Councillor Calls for Scrutiny of Hounslow's Children's Services
Joanna Biddolph says committee needs to investigate after damning report
Cllr Biddolph (left) has requested Cllr Dunne (right) that the matter be on the agenda of the next Overview and Scutiny Committee meeting
October 23, 2026
Conservative councillor Joanna Biddolph has called on Hounslow Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to examine a damning assessment of the borough’s provision for children, alongside ten published Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman cases criticising the authority.
Cllr Biddolph, who represents Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, has written to the committee’s Labour chair, Cllr Katherine Dunne, urging her to put the findings of the Children’s Commissioner for England on the agenda for the next meeting on Monday, 16 November.
The commissioner’s report, published on 19 October, ranked Hounslow as the second most challenging place in England for children to grow up, behind only Middlesbrough. It highlighted gaps in healthcare, early intervention and support services, although the commissioner stressed that the data was intended as a diagnostic tool to guide policy rather than a ranking of councils’ overall performance.
Among the findings were relatively low childhood vaccination rates, a high child mortality rate and reported gaps in specialist support services. More than 65 per cent of looked-after children were placed outside the borough, while spending on youth services was below the national median.
The report also identified positive outcomes for Hounslow pupils, including relatively strong GCSE results and a low proportion of 16 and 17-year-olds not in education, employment or training.
Cllr Biddolph said the council needed to be more willing to examine serious concerns as they emerged.
“We cannot ignore the findings of the Children's Commissioner,” she wrote to Cllr Dunne.
Her request follows an earlier approach to the committee chair in August, when she asked for six Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman cases to be considered. Four further rulings have since been published, bringing the total she wants scrutinised to ten.
The cases cover a range of services, including special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), adult social care, housing and children’s services.
The first group included two investigations into SEND provision, one of which led the watchdog to say every local authority in the country should consider the lessons from Hounslow’s failures. Other cases concerned a pregnant woman removed from the housing list, a family left in a leaking flat for nearly two years, a vulnerable woman whose possessions were lost following eviction, and allegations concerning a social worker’s report prepared in relation to a terminally ill woman.
The four subsequent cases concerned the collapse of an adoption placement following council failures, a disabled person left sofa surfing after a housing application was mistakenly closed, a care leaver who was wrongly told he would be given a council house, and a bereaved family distressed by an unexpectedly large demand for payment for care.
Cllr Biddolph also wants the committee to examine the grooming gangs scandal, citing what she described as the council’s initial denial of their existence in Hounslow.
She criticised the committee’s approach to setting its annual programme, arguing that a schedule dominated by pre-planned subjects left insufficient flexibility to respond to significant developments.
“I have been on the main overview and scrutiny committee before and know that it is standard practice to fill the agenda with a few significant issues, padding it out with so many set piece topics it is hard to be nimble when something serious arises,” she said.
She added: “It’s another way for Labour to control criticism, preferring to avoid scrutinising institutional failures instead of recognising that it is failing residents. This must stop.”
Cllr Biddolph said she had hoped the committee would take a different approach this year, concentrating on major issues while leaving room to consider emerging concerns. However, she said Cllr Dunne had been reluctant to alter the programme when she raised the Ombudsman cases in August.
“There are times when OSC must accommodate new and important issues,” she said. “In my view, the findings of the Children’s Commissioner and 10 published Ombudsman cases is one of them.”
She argued that scrutiny should be viewed as a means of improving services rather than a threat to the council.
“This failing council must stop pulling the wool over its own eyes and allow itself to be scrutinised. The aim of the work of OSC is to encourage better performance. No council should be afraid of that.”
Cllr Biddolph also called for the committee to meet more frequently, suggesting that some meetings could be left without fixed agenda topics so members could respond to significant issues arising during the year.
“Labour is no longer in control and should consider and agree new ways of working,” she said. “Sticking to its tired and failing command and control formula is not good for residents and business ratepayers.”
The Children’s Commissioner’s report has already prompted a response from Hounslow Council. Councillor Madeeha Asim, the cabinet member for Children and Young Futures, said the authority welcomed continued dialogue with partners and described the report as a tool to identify challenges and guide policy.
She said the council remained committed to its four-year plan to support children and families, pointing to the launch of Think Well, a free, non-clinical wellbeing hub in Cranford, and plans to build on its provision of 290 commissioned specialist places within mainstream schools.
Council spokesperson commented, “There is currently no record of The Children’s Commissioner’s Childhood Lottery report being put forward for discussion at the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC). The Committee sets its own work programme. It is for OSC members, not the Council administration, to determine the issues they wish to scrutinise and when they wish to consider them.
“The frequency of meetings is on a par with other local authorities, and the absence of scheduled topics would mean the Committee would be unable to meet its legal Access to Information obligations.
“Furthermore, future work programmes can be amended during meetings and the Council’s scrutiny activity was recently assessed by the Independent Centre for Governance and Scrutiny as performing effectively and carrying out work which was relevant to the needs of local people.”
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