A REPORT into Rotherham-style grooming gangs in Glasgow exposed a catalogue of concerns about police, council and NHS managers.

Police, councils and the NHS managers all failed to stop the grooming gangs

The 36-page review was presented to the Glasgow City Community Health Partnership (CHP) on December 17, a meeting attended by top health and social workers from across the west of Scotland.

Called 'The Rotherham Report - Implications for Glasgow', it revealed that sexual abuse of children by grooming gangs is still being encountered as part of "day to day practice". It also detailed a number of serious failings, including:

• Police Scotland have never viewed meetings to discuss vulnerable young people as a "priority" and do not have enough officers to attend every child protection meeting
• poor communication between the various departments and agencies, even within the Glasgow Child Protection Committee (CPC) itself
• senior health board managers and councillors are not always aware of the "scale and the seriousness of the current problems"

In recent years, police have carried out two investigations into grooming gangs in and around Scotland's largest city, Operation Cotswold and Operation Dash.

Police Scotland said yesterday that Operation Dash ended last month(FEB) after almost two years, with 27 offenders reported to the Crown Office. One culprit, 20-year-old Afghan asylum seeker Javaid Akhond, has already been jailed for six years for preying on young girls.

Last year, this newspaper revealed that child protection officials repeatedly vetoed a Significant Case Review into the widespread abuse uncovered by detectives.

The first part of the December 17 report was prepared by Moira McKinnon, Principal Officer with Glasgow's Child Protection team.

She said there was a lack of "awareness" of CSE (child sexual exploitation) in the city, including among staff in residential children's homes.

Some youngsters had even been drawn into the clutches of the grooming gangs "as a result of being accommodated with other vulnerable young people who are engaged in CSE and other concerning behaviours".

The report reveals that "many of the Dash victims" were in the care of their local authority, and that a review of the VYP (Vulnerable Young People) and CP (Child Protection) procedures has been instigated.

Incredibly, Ms McKinnon adds: "Dash has identified that we do not have the correct people around the table at VYP meetings from health and police and these agencies need to review their current processes in light of the learning from Dash.

"In discussion with police there is an acknowledgement that VYP has never been a priority meeting for the police and they are unclear about its status. The police are indicating that they currently do not have the capacity to attend all CP meeting requests and attendance at VYP would not be possible within the current staffing arrangements."

She adds: "Information sharing needs to improve across all agencies."

In Rotherham, Baroness Jay QC found that police and social workers failed to act against Asian grooming gangs because they feared being viewed as "racist".

Ms McKinnon states: "There is learning to be taken from Operation Dash with regard to the management of legal process where race has been an issue. A number of male suspects in Dash have come from out with Scotland."