Communities Secretary set to hand back limited powers to Rotherham
The Communities Secretary has unveiled plans to return responsibility for the running of a limited number of services to Rotherham Council.
However, Greg Clark also warned that “significant further improvements are needed before full powers are restored”.
The decision follows the latest report from the commissioners sent in by the Government to run the council.
The services to be returned to council control are:
- education and schools; education for 14 to 19 years in all settings; school admissions and appeal system; youth services;
- public health;
- leisure services; events in parks and green spaces;
- customer and cultural services, libraries, arts, customer services and welfare programmes;
- housing;
- planning and transportation policy; highways maintenance;
- the council’s area assembly system and neighbourhood working; responsibilities under the Equalities Act;
- building regulation, drainage, car parking; business regulation and enforcement (not including licensing); emergency planning;
- financial services, including revenues and benefits (not including audit), ICT; legal and democratic services; corporate communications; corporate policy; procurement;
- policy arising from Sheffield City Region.
Rotherham will also take over budget control in these areas, as well as budget planning.
The commissioners, led by Sir Derek Myers, were said to have found these services to be operating at an adequate standard, and with sufficiently strong leadership in place to be transferred back to local democratic control.
However, the commissioners will retain a range of other services, including children’s services and licensing.
Communities Secretary Greg Clark said: “In the last 11 months, Rotherham has made improvements and so I have proposed to transfer control over some functions back from the commissioners to democratically-elected councillors.
“But it’s clear there are still significant challenges to overcome before the council can fully regain the public’s confidence and trust, and so it is right that Sir Derek Myers and his team remain in place.”
Sir Derek’s letter to the Communities Secretary and Greg Clark’s letter to the council’s chief executive can be viewed here. There will now be a period for further comment prior to a final decision being made by the Secretary of State next month.
The team of commissioners were sent into Rotherham after publication of Louise Casey’s report into the council’s failings. These failings were said to have contributed significantly to the child sexual exploitation outlined in an earlier report by Professor Alexis Jay.
Sir Derek Myers said: “We are very pleased that the Secretary of State has carefully considered our proposals and at this stage is minded to agree with the commissioners that the time is right to return some limited powers to locally-elected members.
“While we clearly acknowledge that there is further work to do in some areas if we are to rebuild trust and confidence in the way services are managed and delivered, we would see the restoration of at least some powers as a significant step in the right direction. We await the Secretary of State’s final decision.”
