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Haringey chief to retire in wake of 'challenging' Baby P scandal
Ross Lydall3 Sep 2009
The chief executive of Haringey at the centre of the Baby P scandal is to stand down.
Ita O'Donovan, 65, who earned £180,000 a year, will retire from the Labour-run council after three-and-a-half years in February.
She was appointed five days after Baby P, now known by his real name, Peter Connelly, was born. She considered resigning when the case became public last December.
The 17-month-old died in August 2007 after suffering months of abuse, forcing Children's Secretary Ed Balls to intervene.
Dr O'Donovan faced questions about other child protection failures, having held senior posts at two other councils where concerns about care emerged.
She said today: "I've always found the job interesting, but the last 18 months have been particularly challenging."
Robert Gorrie, leader of the Lib-Dem opposition for Haringey, said the job could be hard to fill.
"Some will see it as an opportunity to make a serious impact but others won't touch it with a barge pole," he said.
Dr O'Donovan said the council would defend an unfair dismissal case brought by former children's director Sharon Shoesmith, who was sacked in the wake of the Baby P scandal.
Reader views (4)
are there any financial implications to this that we should know about?
- Jules_London, london, 03/09/2009 18:32
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Labour run? Oxymoron there. says it all just look what the political classes and media have done to our country.
- N, London, 03/09/2009 16:24
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"the last 18 months have been particularly challenging."
Presumably she's retiring to write a book on the lost art of understatement?
- Bob, Cheam, 03/09/2009 15:47
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Perhaps with her knowledge of child protection in practice and with her having had the experience of 'presiding' over child care and protection failures in Haringey and in other 'councils' Dr. O'Donovan may get involved in a new task, say scruutinising what is going so wrong within child protection in practice, ON A NATIONAL LEVEL and helping in the UIRGENT EFFORT which must surely be made NOW, by this government to 'redesign' the system and put things right so that child protection ability in practice, can become an obtainable reality.
Lets face it too many IDENTIFIED being abused children are just praying to be 'rescued' from being further violated and too many children are dying whilst they wait for any effective protection from their IDENTIFIED tormentors !
The children in this country can and must have a child protection ability which is state of the art.
- Darnthesafetynet, London W11 1NR, 03/09/2009 15:01
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