Jen Craft

All our thoughts are with the families of the children affected by this appalling case. We cannot even begin to understand the impact it will have on those children throughout their lives. A whole load of support will need to be brought in to protect them and deal with the knock-on effects that they experience. It brings to mind a case that has been brought to my attention involving another group of extremely vulnerable individuals. These are older children with complex and severe learning disabilities. I cannot talk too much about it, because it is a live case, but a parallel that struck me was that serious safeguarding concerns have been identified and given weight in one setting, when the organisation is part of a larger chain. In the case before us, it is a chain of nurseries and in the case I am referring to it is a multi-academy trust. It raises questions as to whether the body can be trusted with safeguarding more widely. Are there plans in place to look at corporate responsibility and to look at these things across the piece, rather than just as individual isolated incidents? Another parallel is that I understand a whistleblower brought this case to the attention of the police in the first place. What measures will be introduced to protect whistleblowers in such cases, particularly when the person and the organisation to whom the whistleblower is reporting may be compromised?