THE chief executive in one of the first towns to uncover a gang grooming girls yesterday offered to help Oxfordshire sort out its failings.

A gang that preyed on young girls in Rochdale was one of the first cases that revealed abuse by predominantly Asian men on white girls.

As with the Bullfinch case in Oxfordshire, the police and social services failed to act on initial information about the gang.

Last year, nine men who ran the exploitation ring in Rochdale were jailed after being found guilty of abusing girls under the age of 16 in 2008 and 2009.

Since a report by Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board, both Greater Manchester Police and social services have worked to improve the safeguarding system.

Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council chief executive Jim Taylor said: “The first thing we decided to do was be open and transparent in terms of reviewing all our processes. We looked at all our case files and made sure we were satisfied with the action that had been taken.”

The council then brought together agencies – including police, social and youth workers – and trained more than 20,000 staff to spot grooming.

It has now begun sharing the information it has learnt with other councils in the UK, although not yet with Oxfordshire County Council.

Mr Taylor said: “We are not experts, we have just had a lot of experience. We are learning all the time.

“We are not perfect but we would be happy to help support any authority that wished to come and learn.”

The council also brought in a new accreditation for taxi drivers.

Oxford City Council said it already had systems to vet drivers – including an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (previously CRB) check.

The Old Bailey heard some of the abusers were taxi drivers in Oxford.

Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Steve Heywood, said child sexual exploitation was now the force’s “number one priority”.

He said: “I have got more detectives working on this than I have on gun crime.”

Following the Rochdale abuse probe, the force set up a public protection division of 550 officers and staff who are partly dedicated to child protection.

In September 2010, the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board appointed a Local Authority Designated Officer. The officer acts as the single point of contact for all allegations that a person who works with children had harmed a youngster.

But although the cases have similarities, Ramadhan Foundation chief executive Mohammed Shafiq said there was a “unique difference” between the two.

He said: “The Oxford gang used these girls to make a considerable amount of money as an addition to their money from drug dealing, whilst the Rochdale case was about sick sexual gratification.”

But he said that, although 80 per cent of child sexual abuse is carried out by white men, there is an “over-representation” of Asian men and white victims cases where the grooming is in public ‘on the streets’.

He said: “There are some even now who think that, when a majority of on-street grooming criminals are Asian men and the victims white, race is not a contributing factor.

“I believe this approach leads to some gatekeepers slamming the door on the truth and trying to find excuses.”