With multi-year funding settlements and the ending of wasteful bidding processes, our Labour government is creating the structures to put councils like Oldham across the country on a sure financial footing for the long-term.
Children’s services both fall below standards people rightly expect while also increasingly are driving the funding pressures councils are facing across the country.
In Oldham, there has been a borough-wide increase in demand for children services of 50% with 500-600 referrals each week. I commend the work done locally to achieve a “Good” Ofsted judgement across all areas of its Children’s Services in Oldham, but councils like Oldham of all stripes across the country are all in desperate need of support.
It’s not for communities to navigate a broken system, instead we need to re-wire the state so that it works for people. The Labour government knows this and we are working hard to address the problems we have inherited.
Jim McMahon OBE MP 