City settles claim over failure to protect woman when in care as child

Peterborough City Council has reached an out of court settlement with a woman who accused it of failing protect her when she was in its care as a child.

The case was brought by law firm Farley, a spokeswoman for which said the terms of the settlement reached were confidential and the case related to the council’s failure to protect the woman from her foster father.

Peterborough’s service director for children and safeguarding Lou Williams said: “It is clearly tragic that this lady was abused by her foster carer, and I am always sorry when I hear about experiences such as these. 

“Despite all the precautions that councils take in vetting and approving people applying to become foster carers, in a very small number of cases unsuitable people manage to deceive those around them.”

Mr Williams said foster carers now faced more stringent assessments, training and support, while increased vetting and oversight made it less likely that unsuitable people would be approved as foster carers.

Children now in care are now “much better protected than sadly was the case in the 1990s”, he added.

Mark Smulian