2nd February 2026
Concerns have been raised about safeguarding culture in Stockport during the period when serious child sexual abuse cases went undetected or inadequately addressed, following renewed attention on comments made by a former senior social services leader.
Andrew Webb, who became director of the Association of Social Services, previously defended care-home practice in a 2006 national newspaper interview, arguing that staff were legally constrained from restricting children’s movements due to human-rights considerations.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-402481/Care-home-girl-abused-25-men-2-years.html
At the time, Mr Webb served as Head of Children’s Services in Stockport, a role involving strategic responsibility for child safeguarding policies and practice across the borough.
The comments were made in response to the case of a teenage girl in care who was repeatedly sexually exploited by adult men while known to social services. Mr Webb stated that carers were “bound by regulation not to curtail young people’s liberty” and that preventing a child leaving a care home would require a secure accommodation order.
However, child-protection experts have since argued that this interpretation reflected a wider institutional failure to prioritise protection over risk-averse legal caution.
The above was perpetrated by LibDem Executive councillor at Stockport.
There is no suggestion that Mr Webb was personally involved in, or aware of, specific criminal acts, and no allegation of wrongdoing has been made against him. However, campaigners and survivors argue that senior leaders must be held accountable for the safeguarding cultures they oversaw.
Liz Davies, a senior social-work academic who has investigated multiple abuse cases nationally, has previously warned that systems which emphasise children’s “choices” over their vulnerability risk abandoning those most in need of protection.
Since the mid-2000s, national safeguarding guidance has shifted significantly. Authorities are now explicitly instructed to recognise children exploited through grooming as victims, not willing participants, and to intervene decisively where there is a risk of significant harm.
Local survivors’ groups say revisiting historic cases is not about blame alone, but about understanding how professional attitudes allowed abuse to continue unchecked.
“Children in care were effectively expected to save themselves,” said one advocate. “That didn’t happen by accident — it was the result of decisions made at senior levels.”
Shan Alexander, still a LibDem Executive Councillor
Wendy Meikle, still a LibDem Executive Councillor still in charge of children
Angela Clark, was told for years what was going on but failed to act, still a local councillor
Former council leader, now Lord Goddard, who together with LibDem Executive councillor paedophile John Smith, set about having a sick, innocent man, trying to protect his lovely, underage daughters, maliciously and repeatedly imprisoned him until he died aged 58, even when they knew he was terminally ill. He had Barrett’s Oesophagus which can turn malignant when the patient is subjected to stress, which he was for many years.
Why do any of these LibDems still hold public office? It is very dangerous for them to do so.
