Cllr Leigh Redman, Leader of the Labour Party at Somerset County Council has recently published a number of accusations through his party website with reference to privatising Somerset’s Children’s Services.
A statement read, “Labour has suspected for some time that the Tory desire for privatisation lay behind the plan to close children’s centres. It is now clear that the Conservative administration at County Hall wants to give up responsibility for children’s services and hand them over to the private sector, with a target date of 2019”.
Leader of the ruling Conservative Group, David Fothergill robustly commented, “It is quite disgraceful that party politics are being used by the Labour Party to unsettle hard working teams at such a crucial time with the imminent arrival of Ofsted to inspect our children’s social care teams. There is not a shred of truth in this ridiculous accusation – in fact it is virtually the opposite. I am so very disappointed with the comments of Cllr Leigh Redman, who as chair of our children’s scrutiny panel should have a better grasp of the background and that I have asked for an urgent meeting with him.