In an article titled “These failures show that Rotherham is not alone” by Gaby Hinsliff in today’s Guardian:

… “Casey signalled that an unhealthy culture had become embedded partly because this was a solidly Labour council, one where there was not much political opposition, but also officers who knew the same old people would be re-elected next time. It didn’t do to fall out with them. The same will be true not just in solidly Tory councils but in any organisation where people stay forever, where problem employees aren’t confronted but kicked upstairs.

And that’s why all institutions need faintly oddball, stubborn, counter-cultural people who may well be irritating to work with but ask the questions others don’t. Several of the MPs who have campaigned on institutional child abuse have the same quality; so do most of the investigative reporters who have pursued the story and so arguably does Casey.

It is to be hoped that Goddard does too, because if sunlight is the best disinfectant then contrariness – the ability to ask difficult questions, rock the boat, annoy and upset powerful people – is a crucial second line of defence. An organisation that can listen when the wrong people are talking inside it has at least a chance of listening to the wrong people outside too.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/05/child-abuse-failures-rotherham-management