March 2025 Sunderland Conservatives Motion - The Jay Report Recommendations on Grooming Gangs

The Jay Report Recommendations on Grooming Gangs

This Council endorses the request of colleagues at Oldham Council in their call for a national inquiry into child rape gangs and believes it is inappropriate for government ministers to expect local Councils to conduct inquiries of such importance or to be able to appropriately resource them.

Council notes the recent comments of Professor Alexis Jay, chair of the grooming gang inquiry established by the Conservative government in 2016, who has said of her review recommendations that “locally people need to step up to the mark and do the things that have been recommended".

Council therefore agrees to meet this challenge and instructs senior officers to implement all of the Jay Review recommendation that can practicably be adopted locally. The Chief Executive should be the named responsible person for their implementation.

This should include as a minimum:

• An amendment to the Code of Conduct to add a mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse requirement: any councillor who does not fulfil the new obligations of mandatory reporting will have breached the Code of Conduct.
• The Chief Executive exploring and implementing ways to make mandatory reporting compulsory for all employees – and advising the HR committee of his preferred route to doing this.
• Considering how a mandatory reporting clause can be embedded into Council contracts through procurement processes and into all Area Committee funded schemes, so that all Council contractors or grant recipients must voluntarily agree to a mandatory reporting statement.