Social worker saw manager take crucial file

Haringey social worker Lisa Arthurworrey acted inappropriately
on 25 occasions according to her own evidence, inquiry counsel Neil
Garnham QC concluded, Lauren Revans
writes.

Speaking at the end of Arthurworrey’s second day at the witness
stand, Garnham listed a catalogue of errors and misjudgements
including her failure to reflect and evaluate on Victoria’s case,
her failure to report Victoria to the education authorities, her
failure to speak to Victoria during a home visit and her assumption
that Victoria and her great aunt Marie-Therese Kouao had “moved on”
when they failed to contact the department.

For Arthurworrey the latter was the most significant of her
mistakes, and the one from which she said she had learnt the
biggest lesson.

“Regrettably when Kouao did not turn up on the 1 December (1999)
I did not see it as especially worrying. I really thought she might
have moved on. I should not have made that assumption,” she
said.

However, Arthurworrey disagreed with half the remaining
occasions listed by Garnham, blaming these at least to some degree
on external factors – such as absence of information or lack of
managerial guidance.

Arthurworrey told the inquiry that she had seen her manager
Angella Mairs, who replaced Carole Baptiste in Nov 1999, remove the
last contact sheet – which would have included Mairs’ signature –
from Victoria’s file on 28 February 2000 following Victoria’s death
and Kouao and Manning’s arrest.

Arthurworrey she had not felt comfortable enough to initially
tell Haringey’s part 8 review panel this information, describing it
as “oppressive”, “accusatory” and “not interested in finding the
truth”.