramount the authority "gets the best out of the review" and this would only be the case if it was held in private.
She said it was likely other agencies, including police and the East Riding Safeguarding Children's Board, would be brought in to contribute to the review.
She said: "I don't see why we would want to hold that in public. What East Riding residents will be more grateful of is if we conduct a thorough and robust review of safe- guarding procedures and that's what we intend to do."
Councillor Pat O'Neil, committee chairman, said: "I think the fact that we as councillors are addressing this because it is of such public interest is sufficient to show our concerns.
"We want to show the East Riding's residents and children are safe."
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