Revocation of the Statutory Direction: A Milestone, Not the End of the Journey

The Government's decision to revoke the statutory direction over Herefordshire Children's Services is undoubtedly a significant milestone. It reflects years of work by professionals committed to improving a service that had previously been the subject of serious and well-documented failings.

Those improvements should be recognised.

But now is also the time to reflect on a question that many families have been asking for years.

Why is a public authority afforded years to acknowledge mistakes, learn lessons and improve, while children and families are so rarely afforded the same opportunity?

When concerns arise about a family, intervention can be swift. Decisions are made that can permanently alter lives, sometimes within weeks or months. Parents are expected to demonstrate meaningful change against tight timescales, often while coping with trauma, poverty, mental ill health or domestic abuse.

Yet Herefordshire Council itself was afforded years to improve following High Court criticism, national media scrutiny, an Ofsted judgement of Inadequate, government intervention and ongoing monitoring, while families are often expected to demonstrate meaningful change within far shorter timescales.

If rehabilitation, learning and improvement are principles that apply to public authorities, should they not also apply to the families they serve?

Who Reviews the Decisions?

For Families' Alliance for Change, the revocation of the statutory direction cannot be viewed as drawing a line under the past.

While Herefordshire Children's Services was given years to improve, it continued throughout that period to make life-changing decisions about children and families—decisions made within timescales that many parents themselves are never afforded.

Children continued to enter care. Parents continued to lose the day-to-day care of their children. Families continued to face court proceedings initiated by a service that had itself been judged inadequate.

That leads to an unavoidable question.

Who has independently reviewed the decisions made during those years?

If an organisation accepts that its systems and practice required years of improvement under government direction, it is reasonable to ask whether the decisions made during that same period should also be capable of independent scrutiny. Where the High Court has made serious findings about the Council's conduct in proceedings concerning children, it is reasonable to ask whether independent scrutiny should extend beyond the service itself to the decisions made during that period.

Public authorities rightly expect families to reflect, change and demonstrate improvement. Yet there has never been a compre”

Public authorities rightly expect families to reflect, change and demonstrate improvement. Yet there has never been a comprehensive independent review of the decisions taken by an inadequate Children's Services department to determine whether those decisions were proportionate, lawful and truly in the best interests of each child. Many families have been left asking how decisions made during a period of acknowledged systemic failure can simply be presumed to have been correct without equivalent independent scrutiny. While the service itself was inspected, monitored and supported to improve, the decisions made during that same period were not.

Why a Public Inquiry Still Matters

The forthcoming inquest into the death of Tash Ashby will rightly receive close public attention. It is another reminder that accountability, transparency and learning remain essential if confidence in Children's Services is to be fully restored.

However, one inquest cannot answer the wider questions surrounding years of systemic failure.

Families have consistently called for a full independent public inquiry into Herefordshire Children's Services. Such an inquiry would not be about assigning blame for its own sake. It would be about establishing the truth, identifying systemic failings, hearing directly from those affected, examining the impact of decisions made during the years of failure, and ensuring that those mistakes are never repeated.

Without that transparency, unresolved questions are likely to continue surfacing through individual complaints, legal proceedings and potentially compensation claims brought by those who believe they suffered harm while their best interests were not protected by the local authority. Any such claims would, of course, need to be determined on their own individual legal merits. A public inquiry could establish the wider lessons without requiring every family to fight their battle alone.

Looking Forward

The revocation of the statutory direction should not mark the end of reform. Success cannot be measured solely by inspection outcomes or the lifting of government intervention. It must also be measured by whether children are safer, whether families receive support earlier, whether fewer children unnecessarily enter care, and whether children who can safely remain within—or return to—their families are enabled to do so.

Herefordshire continues to have a substantially higher rate of looked-after children than its statistical neighbours. If the authority is to become a national example of good practice, reducing unnecessary care proceedings and strengthening family-led solutions must surely be part of that ambition.

For too long, the debate has focused on fixing a failing service.

Now it should focus on rebuilding trust.

Families deserve a system that believes in change—not only for institutions, but also for the children, parents and wider family networks whose lives are forever shaped by the decisions it makes.

The statutory direction has been revoked. Government oversight has ended.

But accountability should not end with it.

Accountability should never be something expected only of families. Public authorities exercising the State's most intrusive powers should be held to at least the same standard.

Until there has been an independent examination of the decisions made during the years of failure, many children and families will continue to ask one simple question:

If Herefordshire Council was given years to put right its mistakes, why has Parliament not created a child protection system that affords families a more realistic opportunity to demonstrate sustainable change where it is safe to do so?

Until that question is answered, the story of Herefordshire Children's Services is not yet complete. The full impact of those years on children, families and wider family networks—and any legal consequences that may follow—has yet to be fully understood.