Pickles should claw back local government pensions, says Simon Danczuk MP

Simon Danczuk says the generous payoff paid to Roger Ellis (pictured) should be clawed back

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk has called on the Communities Secretary to “grasp the nettle” and look at clawing back generous payoffs and pensions for senior local government managers who presided over cover ups after the Health Secretary has said he is looking at docking pensions of people involved in NHS cover-ups. 

Mr Danczuk has previously written to Eric Pickles asking him to look at clawing back a generous payoff paid to Rochdale’s former chief executive Roger Ellis after damning reports criticised his leadership in relation to child sexual exploitation. Mr Ellis left his post in April last year, just weeks before nine men were jailed in the Rochdale grooming scandal.

An independent inquiry heard that Roger Ellis “did not appear to be interested in child social care issues” while the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz MP, described his evidence as “deeply disappointing”.

Following news that the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is looking at whether pensions of people allegedly involved in an NHS cover up could be docked, Mr Danczuk said the same disciplinary process needed to be applied to local government managers who had “quietly retired with generous payoffs” in the wake of child abuse scandals.

“At the moment we’re talking about jailing bankers guilty of reckless misconduct but the same rules should be applied to the public sector where we’re seeing more and more cases of  cover ups to hide appalling neglect,” he said. “In my constituency of Rochdale, managers turned a blind eye to terrible abuse and failed in their duty to protect children being repeatedly raped.

“As soon as their role in this scandal came under the spotlight they quietly retired. They escaped any disciplinary action and are free to carry on working with children.

"It cannot be right that this loophole exists by which very well paid council officers are allowed to quietly slip out of the back door with taxpayers’ money in their pocket and not be held accountable for their actions, which have often ruined people’s lives.

“Eric Pickles often talks tough about making councils more accountable but he’s doing nothing to clamp down on a cover up culture that’s making a mockery of public services.”