POLICE are investigating two allegations of sexual abuse by staff at children’s homes in Nottinghamshire.
The allegations were revealed in a report presented at Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) meeting last month.
Nottinghamshire Police have not charged anyone over the claims.
The document was published as part of NCC’s Children and Young People’s Committee (CYPC) meeting on November 2.
A section called ‘Allegations Against Staff in Residential Children’s Homes’ states: “Three allegations were received by the Local Area Designated Officer (LADO) about contemporary allegations against staff members or volunteers relating to Nottinghamshire children in homes run or commissioned by Nottinghamshire County Council during the last 12 months.
“In two cases LADO and police investigations are ongoing and it is not in the public interest to provide details in this public report as it may identify the individuals concerned or prejudice the investigations.”
The report covered the period between July 2019 and June 2020.
CYPC chair councillor Phillip Owen told the meeting it was important the existence of the investigations was made public.
He said: “I’m not shying away from it as much as it’s humanly possible.
“In view of what we’ve had to go through with the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) it was important we put as much information out to the committee and in front of the media.”
The report also revealed three further allegations against foster carers working for independent foster agencies in the county.
These involve children from outside the county area.
In October 2018 IICSA sat in Nottingham to hear how the county’s councils had dealt with the sexual abuse of children in care homes from 1970 to 2019.
In its report published in 2019 IICSA found that neither Nottingham City Council nor Nottinghamshire County Council had learned from their mistakes ‘despite over 30 years of evidence of failure to protect children in care’.
Detective Chief Inspector Pete Quinn added: “Nottinghamshire Police takes any reports of abuse seriously and we will work with our partners to investigate any reports we receive.”
Nottinghamshire County Council were approached for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
By Elliot Ball