A critical report about the council’s home to school transport service shows that Conservative councillors were right to raise serious concerns, they said today (Friday 20 March).
Councillor Mary Mears and Councillor Lee Wares said that Labour had accused them of “politicking” but, they said: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The pair have asked questions and raised concerns about the way Brighton and Hove City Council transported hundreds of the most vulnerable children in the area to and from school.
They issued warnings last summer which were borne out by the fiasco at the start of the school year in September.
Now, they said, an independent review by an expert team from the Local Government Association (LGA) had vindicated their approach.
The Conservatives said: “When Conservative councillors first raised the risks to our most vulnerable children and how they were transported to school, Labour accused them of politicking. They could not be further from the truth.
“Providing a safe, reliable and proper service for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families was the only priority.
“Now, six months later, the Local Government Association has condemned Labour and senior officers for failures in safeguarding, treatment of families, procurement, systems and financial management.
“It is an indictment of the total and utter incompetence of the Labour administration.
“It also accuses the council of failing to understand the corporate risk – something Conservatives have raised several times and which nobody has done anything about.
“To reduce costs, Labour introduced a system that has overspent by more than £1 million in just six months and traumatised hundreds of families and children in the process.
“Senior officers have also been accused of not supporting junior staff and failing to heed warnings about proceeding – although many months before the introduction of the scheme, the Labour leader of the council ‘signed off’ on the plans that put savings before children.
“To make matters worse, councillors appointed to review the report were only sent a copy the evening before it was due to meet and only after Labour had made the report public with its trite press release.
“But to top everything off, Conservatives were told that Labour have had the report for a week, spending the time doctoring it and are now refusing to disclose what was changed.
“There is another issue to be resolved and that is the termination deal with Edge Public Solutions Ltd who were commissioned for £500,000 to reduce costs.
“Labour still refuse to discuss the deal they did with Edge to cancel their contract.
“Of course, if the deal includes the council paying Edge anything, somebody in Labour should be resigning their post.”
Councillor Mary Mears said: “We made every effort to point out the errors of their ways very early on but they refused to listen.
“Labour now have a colossal problem on their hands and need to solve it very quickly.
“They need to start doing what is best for our vulnerable children rather than pursuing the political ideologies that underpin this disaster.
“Labour have brought this council into disrepute.”
Councillor Lee Wares said: “We have been totally vindicated in everything we have done to expose this sheer incompetence.
“Now that the Local Government Association has issued its damning report we hope that our most vulnerable children and their families will get the support they need and deserve.
“But now we must also start to interrogate how we got into this disgraceful mess. People must be held culpable.
“You cannot cause this much harm and damage, be that incompetent, blow a £1 million and be allowed to just say ‘sorry’. That simply isn’t good enough.”
