Labour has welcomed the sacking of the council’s lead councillor for children, after consecutive poor Ofsted inspections of children’s services.

Ofsted identified poor service practice around children at risk of harm years ago, before saying those same services has deteriorated when they revisited York.  The latest inspection this year confirmed a raft of problems remain, with some children remaining in harmful situations for too long.

Main opposition Labour spokesperson for children, Cllr Bob Webb said:

“Once yet another bad Ofsted inspection confirmed children’s services in York were failing across many areas, I’m afraid the writing was on the wall for Cllr Cuthbertson.  Holding political office must come with accountability and if someone is being paid public money and failing in their job, they must be replaced.

“What’s most important is that these services are turned around as a priority.  That is a collective council responsibility and hopefully with new council directors and a new leading councillor in charge, we can draw a line under the failures of the past few years and see this Lib Dem-led council finally get serious about improving these key services.  I don’t want to have to read yet another damning Ofsted report and feel deeply uncomfortable about the experiences some children in York are going through”.

Labour Group Leader, Cllr Claire Douglas said:

“I think the honourable thing for Cllr Cuthbertson to do was to resign once years of poor performance of children’s services was confirmed again by Ofsted, but it appears he had to be sacked in the end.

“However, as is so often the case in politics, he’s been rewarded for that period of failure with another paid position by the Liberal Democrat Council Leader. This reflects the way the council has been run for the past three years, which I am determined will come to an end in May 2023”.