The BBC reports that the former Director of Children’s Services at Haringey Council, Sharon Shoesmith, is to be paid a six-figure sum in compensation for wrongful dismissal following the Baby Peter tragedy in 2008. This news follows a court ruling in 2011 that she was unfairly sacked.
Add that sum to all the legal fees that will have been incurred
and add that to the costs of the sackings of other Haringey employees following
Peter’s death. We are talking millions.
A rush to point the finger of blame following the death of
Baby Peter Connelly has now cost the taxpayer a fortune and nothing has been
achieved. No child is safer as a result.
Rushing to blame people is always negative. If all the money
spent on disciplining employees had been spent on improving services and
enhancing safety, the outcome would have been constructive. As it is, lots of time
and money have been expended, with the main result being that a culture of
blame is propagated and reinforced.
That makes professionals more defensive. Not unreasonably
they will look to protecting their own backs, not to being open and
constructive about service failures. That makes it even more difficult for organisations
to deliver safe children’s services in Britain.
