A Conservative minister gave Northamptonshire’s children’s services a clean bill of health five months before the toddler Dylan Tiffin-Brown was murdered by his father while the county council’s child protection department was in chaos. “Was the council ignorant of the problems with its children’s services or in such denial it refused to tell the government? Golby was the council’s lead councillor for – and by law held direct political accountability for – its children’s services between 2016 and 2018. Lesley Hagger, the director of children’s services from May 2016 to July 2018, subsequently moved to a senior post at Sandwell council. He said: “Setting up a children’s trust even at the best of times is a managerial distraction and creates additional costs.

Source: The Guardian June 12, 2019 14:14 UTC