Paul Walker’s real track record

It’s been announced that the Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council, Paul Walker is quitting. Not retiring. Quitting.

When Paul Walker was appointed as Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council in April 2021, the scandal of Herefordshire’s Children’s Services had just gone public in a big way with Judge Keehan outing the Council over yet another appalling case.

An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Council, convened to discuss the crisis, made much of his appointment. The report to that meeting said this on page 17:

 “The Improvement required is a corporate priority and will be led by the incoming Chief Executive and not by the Directorate.”

Mr Walker was in charge of improving Children’s Services from Day 1. But under him, things got worse. 18 months after Paul Walker’s arrival Ofsted rated every aspect of Children’s Services as INADEQUATE and the very first line of the Ofsted report stated this:

Children and young people in Herefordshire are not protected from harm.

Progress after the Ofsted report was glacial despite massive government intervention and investment.

In September 2023, the Children’s Commissioner wrote this in her report:

‘The pace and impact of improvement are too slow. Significant objectives in the improvement plan have been delayed or are not on track.’

In December 2024, nearly three years into Paul Walker’s tenure, she wrote this:

It is now over 2 years since Herefordshire children’s services were inspected and judged inadequate. In my view and that of Ofsted inspectors, Herefordshire has made slow progress in improving the quality of practice.

By February 2025, nearly 4 years into Mr Walker’s tenure, the Secretary of State for Education had to reissue the Statutory Direction to Herefordshire Council because, in her words, “the Council is failing to perform to an adequate standard”.

In the four years since Paul Walker’s arrival, many more families have been brutalised by inadequate services directly as a result of his failure to get a grip. In just one example of his inaction, faulty guidance for Herefordshire’s social workers - which results in traumatic, unnecessary and unlawful invasions into a family’s life - was pointed out to the Council in April 2025 through a formal complaint by one affected family. The complaint was upheld and compensation was paid in acknowledgement of an unnecessary and highly traumatic s.47 inquiry but as of 1 October 2025 the Council’s faulty guidance, which led to the breach of that family’s human rights, has not been amended and families are still reporting that unlawful s.47 inquiries are continuing.

And then we come to the deaths of vulnerable care leavers. A Prevention of Future deaths notice was issued by the Coroner to Paul Walker as Chief Executive of Herefordshire Council on 30 June 2023. It said this:

CORONER’S CONCERNS
During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.
 
The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows.
 
(1)    A prevention duty was owed to the deceased and due to Herefordshire Council communication process failure, contact was not made with him or those with whom he had approved contact prior to his death.
 
(2)    Evidence suggests that in reality Mr Taylor would have met the threshold for vulnerability set out in the Housing Act 1996 but the failure to progress the application resulted in this never being established.

(3) A system for identifying process failure should be in place and effective.

Within six weeks of this Reg 28 notice being issued, 21-year-old Tasha Ashby died, in very similar circumstances to Sam, alone in the tent she called home, despite being a highly vulnerable care leaver and despite multiple safeguarding alerts.  A full inquest into her death will take place in March 2026. The same month Mr Walker quits.

Care Concerns Helpline

One of the first things Mr Walker did on arriving in April 2021 was to set up the “care concerns” helpline, for families who had concerns about the care of their children. It was meant to be a strong signal he cared.

At the July 2022 Council meeting a public question exposed the care concerns helpline as “another myth” with families contacting the helpline and hearing nothing back. Tasha’s family also contacted the care concerns helpline and clearly set out their concerns for her welfare.

Contact with Families

Mr Walker studiously avoids the families affected by his failure to get a grip. Since April 2021, how many times has Mr Walker held an open meeting for family groups to lay out his approach to reforming services, to reassure desperate families that change is coming, to consult with families on their experiences and to understand the issues from their point of view? Not once.

Famously, he was invited to the first public meeting held by the parent group A Common Bond in October 2022. 17 Councillors attended the meeting but Paul Walker failed to show. His name plate sat next to his empty chair. Afterwards he claimed he hadn’t been invited. The email inviting him was published by A Common Bond.

Does a “good” Council let care leavers die on the streets?

Mr Walker is being praised for running a “good” Council. When families’ human rights don’t matter and vulnerable young adults under the care of the local authority die homeless in the streets of Hereford, it is highly distasteful to call this a “good” Council. There is nothing “good” about Mr Walker’s record on Children’s Services.

Listen to families

He could have done things differently and there is an urgent hope among families affected by his failure to get a grip that the next incumbent will do things differently, and start by listening.

There is a karaoke track doing the rounds of social media at the moment which celebrates the announcement of Paul Walker’s departure. In a clumsy way, the lyrics tell the story of the last four years – the story of a chief executive who hid from families, didn’t listen, broke promises and ducked and denied the truth. The song appeals directly to the next incumbent to listen.

While we await news of who will take up the reins next, the developments in the Tasha Ashby inquest are being followed nationally. Will this be the moment when Paul Walker is finally held to account?

Perhaps Mr Walker is walking now, while he still can.