Tameside criticised in CSE report

How police and councils failed to tackle grooming gangs in Greater Manchester has become a divisive, charged issue — particularly so in Rochdale and Oldham.

Authorities in both boroughs, along with Manchester, were subject to independent reports detailing how they let their victims down, and allowed perpetrators to escape justice.

New police inspectorate and Ofsted reports, released on Thursday (July 3), now say authorities are better at fighting child sexual exploitation (CSE). However, improvements are required in some areas, like police training, to ensure children growing up in Greater Manchester are properly protected.

But one borough in particular has been singled out in Ofsted’s report for not acting quickly enough to implement the best strategies to combat grooming: Tameside.

Although Ofsted’s February 2025 ‘monitoring visit’ of Tameside council’s children’s services found ‘an effective, strong response to children at risk of exploitation’, two key issues were highlighted by Thursday’s CSE report.

“In Tameside [the same] recent monitoring visit, that focused on initial responses to children in need of help and protection, found that there remain concerns about the timeliness of responses to children,” the report states.

Ofsted added later: “[Inspections found] evidence that some areas [in Greater Manchester] have strong and established leadership arrangements, and that sustainable progress is being made in those local authorities where this needs to improve. 
“The exception is Tameside, where progress has been too slow. The appointment of a new director of children’s services has resulted in a better focus on areas of strength and areas of weakness. A service restructure is being planned to better align with and support the improvements needed.”

There never has been a specific independent inquiry into grooming in Tameside, but Ofsted has been critical of the borough’s children’s services department.

It’s been rated ‘inadequate’ and ‘requires improvement’ for nearly a decade, starting with a damning inspection in 2016.

At the end of 2023, they were rated ‘inadequate’ again, Ofsted’s worst score. They remain so to this day.

It’s a situation that cost both the chief executive and leader their jobs last year, and required Oldham council’s boss to step in — moves government commissioner Andy Couldrick said ‘cost the council a year in terms of improvement time’.

But dropping Harry Catherall in was necessary, according to deputy mayor Kate Green.

“That was support that Oldham Council was able to put into Tameside, really to shore up a weak and failing leadership team,” she said at a press conference after the report was released.

“If one element of our safeguarding process in Greater Manchester isn’t working well, the whole system isn’t working well enough. “[The Combined Authority] will offer all the support we can to Tameside colleagues to achieve what I know both the politicians and the senior officers are absolutely determined to achieve: To drive up standards in children’s services in Tameside, and to be able to say that every child in Tameside will be properly protected, properly looked after, and have the chance to make the very most of their childhoods.”

Teresa Smith, Tameside council’s executive member for children and families, said the authority has a ‘comprehensive’ plan to improve services.
She said: “As a Greater Manchester local authority, we have been fully supportive of the independent review. 

“Our complex safeguarding work around CSE was positively highlighted by Ofsted as providing an effective, strong response to children at risk of exploitation, and our children’s commissioner described our contextual safeguarding service as a “beacon of good practice”. “However, as a learning organisation we recognise there is more for us to do to build on the good work, sharpening our response to provide the best possible service to keep children safe.

“The last Ofsted monitoring visit took place in Tameside in February 2025. Since then, we have developed a comprehensive improvement plan which addresses these issues and is regularly reporting progress and impact for children to our independently chaired board.
“We continue to make progress through close collaboration with our strategic improvement partner, and by investing in a stable and permanent leadership team. 

“A recent update report from the commissioner acknowledged that while time had been lost with the churn of senior leadership in Tameside, the appointment of our new Director of Children’s Services has already brought positive changes giving ‘grounds for optimism and confidence’.

We have now also appointed to seven permanent senior positions within the service which is a significant step towards our long-term stability and capacity.”