Report suppressed

Birmingham Council has denied supressing a report into girls in
council-run children’s homes working as prostitutes.

Minutes taken at a meeting four years ago, when the report was
issued to the senior managers team, reveal they were asked to
destroy their copies.

But social services director Richard Evans denied a cover-up,
saying that although the recommendations had not been published,
they had been acted on. Services had been set up to deal with young
people’s sexuality, including some single sex children’s homes,
groups for girls in care where they can discuss sexual issues,
individual counselling, an expanded youth protection service and an
HIV team for young people who believe they may be at risk.

Evans had not seen the report, but has requested a copy.

Councillor Graham Green, Conservative spokesperson for social
services on the Labour-controlled authority, wants to see whether
recommendations had been acted on.

‘If there was a problem, and there must have been initially, is
there still one now and what is being done?’ he asked.