I was sacked from my position as Haringey’s director of education and children’s services by the then secretary of state for children, Ed Balls, on live TV. This was less than a month after Peter’s mother, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother were convicted of “causing or allowing” his death. I was closely followed by four social workers and a paediatrician from Great Ormond Street children’s hospital (GOSH). The scapegoating and vilification of me and other social workers in this case and others has had many unintended consequences.Yes, guess who?
You'd think she'd want to fall back into welcome obscurity, but trust the 'Guardian' to offer her a platform...
Other agencies involved in such cases have sophisticated strategies to avoid blame and protect their reputations. In the case of Peter’s death, Balls, Haringey council, Ofsted, GOSH and the Metropolitan police all benefited from having a convenient scapegoat to take the blame for wider and more complicated failures.
How, exactly, since they were all censured along with you? You even admit a paediatrician was sacked too!
...crucial information was not revealed at a stage when it may have made a difference to the social workers.
Like you'd have sprung into action if only evidence had been shoved right under your nose...
The public pressure and opprobrium continued for months, until 2009 when Peter’s mother’s boyfriend, Steven Barker, received a life sentence for the rape of another young child, bringing closure to the public narrative. However, the legal scholar Margaret Jervis has suggested that the investigator’s reliance on a very young child witness, alleging a crime several years in the past, casts doubts on its veracity and on the conviction itself.
Wait, what..? Are you seriously defending a paedophile? What happened to 'believe the child'?
I don’t wish to reattribute blame. Rather, I want to draw attention to the potentially serious consequences of blame avoidance in powerful institutions, and how rapidly others can be scapegoated – often with the help of the public and the media. It is time for the country’s 100,000-plus social workers to put an end to this. We must educate the public and politicians about the realities of protecting children. And when accusations come, we must fight our cases through the courts.
And lose them.
Shoesmith got £680,000 from Haringey Council for "unfair dismissal". Of course no-one responsible for the administrative cock-up in a well-deserved dismissal was dismissed, disciplined, surcharged (although surcharging might have been abolished by then) or compelled to resign. Haringey Council employees and councillors wholly or partially responsible for mismanaging the dismissal got off scot-free unlike the council tax payers.
ReplyDeleteMind you, this payment pales into insignificance when compared with the nearly £40million lost by Haringey Council deposited with insolvent Iceland banks: again no dismissals or surcharging following that debacle.
It must have been a shock to be dismissed, obviously she was not as protected as she thought. The dismissal was unfairly carried out true, but it might still have been the eventual outcome if the regular procedures had been followed.
ReplyDelete"Haringey Council employees and councillors wholly or partially responsible for mismanaging the dismissal got off scot-free unlike the council tax payers."
ReplyDeleteAin't it always the way?
"The dismissal was unfairly carried out true, but it might still have been the eventual outcome if the regular procedures had been followed."
One of the few times Ed Balls showed he was well named...