Opposition councillors are pressing for answers on what went wrong for Kirklees’ vulnerable children.

Conservative leader, Clr David Hall, said there were “unanswered questions” on why children’s social services had gone bad.

He said: “There must have been alarm bells ringing somewhere.

“If there weren’t, why weren’t they and if there were, why were they ignored?”

Former Tory chief, Clr Robert Light, highlighted that despite there being about a dozen separate committees, panels and boards, none of them had picked it up.

He said: “The people are different now to when the problem was created – that’s important to say and should not be stressed enough.

“We still want to know why did it happen and who should have known?

“Previous members, both officers and political, can’t escape that they were too detached from the council.

Clr Robert Light outside 10 Downing Street

“There hasn’t been the scrutiny there should have been.

“There’s a huge amount of child protection bodies, but we all missed it!

“That should tell us something about how we got it wrong.”

Clr Light said the council may have to face up that the turnaround was going to cost far more than it hoped.

He added: “If we look at every other council that’s been through this, it’s not going to be a quick recovery.

“It’s going to be a long journey, and costly.”