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Second Baby P case revealed in Haringey
Tim Ross, Danny Brierley and Paul Waugh02.12.08
- Thousands more children at risk
- Two straight-talking professionals take over with reform top of agenda
- Nick Cohen: Honestly, would you be a social worker?
- Evening Standard Comment: The arrogance of not saying sorry
- Repeated failures that put children in danger
- Comment: The arrogance of not saying sorry
- Sacked: the chief who failed Baby P
A second child in Haringey has been seriously harmed in another suspected case of abuse, the Standard can reveal.
A new inquiry is under way into whether the agencies that failed to save Baby P could have protected the child.
Ofsted inspectors criticised authorities in Haringey for not launching the new probe sooner, saying it was “slow to begin”.
The second case emerged 24 hours after the council's children's services chief Sharon Shoesmith was sacked over Baby P who was found dead in his north London home last year after months of abuse.
Liberal Democrat MP for Hornsey and Wood Green Lynne Featherstone said she was “horrified” to hear of a second case so serious that it requires an investigation.
Haringey residents would be “extremely worried”, she said, adding: “This confirms everything that yesterday's report says about Haringey. They are clearly a basket case. At this time Haringey clearly is not capable of producing a proper serious case review.”
Details have not been made public of the new case which is thought to be completely unrelated to Baby P.
Meanwhile, David Cameron stepped up his attacks on the Government over the Baby P case today after it emerged that Haringey is paying £27,000 a month to six staff criticised over the tragedy.
The Tory leader said that ministers were still failing to tell the public the truth about the Labour council's handling of the affair and accused ministers of "putting bureaucrats before our babies".
Mr Cameron and other MPs hit out as the Evening Standard discovered that taxpayers are footing a bill which includes £2,000 a week to Ms Shoesmith. She was suspended on full pay after refusing to resign over the 17-month-old, who died after appalling abuse at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger, despite numerous visits by social workers.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls called for Ms Shoesmith to be sacked, but the council has only suspended her and two others in the under-fire social services department.
But it has also emerged that Ms Shoesmith's deputy Cecilia Hitchen, who is understood to earn £80,000-a-year, and Clive Preece, head of children in need and safeguarding services, who earns a £40,000 salary and was said to have been instrumental in preventing the child being placed with a foster family, have also been suspended on full pay.
Three others - Gillie Christou, a team manager, Maria Ward, the 39-year-old social worker assigned to Baby P's case, and Sylvia Henry, a senior social worker - have all been banned from working on child protection. They are understood to earn between £35,000 and £40,000 a year each. Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove said: "The public will be amazed that the social workers in the Baby P case are still being paid. Failure shouldn't be rewarded with taxpayers' money."
None of the six, including Ms Shoesmith who has refused to apologise over her department's errors, have spoken since their suspensions and all six were in hiding last night following the damning report into the child's death.
Council leader George Meehan and Liz Santry, the councillor responsible for children and young people, both resigned over Baby P. Lynne Featherstone MP, whose Hornsey and Wood Green constituency covers Haringey, said: "It will turn people's stomach's to think these people are being paid."
Haringey's chief executive yesterday insisted that there would be no compensation package for Ms Shoesmith, but there are claims that she and others could be entitled to sizeable pensions if they are eventually sacked.
They could also fight for a pay-off in return for signing confidentiality clauses or try to barter retirement deals that would still be funded by taxpayers.
Employment law specialists have said that Ms Shoesmith could receive up to £63,000 in compensation if she decided to claim unfair dismissal.
Fergal Downing, an employment law partner at Irwin Mitchell solicitors, said: "She has the right to appeal for constructive, unfair dismissal. The cap for this claim is £63,000 and given Mrs Shoesmith's high salary she could come close to this mark on the grounds of loss of earnings."
However, Christopher Cloke, the NSPCC's head of child protection, warned against "witch hunts" of social workers. He told BBC Radio 5 Live that he worried the Baby P case would deter talented people from becoming involved in child protection.
Mr Balls has already called for Ms Shoesmith not to receive a pay-off amid claims it was "rewarding failure".
John Coughlan, the former head of social services at Hampshire council who has been drafted in to replace Ms Shoesmith will begin disciplinary action against the six immediately.
Opposition politicians and campaigners have joined Mr Balls in calling for Ms Shoesmith to get the sack. A spokesman for the Victoria Climbié Foundation, set up in the wake of the death of the eight-year-old who was also in the care of Haringey, said those who had let Baby P down should be sacked.
Children's minister Beverley Hughes told Radio 4's Today show: "I can't agree that there should be compensation for failure. I can't see any need for it, certainly in relation to the former director of children's services."
Reader views (41)
We are all just armchair spectators,we do NOTHING!!!!! I am disgusted and sad, why not write to your MP protest and march in the name of humanity, against these social services disgusting failures on these poor poor children. sad day for these children. regards Annie
- Annie, croydon
If she has been removed from her post there should be no salary to draw. She is no longer Director of Children's Services so how on earth can they still be paying her for it. She currently has no position at Haringey so there is no need to pay her anything. Or am I missing something?
- Phil, Walthamstow
Baby P was not looked upon by his "carers" as a child but merely a commodity. He funded the housing and benefits that allowed his useless mother to sit around and do nothing all day but even this was too much for her and apparently he was sent to a child minder a few times a week to give her some respite. Since being middle class and middle class values have been derided this is what we are left with - political correctness but no common sense and people in authority on large salaries that make decisions but refuse to be acountable when the decisions are wrong, bad, ill conceived and in this case cause the death of a child.
- Patricia, London
I'm 51 years old . English . I'm ashamed of my country. The Lunatics are finally running the Asylum. I am going to leave this once great place to 'The Thought Police'.I feel sorry for the younger generation who will have to live with the results of a Government I voted for and I apologise unreservedly .
- Kev, Berkhamsted
Is anyone surprised? It's going on all the time. There is widespread poverty in this country which is being ignored, sadly a lot of teens living rough - it's better than their home life. A sad state of affairs.
A so called "celebrity" exposing himself on a radio webcam is front news today when it should be the plight of children who disappear from the records and are being abused right now. Right now.
These evil people get away with it time after time, they train their children to be quiet and hide behind furniture when someone is at the door. They fob health visitors off with excuses on their visits with lies, they get the children to believe anything.
More often than not the woman is so blinded in believing her "man" (if that is what she believes he is) will love her and her life will be better if he is around although he or they are abusing HER child(ren)more often than not. They will stick up for them.
I experienced neighbours like this about 40 years ago where we could hear the baby crying each night in the pram in the cold hallway - she died one night and we'd heard her cries get weaker. The baby was fathered by her brother in law who had just gone back into prison. The sister of the woman had a pair of twins by her own brother. Another pair of twins from a different father were abused and regularly walked outdoors in vests and knickers. the NSPCC were contacted time after time. Even in the 60's they managed to lie their way out of trouble.
- Jackie, surrey
What sort of a society is this where there is a battered and tortured baby found every day?
- Delphine, Oxford
No concience, no feeling, no remorse, just the inconvenience of the publicity they are having to endure.
- Tony, Toronto,Canada
This woman is suspended on full pay, more lunacy from the left. We should also blame the voters for putting Labour in. If you vote for rubbish, expect rubbish. Where do these jobs get advertised?
- Richard Partridge, Eaton Bishop UK
I couldn't agree more with Richard from London. Mrs. Shoesmith shows no sign of remorse at all and should be sacked immediately so should Clive Preece, infact the whole department should be restaffed it is disgusting. The Social Worker I think should receive some form of compensation is the 'whisleblower' who had the strengh of character to try and do something about this shocking situation and was silenced.
I also think that it is beyond comprehension that when the mother of Baby P leaves prison she will receive such support at tax payers expense. Shocking, absolutely shocking.
- Susan, nottingham
Amazing how every newspaper and TV news are failing to mention the political party that these incompetents belong to! Why?
- Bill (Wales), Powys
Although I am a Labour Party supporter, I have to concede that the large majority of Labour run councils, like that of Harringay are rotten to the core. In my opinion Ed Balls has shirked from his responsibility in sacking those involved, and taking full control of children's services in Harringay. When individuals decide on a vocation as a social worker, they must realise that they are not going to be dealing with the best of humanity (like Baby P's mother)or that they will become millionares. I will admit that there are many excellent social workers, however it appears that to be a social worker in councils like Harringay, intelligence and basic common sense combined with the ticking of the political correctness box appears to be the required qualifications. The tragedy that happened in Harringay as well as the subsequent arrogance of those involved has definetly changed what political party I will be voting for in the future. I don't always agree with the Conservatives, however, I admire the stand that Cameron and Michael Gove have taken on this issue. Maybe, the Labour MP for Harringay, David Lammy should have been more intereted in what was going on in Harringay's children's services department than the recent US presidential election.
- Rachel-Ann Rees-Bray, London
'crush the unions'?...I thought we were talking about child protection, not about how to establish a fascist or stalinist state.
- Robin Blick, Swansea U.K.
Whatever happened to gross misconduct as grounds for sacking? This must be it. I agree with the poster who said for Haringey residents to not pay their council tax until she and the others are sacked. I wonder what will happen to them in the future. They will probably have to go underground and assume different identities.
- Cate, london SE
The risk of paying out a maximum of £63,000 a head in compensation seems well worth taking if we thereby rid ourselves of these grotesque incompetents. Sack them all with immediate effect and without further payment of salary, and fight to the bitter end any attempt on their behalf to claim compensation. Make sure that none of them is ever employed again in local or central government service. And change employment law to make it much easier in future to sack such lethal bunglers without compensation.
- Richard, London, London. UK
Shoesmith shows the classical signs of pyschopathy - absolutely incapable of showing any remorse whatsoever
- Kelly, Muscat Oman
The whole labour councillors should resign for the protection they gave these people in a vote last week, T CEO should also go being the person in charge and had the duty to regulate this team
- The Silurian, Brixham
Will anyone actually notice that these people have left their positions. They prob sat around all day drinking coffee to keep them awake from doing nothing...Typical Local Authority Civil Servants...Now central government civil servants, they do the same but can stretch to affording biscuits with their coffee...
- Dc, London
The systemic problems are management dysfunction, social worker incompetence, a box-ticking culture born of political interference and an overall inability to experientially learn. Experiential learning (surprise surprise) is not a dedicated subject anywhere in our educational system, so is there any wonder that everyone is uttering the time-honoured phrase: "Hindsight is a wonderful thing." When will educators and employers reaslise that experience on its own is useless? It is only useful when there is an ability to learn from that experience.
- With Smoke Coming Out Of My Ears, London NW11
Haringey have social worker posts free, why dont some of you all knowing apply.I hope all of you like spending all of your eveings and weekends writing reports
- Caitlin Youngman, london
Why are people asking when she will be fired? I don't understand why she has not resigned?!! Any person in a similar situation with morals would have done so. I cried when I read about what happened to Baby P and all this woman can think about is clinging on to her job.
- Lisa, London, UK
When is someone going to suggest that it is time to abolish Haringey and split it up to the surrounding boroughs.
While the above is taking place the mayor of London will have to run the borough on behalf of all Londoners!
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex
The whole local government system is rotten to the core. There are plenty of timewasting jobsworth public sector workers who are appalling at their jobs retiring every year on nice fat pensions. The only difference here is that being appalling at their jobs caused the death of a child. They leach our money but give no value back. Get rid of the politicians, crush the unions, and bring common sense back to local councils, including the pay and employment structures.
- Claire, Londn
Tick a few more boxes and it will be alright. Lessons must be learned we must listen more and get more drivel and all given a pay rise because of the stress and hurt feelings. TWO thousand pounds a week in the real world this person would not command £300 pw.
- Mike,, London
I'd like to see Sharon Shoesmith claim unfair dismissal. This hateful woman should have resigned a long time ago. All of those responsible for allowing Baby P to remain with the mother, boyfriend and lodger and refusing to put Baby P into the safety of a foster home should have resigned or been sacked with NO PAY, NO PENSION basically NO REWARDS for failing this and I'm sure many other vulnerable babies/children. This must be the only time in my life that I have been in agreement with a Tory leader and have I signed the Sun's petition to get these people out of office and away from those they are supposedly meant to protect. This story makes me sick to the stomach, these people are rotten to the core. I hope that there is going to be some justice for this tragic loss of life.
- Sharon, London
If I lived in the Borough of Haringey I would refuse to pay my Council Tax until I had assurances from the Council that no further council tax money would be given to any of those people who have been sacked or suspended either in salaries or compensation.
- Deevineb, London, UK
This is utterly disgraceful - really depressing; what sort of a society is this!!..
- Bill Caplin, Camden
Let's face upto it, this appalling incident occurred on her watch-so why has she not been fired.
- Malcolm May, Windsor, UK
This is utterly disgraceful - really depressing; what sort of a society is this!!..
- Bill Caplin, Camden
we hear there's a massive shortage of social workers to ensure that our children are being cared for, maybe there would be extra money available to hire the front line staff needed if our councils cut the obscene salaries they have awarded to themselves and the to managers like those in the C.P.A. who are earning £2,000 a week, i find it sickening that amounts of money like this is being paid out from the council tax that thousands of struggling families are being forced to pay yearly. a tax that as doubled under this so called socialist government
- Scouser, liverpool
I'm sure all six will soon be moving to another local authority on even bigger wages.
- Chris, Woking. UK
Baby P death was a tragedy of events, but lets not forget the baby died in the hands of its parents. Why, it is so easy to blame the "after the fact" blame game, lets just ensure better measures are enforced in the monitoring of other children in social services spotlights.
- Branson Thomas, London UK
Council leader George Meehan and Liz Santry have resigned but from what? Have they just resigned from their so called 'cabinet' posts or have they done the decent thing and resigned from Haringey Council altogether. I think it would be unacceptable if they are are still drawing their Council aloowances.
- Ed, London, England
What so many, including David Cameron, do not seem to understand is that employment laws hace been changed over the last decade to give all the rights to the employee. Legally the Council cannot simply sack Shoesmith or any one else however disgracefully and incompetently they have conducted themselves.
Due process has to be followed - always at the employees advantage.
Just as the rights of crooks take precedence over those of the victims, useless employees have more rights than their employer - private or public sector.
NuLabour UK 2008 - no offence intended so no need to send round the anti-terrorist squad......
- Mark, Bournemouth England
I don't understand this country. It's gone totally soft on crime and punishment. Why does it continue to reward those people by paying them a FULL salary after such a monumental screw up. We all KNOW Baby P should have been taken away and put in Foster care but for reasons unknown and unfathomable he was not and has died horribly. These suspended persons ought to take a long hard look at themselves and do the decent thing and resign forthwith - they made colossal errors in judgement and they are 'getting away with it'. I don't know how they have the brass neck to try and brazen it out. I hope the new 'boss' will not just discipline them, but sack them and remind them that they are lucky to get their pension at all. What we have to remember is that Baby P is just one of many many children, icluding babies who die every day as a result of neglect, beating, ect... Something a bit wider and farther reaching must happen to stop this happening to our many small and older helpless children who have, it seems now, only the abusive parents to look to for the things the rest take for granted - love, warmth, compassion, nurturing...I could go on but I won't Just sack the 6 persons who on a suspension please. Somebody ought to set up a petition...
- Sarah, UK
A truly appaling state of affairs, a system made into law by Labour that insists no one take responsbility or be fired for poor performance. And as for Ms Shoesmith's reputed salary of £104000.00 per year (£2000.00 per week x 52 weeks), plus bonuses and pension benefits!! No wonder she didn't have time for a troublesome lot of kids and their families. Leaving this woman and her senior team aside, a solution might be to revamp Childline, where children could speak to objective operators who could then pass on their reports to the relevant authorities, including their local councillors, mp and the secretary of state for children.
- Helen, norwich
Isn't the problem that those in positions of influence on local councils consider themselves political warriors rather than there to serve the actual interests of the people? Thus the job-title is something of a front, concealing their real purpose of imposing the current orthodoxy. At Haringey Council parents are probably referred to in private as "breeders".
- Paul Caister, London
They ARE compensating for failure..........All these so called Talented ( Christopher Cloke the NSPCA's head of child protection calls them )are getting paid even though they have been suspended!
This is a big WHITE WASH and a cover up so we the public can't see how all involved lacked the common sense that any inteligent person who was informed of this case should have acted and had Baby p removed to a safe house!
We have a right to know how they are spending our money!
Why all this secret. Why are they still in a job? Look what happened to the Whistleblower.........These people are given too much power.....It is time for change!
This whole system needs a shake out of brittle boned "untalented" ( How talented should one be to save a child! )over paid so called Child Protecters who don't do the job they are getting paid to do!
What they don't want anyone to know is the fact that they took the wages of sin..........Because it paid for their nice outings and privileges while the abused children that no one bothered to TALK to, let alone LOOK at!! Were dying..........FAST!
Paying high wages should equal fast production and high standards........This load of tripe cannot even count!
How many times was this baby seen by one of the heads of this protection service? Not once! It was all on paper......They all marked him off with a tick!
The fight goes on to get these sacked and shamed!
- Valerie, Hanworth Middlesex
I am afraid all 4 should be sacked. They each had direct responsibility and should not be entitled to claim unfair dismissal as they caused a death by their inattention to detail. My stomach does turn every time I think of the pain of that poor child.
If you are fired because you are incompetent then you have no grounds for a payoff. I do not see this as a witch hunt as there are links to trace connections
- J Lewis, Greater London UK
Mr Cameron is an opportunist. No matter how sad we are about Baby P' death, Mr Cameron should know we are operating in a state of law. If he care about tax Payers money he should know that if Sharone Shoesmith and others are dismissed, they could file for unfair dismissal which could cost the tax payers more if they succeed in their claim. Mr Cameron like to grab headlines to show that he care when he does not, i hope votes are taking note of his Cameleon attitude. We need a constructive opposition leader not one who would say anything to get into a woman's skirt.
- Alex Lisinge, Putney London
The failure to summarily dismiss some of these people is more a reflection on employment law. It is clearly wrong to judge most of tehse people until the legal process is concluded, and if it is shown they have been negligent in this case and are dismissed, it would surely be wrong to take away all of their pension?
Government Ministers and opposition front benchers should be wary of courting public opinion by asking for immediate dismissal and resignation, as the public may ask when they next screw up, why they haven't resigned.
- Bob, London, UK
There is clearly a basic misunderstanding, even by government ministers of the consequences of the employment legislation enacted under Labour at the behest of the Trades Unions. Poor performance is no longer a reason for immediate sacking, the employee must be offered advice, encouragement and re-training, warnings, both informal and formal. The employment legislation disregards the baby Ps and allows poor performance to continue because the alternative requires, in the public sector, an inordinate amount of management time and effort; management often of marginal quality. Baby Ps are not considered and so become the dreadful consequence.
- Peter Haldane, London
