Newsnight: Baby P Story/sharon Shoesmith

[ChillDoubt]

Just starting now. Sounds like it will be interesting and shocking.

[ChillDoubt]

It appears that Ms Shoesmith will recieve over £600,000 pounds for failing to do her job as head of department, the department that was supposed to safeguard Peter Connolly.

That is frankly outrageous.

[ChillDoubt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24715666

[jno]

no, she's getting the money because Ed Balls sacked her unlawfully. In this case, the lesson to be learnt is for ministers and their kneejerk pandering to public opinion instead of to the law.

[ChillDoubt]

So you believe she's justified in taking that amount of money for failing to do her job?
£600,000 would pay for quite a few more social workers.
Maybe they could employ some that actually do what they're paid to do.

[ummmm]

Agree with jno...and the publicity has made her almost unemployable.

Social work is a very hard job. I think we'd need to see her case load before we pass judgement.

[ELVIS68]

Still a piss take whatever the reason

[jno]

it's not a pisstake. Government ministers above all should obey the law. Balls was an idiot.

[gness]

Had she done the job she was paid well to do she would still be employed and employable.

[Hopkirk]

Ed Balls still is an idiot

[andy-hughes]

ChillDoubt - "So you believe she's justified in taking that amount of money for failing to do her job?"

That is not what jno said. What jno pointed out was that the payment is because Ed Balls failed to follow proper procedure, leaving the door open for Shosemsith to instigate, and win a case for unfair dismissal.

The Gorvernment is paying - with our money - for the failure of a Minister who was too keen to make himself appear righteous and right-on. and not keen enough to follow legal proceedures which his own Government set out and apply.

Ms Shoemsith is entirely entitled to her payment under law.

Whether the morality of what she allowed her department to fail to do, and the death of this poor child as a result, will prevent her from sleeping at night, is entirely another matter.

[ChillDoubt]

Agree with jno...and the publicity has made her almost unemployable.
-------------------------
As the MP on Newsnight said, she may struggle a little less if she actually took some responsibility instead of taking Haringey Council for everything she could get.
As for social work being 'very hard', oh please!
She chose social work as a career. I wouldn't mind £133,000 p.a. for 'a very hard job'.

[ummmm]

What about the actual social workers that went to visit?

Do we know what they reported? Do we know how many similar cases she had sitting on her desk?

[askyourgran]

I think she should bear some responsibility for what happened to those children. If Ed Balls hadn't sacked her what would have happened? Public opinion was that she should have been aware of the events, and pay the price for not doing her job. Disgraceful.

[ummmm]

Yes, social work is a very hard job. They go from case to case to case and it's a very fine line deciding which case takes precedence.

[ELVIS68]

Everyone involved in that case obviously failed then?

[ChillDoubt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Shoesmith#External_reports_and_inquiries

A lot of people involved in this case were either censured, warned, suspended or subsequently resigned. Those who failed to resign were removed.
Yet the head of Social Services at the time appears to be the only one who felt the need to try and winkle over £1 million out of Haringey Council for basically failing to do her job and correctly oversee policy and procedures involving her staff.

Shameful.

[ummmm]

Yes...everyone failed.

The social workers, doctors, Sharon Shoesmith.....I can't excuse such a failure but I am curious to what work load they are dealing with.

[askyourgran]

Obviously the system isn't working, cliches 'lessons will be learned' etc are beginning to grate. I know someone who was a social worker, she was a nervous wreck when she finished. I understand that she had a child taken from a 'rough' family and the family were trying everything to find her to take their revenge. It is not a nice job.

[ELVIS68]

Whatever their workload, 60 visits in 8 months and nothing was done to stop what happened is what I'd call failing to do your job, yet they all claimed unfair dismissal

[jno]

she didn't get money out of them for failing to do her job. She got it because they didn't do theirs.