23 January 2009
By Mark Smulian
Doncaster's embattled elected mayor Martin Winter has refused to resign despite a vote of no confidence in his handling of children's services.
Children's minister Beverley Hughes ordered a review of a series of failings that included seven deaths since 2004. The government intervened after an Ofsted inspection found Doncaster was one of only nine local authorities to have children's services rated as inadequate.
Winter left the Labour Party last year and is now an independent. He faces re-election next summer.
On January 19, the council passed a Labour motion by 46 votes to six which called on the mayor to 'accept full responsibility regarding the failure of the children and young people's service that has occurred within his period of office', and to do 'the only honourable thing and resign with immediate effect'. His mandate as an elected mayor means the council cannot force him out.
Winter said he had allocated an extra £4m to the service and had set up an internal inquiry 'to establish why key people at the council had not been alerted earlier to the full extent of problems concerning child safety'.
He added: 'We are all guilty of having been misinformed as a result of hidden and deep-rooted failures.'
Hughes has also announced that the government will intervene, to different degrees, in Reading, Wokingham, Essex and West Sussex following Ofsted's findings.
A government intervention team was this week sent to work with Birmingham social services after eight children known to the department died within the past three years.
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