‘Rotherham has left a mark on my soul'. These were the words spoken by Louise Casey at national conference, Coming out of the Darkness, that I hosted this year.

I can relate to that. The experiences that I had in Rotherham from 2000-2001 changed my life, personally and professionally. Never before had I encountered such extreme and sadistic abuse of children, against the backdrop of poor professional, and in some cases negligent, practice.