Dear readers — in May, an Ofsted inspection of a Coventry children’s home run by private company Dimensions Care revealed “serious and widespread failures.” Earlier this month Dimensions said they were working with the watchdog to improve their five homes across the West Midlands, including in Birmingham. Now, they’ve decided to close all sites for good. More on that in today’s big story.
Also, in your Brum in Brief, Wayne Rooney claps back at Tom Brady for suggesting he doesn’t work hard enough, there’s another furore over flags, and local Conservative parties ask the government to stop sending asylum seekers to Birmingham and Dudley. Plus, Samuel is back from Mexico after a month and a half. The first thing he did back in Brum was to inquire after balti institution Shababs; as good as tacos are — nothing beats a balti.
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Catch up and coming up
- Ed King managed to get exclusive interviews with two of the 11 Birmingham Labour councillors who were controversially deselected recently. In the comments, Tom Cutterham said: "I was waiting for this article since I heard about these selections, so thank you! The reporting is appropriately neutral but it's hard to read it and think this isn't a real stitch-up". Read it and come to your own conclusions.
Ed King
- At the weekend, Dan Cave profiled Sutton Park's longtime caretaker, Danny Squire, exploring the very modern challenges facing ancient land.
- Talking of fires, on Wednesday, Samuel’s piece, a deep dive into the recent suspected arson attack against the 600 hundred year old Raven Hotel in Droitwich Spa, will be in your inboxes soon.
- Next Saturday, Kate has an interview with the author Kasim Ali about growing up in Alum Rock, the Trojan Horse affair and his new novel Who Will Remain.
Photo of the week:
Severn Valley railway — steam powered train passing across Victoria Bridge. The heritage railway line, built between 1858 and 1862, runs from Bridnorth in Shropshire to Kidderminister in Worcestershire. The railway has featured in many feature films, including Candleshoe (1977), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Enola Holmes (2019).
Fond memories taking this tourist train? Spotted the locomotive in other famous films? Let us know in the comments.
Big Story: ‘No rules or boundaries’: five privately run children’s homes close after shock report
Top line: Five privately-run children’s homes in areas including Birmingham, Coventry and Telford have closed after Ofsted found “serious and widespread failures.” One child at the Coventry home was sexually assaulted by men at a hotel after leaving late at night.
Context: An Ofsted inspection of the Dimensions Care Coventry home on the 12th and 13th of May found there were “immediate risks” to the wellbeing of the four children living there. There were several incidents of children harming themselves and two children regularly went missing from the home and had been subjected to sexual exploitation.
Shocking revelations: Ofsted’s report reveals that on one occasion, two children left the home late at night to visit nightclubs in Birmingham and later Coventry. The next morning, one child revealed they had been taken to a hotel by men, sexually assaulted and possibly given drugs. The report describes support they received from the home in the aftermath as “poor.”
One child told inspectors: “We have no rules and boundaries. We run rings around them and do what we want. Even when I went missing last night, returned intoxicated and fell asleep on the stairs, no one has addressed this with me, and they never will.”
The response: Earlier this month, Dimensions said it had acted “quickly and robustly” to improve care, including removing the senior operational team and conducting an internal investigation. But in a statement on Thursday, the company revealed they have decided to close all of their sites.
A Dimensions spokesperson said: “Disappointingly and sadly for everyone involved, there was a decline in our previous 'good' Ofsted-graded standards, which should not have happened.”
What about the residents? Children from two homes have been placed with other care providers. Dimensions said it is working with local authorities to find alternative homes for four children from three different sites. The BBC reports that it has sought clarification over the broad locations beyond Birmingham, Coventry and Telford.
What has the council said? A spokesperson for Coventry City Council said last month the authority took the safety and well-being of children in care “extremely seriously” and they have “robust arrangements” in place to monitor conditions. They added that there are “a number of private children's homes in Coventry which are not run by the local authority” and where children are placed by “various other authorities.”
Brum in brief
⚽ Wayne Rooney has hit back at Birmingham City FC co-owner Tom Brady for questioning his “work ethic” during the Liverpudlian’s time as head coach of Blues. In a recent documentary about the club, Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues, the American former professional quarterback is shown (during Rooney’s tenure) saying: “I’m a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic,” before adding: “I mean, I don’t know, I don’t have great instincts on that.” On his new podcast The Wayne Rooney Show, the Brit reveals he thought Brady’s comments were “very unfair,” adding: “when I went into Birmingham, they were in a mess really.” Rooney goes on to say that Brady is a “hard worker” but “I don’t think he really understood football that well.” Reported in The Athletic.
❗A furore has developed over Birmingham City Council celebrating Pakistan’s independence day via flag raisings and the lighting up of Birmingham City Library in the nation’s colours last Thursday. Birmingham’s Lord Mayor Zafar Iqbal alongside Labour councillor Waseem Zaffar, raised Pakistan’s flag in front of Birmingham Council House, with Iqbal stating that: “I was honoured to attend the flag raising ceremony of the Pakistan flag, coming together with community members to celebrate Pakistan's 78th anniversary of Independence.” However, prominent national politicians, mostly Reform and Conservative MPs, have taken against the council’s move.
📚 Ex Reform and Great Yarmouth MP, Rupert Lowe, responded to Birmingham City Council’s X post celebrating the day, stating: “I don't care about Pakistan's independence day,” garnering 74k likes. Robert Jenrick, Shadow Lord Chancellor also responded to the event, writing: “There are 26,000 tonnes of rubbish on Birmingham’s streets… So what are the Labour Council doing? Celebrating the independence of Pakistan and taking down Union flags.” The council’s post also generated a series of critical op-eds in the conservative press including GB News and the Telegraph. Birmingham City Council responded to request for comment, telling The Dispatch that: “[Last week] the council [lit] the Library of Birmingham to celebrate both Pakistan and Indian independence days, followed by the marking of VJ Day, which will also include commemorations and the raising of a new union flag at the Council House. The LoB is often lit to mark occasions and to raise awareness for charity events, at minimal cost, as we feel it is important for communities that we mark special events and commemorations.”
🏨 Both Birmingham and Dudley council Conservative groups have recently come out against the placement of ‘migrant hotels’ in their areas. The Birmingham Mail have reported that the Birmingham City Council Conservative group are pressing the UK’s Home Office and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to stop sending asylum seekers to the city, claiming Birmingham is “full.” Councillor Bruce Lines, the Conservative housing and homelessness spokesman, told the Birmingham Mail that: “people feel intimidated by groups of young men hanging around together and there are concerns for women and girls". Lines expressed a desire to see refugees housed “offshore”. The council responded saying: “ [we] fulfil [our] statutory obligations regarding the oversight of the accommodation of asylum seekers, such as safeguarding.”
🪧 Over in the Black Country, the BBC has reported that Dudley Council's Conservative leader, Patrick Harley has instructed a legal team in an attempt to launch a challenge against asylum seekers being housed in Dudley hotels. “"One hotel is too many because I do not want the hotels in the borough to be full of asylum seekers," Harley told the BBC. "We have a thriving visitor economy where we need quality hotels full of visitors who want to spend at our visitor attractions.” A Home Office spokesperson replied to Harley, saying that: “Since taking office, this government has taken immediate action to fix the asylum system, closing hotels.” Protests against migrant hotels followed Harley’s comments over the weekend in Dudley. Moves by West Midlands Conservative groups come after highly publicised protests against asylum seeker housing in Nuneaton, Epping and Canary Wharf over the last couple of months.
Quick Hits
♿ Illegal parking (often on pavements) and dropped curbs are having a negative effect on Birmingham’s disabled community, especially wheelchair users. (BBC).
⛐ A Birmingham coroner has called on the council to make a junction in Edgbaston safer after 27 traffic incidents in the last decade. (BBC).
🥊 Footage has emerged of a masked gang mounting an attack with weapons against a car driver in the Black Country market town of Bilston. (Express and Star).
🚋 Trams have reached Millennium Point in Birmingham City Centre for the first time as part of the Eastside Extension. (Birmingham World).
🏚️The Friends of Bradford Street have been chronicling Digbeth buildings left to rot by landlords and property developers. (X /Twitter).
🪦 Wolverhampton Council has courted controversy over a burial ‘fat tax’ by considering charging more for wider cemetery plots. (BBC).
Media picks
🌹 The New Statesman has profiled the ‘rising Labour star’, and one of the most recognisable millennial politicians in the party, Shabana Mahmood. Mahmood is the MP for Birmingham Ladywood and has served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in Keir Starmer’s cabinet since 2024. Mahmood grew up in Small Heath, attending a local primary school and King Edward VI Camp Hill before going on to Oxford to study law. She has recently made a name for herself around controversial legal disputes such as ‘two tier’ sentencing guidelines and euthanasia. But it’s not all been smooth sailing. George Eaton, the New Statesman’s senior politics editor writes of Mahmood that: “the Justice Secretary was bequeathed a prison system close to collapse – having operated at 99 per cent capacity since the start of 2023.” However, she has “emerged as one of the government’s most effective cabinet ministers,” argues Eaton. The New Statesman notes that Mahmood has been praised by both Tory and Labour grandees, including Michael Gove and Blair’s Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer who called her: “an absolutely brilliant, reforming lord chancellor.” Interestingly, the article follows another glowing profile on Mahmood in The Guardian, published in the same week…
📰 Dan Cave, of this parish, is back in UnHerd writing about the political profile of West Midlands mayor Richard Parker and the nature of English devolution. Cave explores the infrastructure projects which, in conjunction with Westminster, often define regional mayors’ terms: HS2 (bungled and over budget), the Coventry battery factory (absent), the Birmingham tram network (slow progress). The article asks what Parker’s big projects will be, beyond his touted headline policy of bus franchising. Cave also poses a question: is Parker too close to Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves? Sure, he can call on her when he needs support, but the treasury has a track record of scuppering, if not cutting, vital regional projects. Indeed, the essay contrasts the former mayor Sir Andy Street and current Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s antagonism to Westminster with Richard Parker’s perceived timidity towards his Labour party colleagues in London.
Our to do list
🎧 On Thursday, head to Centrala for the first Electronic Music Open Mic (EMOM), a global phenomenon in experimental music. Bring your synth and perform for the crowd or just listen and enjoy. Pay what you feel.
🎈 On Friday, in Telford, the very cute sounding, family event Balloon Fiesta 2025 kicks off at the town park. This one is on all weekend and it’s completely free.
♯ On Saturday, Birmingham Opera Company presents woman.life.song. Composer Weir wrote the show at the request of the American soprano Jessye Norman, who called Weir while she was staying at Brum’s Copthorne hotel in the late 1990s. It was written in collaboration with literary greats Maya Angelou, Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Toni Morrison. Tickets from £5.
🦇 On Sunday, possibly the best named night of goth music ever is back at The Flapper: Nosferatunes is on from 8pm. Tickets £7.21.
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