The Whitefield School child abuse scandal: the BBC publishes more awful revelations

The BBC has just published more awful revelations about the Whitefield School child abuse scandal, which can be read here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjw0e3zjx2lo.amp

For the background to the scandal, and a timeline of events, see links, below.

It should not be forgotten that

(a) LBWF was involved at every stage of the scandal, but kept its deliberations and interventions for the most part away from public scrutiny.

Thus, to give a flavour, in the crucial period 2017 to 2021, the relevant scrutiny committee minutes make no mention of Whitefield School at all, and nor is the scandal referenced in the annual reports of the Waltham Forest Safeguarding Children Board.

(b) At the time of the scandal, LBWF had child safeguarding issues of its own, namely involvement in four separate cases (again see links below), one where the presiding judge in a resulting court hearing commented:

‘“It is a tragedy, a complete tragedy…These children went completely under the radar. On the face of it there appears to have been an overwhelming failure by the local authority”’.