A NEW centre to help protect vulnerable children is set to be opened next year in the wake of the Bullfinch inquiry.

Social workers, police officers and health workers could sit side-by-side in the new centre, which is expected to be based in Oxford.

Seven men were jailed as part of Operation Bullfinch earlier this year for grooming and abusing vulnerable girls in the city.

And in the wake of that case, where officials have admitted information was not shared effectively, authorities are aiming to try to combat other sex abuse scandals in the city.

Jim Leivers, children’s services director at Oxfordshire County Council, which is spearheading the plan, said: “If you look back over the last 20 to 30 years of serious case reviews, one of the real common themes in relation to child death and serious injury is the issue of communication and the lack of.

“What I would say is that you have got very different IT systems which operate in health, in social care and in police. They are non-compatible.

“You can’t just type in a name and get a whole history from one search, but what you can do – if you’re sitting next to a police officer – we can actually share the information we have very quickly.”

A serious case review is currently being conducted into the Bullfinch case.

The new centre would be called a multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH).

It will aim to combine agencies’ efforts and, officials say, streamline services, saving up to £250,000 in the process.

The cost of the project has not been revealed, but the new centre would not prevent a second scandal on its own, the council says.

He said: “What it is about is putting together all those big agencies which are involved in child protection and safeguarding together in one single unit and essentially it will act as its first point of entry.

“If you’re sat next to a police officer or you have got a health worker and a social worker together, you can share information more quickly.”

He said more than 3,500 members of staff had been put through training in the wake of Bullfinch, but no-one had been sacked.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, we failed these girls,” he said. “We know that, and we have apologised for that.

“My boss (Joanna Simons) has apologised for it and my political leaders have apologised for it.

“We know that actions that were taken back in 2005, 2006 and 2007 fell well short of what you would expect to see today.”

He said many of the failures were down to an old-fashioned attitude to grooming, and said that times had changed.

Looking back on his work as a director of social services in the mid-1990s, he said: “We did not understand that large numbers of girls were being placed in exploitative situations by men who were taking sexual advantage of very vulnerable youngsters.

“It just wasn’t on your agenda. You didn’t look at it in that way.”

The county’s cabinet is to be asked to approve the idea at a meeting on November 26.

  • A man appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court yesterday on charges including conspiracy to rape, after being charged by Operation Bullfinch detectives. Tilal Ahmed Mahdi, of Friars Street, Hereford, was remanded in custody to appear at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.