Oldham will have to bid for funding for inquiry into child grooming

Oldham council will have to bid for government funding to support the local inquiry into local grooming gangs, the local democracy reporting service understands.

Oldham council will have to bid for government funding to support the local inquiry into local grooming gangs, the local democracy reporting service understands.

Yesterday (April 8), MP Jess Phillips told Parliament a £5m pot previously announced to support local inquiries would instead be administered with a ‘flexible approach’. 

It was previously assumed the money would be allocated to ‘up to five’ local inquiries, including Oldham.

But the Undersecretary to the Home Office revealed councils will instead ‘bid’ for the money, which can then be used in different ways, from local inquiries to victims panels and local audits. 

Addressing the Commons, Phillips said: “Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work including local victims panels or locally led audits into the handling of historic cases.” 

She later added: “The details of how local areas can bid into that at the end of the month.” 

Oldham Council confirmed the change ‘does not impact Oldham’s local inquiry’, which will still go ahead as planned under the guidance of Tom Crowther KC. Crowther led the Telford inquiry, widely considered one of the most effective local investigations into grooming gangs in the UK. 

But the LDRS understands the council now expects to have to apply for the funding, rather than automatically receiving a portion of the £5m. 

An Oldham Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of news stories circulating relating to a change of focus for the government’s £5 million fund for local CSE inquiries. This is being reported as a step away from the originally announced five inquiries.

“The announcement does not impact on Oldham’s local inquiry. The council’s work to appoint Tom Crowther KC as chair and to commission independent legal support for the inquiry is ongoing and is likely to take a number of weeks.

“We have asked Tom Crowther KC, as independent chair, to consider a means of communication directly with survivors and other stakeholders in order to ensure they are at the heart of the inquiry. Survivors and other stakeholders will be contacted as soon as this has been agreed.

“We remain in conversation with the Home Office about how they will support our local inquiry going forward.”

The government decision has come under public fire from opposition MPs, who accused the Home Office of ‘watering down’ its original plans. The Home Office has denied these claims as ‘patently false’. 

But the continued turmoil around the CSE inquiry has left survivors and their family members ‘disorientated and upset’. 

One mother of a victim of CSE in Oldham, who has been campaigning for a statutory inquiry ever since her son took his own life aged just 28, says the confusion has left her feeling ‘traumatised’. 

Theresa said: “We shouldn’t have to bid for money. Children have lost their lives because of the pain of what happened. It feels like they’re putting a price on our children.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Home Office clarified: “The £5 million funding announced in January is being made available to local authorities to help strengthen local responses to child sexual exploitation, and all local authorities will be able to apply for funding for local inquiries or other work in this area. 

“The Home Secretary has written to every local authority on our plans to support local inquiries, and after listening to local authorities about what they need, we made the decision to implement the fund in a flexible way.”