Dates and terms of review into Knowl View School announced

Andrew Warnock QC will be conducting his review into the decision making process surrounding Knowl View School hopefully concluding in May 2014.

The QC has been instructed by the council to independently review how the council dealt with claims of abuse at the school from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s.

Leader of Rochdale Borough Council, Councillor Colin Lambert said: “We are asking anyone who was around during this period, who may have any information about these matters to come forward now to the Council and/or GMP. I have said that we will leave no stone unturned to uncover the truth, so it is important for any member of the council, council officer or staff who worked at the school to speak with us if they know anything”.

The terms of reference for Mr Warnock are:

(i) Noting the Legal and Corporate governance framework in place for Rochdale MBC during the relevant period in relation to the management of Knowl View School: Leading Counsel is asked to comment upon whether the arrangement constituted a ‘Joint Committee’ and, if so, the implications of this.

(ii) Leading Counsel is asked to comment upon the role and remit of the Board of Governors of Knowl View School, its relationship to the Local Authority and the Authority’s decision making processes.

(iii) The numerous reports commissioned in relation to the School were properly considered by the appropriate decision makers and whether the decisions taken as a consequence of those reports were reasonable in all the circumstances.

(iv) Leading Counsel is asked to consider the Report of Mrs. Valerie Mellor, in the light of her instructions as set out in the preamble to that report, noting the mechanism by which the Report’s findings were presented back to the Council and the expressly claimed professional privilege attached to the Report.

(v) the Knowl View ‘Memorandum of Agreement‘ dated 23 May 1968, including its subsequent amendments, and the role taken by other ‘Sponsoring Authorities’ in relation to decision making and governance for the School.

(vi) Giving consideration to what would have been accepted good practice during the relevant period governing the relationship, powers and duties as between Officers and elected Members; Leading Counsel is asked to comment upon information sharing and decision making in relation to Knowl View School.

The review is separate from ongoing investigations being conducted by Greater Manchester Police and Anne Coffey MP.

A number of men have accused Cyril Smith of abusing them in the 1960s, at the Cambridge House children's home, a privately-run care home which closed in 1965 and the council-run Knowl View residential school which closed in 1992.

Simon Danczuk MP has previously said: "We now know from other victims (of Cambridge House) that indecent assault is what he would have been prosecuted with but his abuse went on from there.

"There is no doubt about it from the witnesses that have come forward that rape would have been included in the allegations against him, absolutely.

"That is what is alleged by people who were at Knowl View, which is a special school within Rochdale local authority area, and that is where it is alleged - and it is openly out there - that he raped children."

The CPS has admitted Cyril Smith, who was a Labour councillor in the 1950s and 60s, should have been charged with sex crimes more than 40 years ago.

Although he faced no action following inquiries in 1970 and the 1990s, the CPS said procedural changes meant a prosecution would have been pursued today.