Tower hamlets Deputy Mayor Rachael Saunders, former head of Children’s Services quits which came under fire for not knowing if youngsters were being abandoned or trafficked is quitting.

Rachael was condemned by Ofsted in April, put in her resignation last night to Mayor John Biggs and steps down at the end of the month.

The issue retuirned last month when Cllr Khan, addressing the council, said: Our children were in the headlines because they were being abandoned and the council didn’t know if they were being trafficked by carers. We have left our children in neglected and dangerous situations.

Too many children remained in situations of actual or potential harm because of insufficient scrutiny by the council’s chief executive, the children’s services director and politicians, Ofsted inspectors found.

Cllr Saunders stepping down has added pressure to Mayor Biggs’s narrow majority Labour administration, following the earlier resignation of Deputy Mayor Shiria Khatun after she was allegedly removed abruptly as the cabinet member for community affairs.

The Mile End ward councillor is also standing down from the council next May, she reveals on her Facebook page, saying it is time to make space for others to come through after nine years.

Cllr Khatun won’t be standing for relection next May, nor will another cabinet front-bencher Joshua Peck. This opens a gap in the Labour mayor’s team at a time it faces opposition from the rump of former independent Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s banned administration for mal-administration, which put the council in ‘special measures’ in 2015 until earlier this year.

The Mile End ward councillor is also standing down from the council next May, she reveals on her Facebook page, saying it is time to make space for others to come through after nine years.

Too many children remained in situations of actual or potential harm because of insufficient scrutiny by the council’s chief executive, the children’s services director and politicians, Ofsted inspectors found.

The council’s lack of understanding in private fostering arrangements failed to consider whether they had been trafficked or abandoned by their parents, the East London Advertiser reported in April.

Cllr Saunders was moved to Adult Services soon after the report in Mayor John Biggs’ cabinet reshuffle. She has finally accepted the inevitable, Opposition People’s Alliance leader Rabina Khan told the paper today.

It’s no surprise that her department was found to have left children at risk of harm when she failed to turn up to a single meeting of the Safeguarding Board. Ofsted criticised failings in leadership, while grading her department inadequate.

Happier times… Cllr Rachael Saunders with John Biggs winning the race for mayor in 2015.