It is shameful that a report highlighting such serious wrongdoing to vulnerable children in the care of the council, abused it some cases by the very professionals that should have been there to help them was suppressed because of legal advice to the council regarding compensation claims.
I suspect that such a legal interpretation was seized upon by council leaders as a means of keeping a lid on the whole sorry scandal, and despite this report, despite an inquiry some 4 years later that reached the same conclusions, we are still being let down by the very system that is supposed to protect the vulnerable, far more concerned, it appears, with saving face and saving jobs and reputations than in exposing corruption or incompetence or criminality.
From the Jillings Report
"Our investigations have led us to conclude that the abuse of children and young people in Clywd residential units has been extensive and has taken place over a substantial number of years."
It added: "It is clear that, in a significant number of cases, the lives of young people who have been through the care system in Clwyd have been severely disrupted and disturbed. At least 12 young people are dead.
"Of the many statements taken, it is unclear how many were forwarded to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration. It is also unclear how many other professionals, including police officers, were named in these statements as perpetrators of assaults."
And that same culture persists, as has been so graphically demonstrated with the recent child grooming rings - evidence again that social services staff and/or police and health workers ignored evidence, or in the recent CQC scandal, where the first instinct was to redact the names of those responsible for banning the publication of a report into the failings of Morecambe Hospital...