Torbay councillor criticises NHS children's services

They're "failing some of our most vulnerable children."

A Torbay councillor has criticised children’s NHS services in Devon for failing young people in the area.

Torbay’s youth justice team aims to help youngsters who are in danger of falling into the criminal justice system, and it wants to further its work by hiring a mental health specialist to work with troubled young people.

There has been a vacant position for a mental practicioner in Torbay for over two years now, but Children and Family Health Devon, an NHS organisation that helps fund the youth justice team’s work, is yet to fill the post. It is “reluctant” to give the authority the money to hire someone, says Jon Ralph, service manager for the youth justice team.

One person has recently applied for the job, which Mr Ralph describes as “promising.”

But Cllr Cordelia Law (Liberal Democrat, Tormohun), Torbay’s cabinet member for children’s services, is furious at the neglect of children’s services in the area.

“I think they’ve led us on a merry song and dance,” she said at a children and young people’s overview and scrutiny sub-board meeting on Monday [30 January].

“I’m absolutely furious. The position’s been vacant for two years. They make us promises but when it comes to it, it doesn’t come through.

“It is absolutely not acceptable. They are fundamentally failing some of our most vulnerable children.

“You’re not committing crimes if you’re not vulnerable in some way. You’re not destroying your life in that way at such a young age unless something else is going on.

“Our children need this support and backup, and health are letting them down time and time again. They make us promises but they are not fulfilling [them], and it absolutely has to stop.”

Cllr Nick Bye (Conservative, Wellswood) described the situation as “totally unacceptable,” and called on a representative of Children and Family Health Devon to come forward and “be answerable.”