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Lisa Arthurworrey, the Haringey social worker allocated to Victoria Climbie’s case, told the public inquiry into the girl’s death yesterday (Thursday) that she had been overworked, ill-informed, and inadequately supervised in her work, writes Lauren Revans.

Outlining Arthurworrey’s defence at the second day of the inquiry, her lawyer Jane Hoyal said she was a “relatively young social worker” who had been in child protection for only 19 months when she was allocated Climbie’s case.

“She was perhaps one of the most inexperienced officers in her office, and with hindsight, perhaps was allocated one of the most complex cases a child protection social worker could be allocated,” Hoyal said.

“At the time she was allocated Victoria's case, Lisa had 19 files. That is seven more than the recommended ten to 12 advised by Haringey. Haringey advises a maximum of nine child protection cases; she had ten. She was described as working in an office under bombardment.”

Hoyal told the inquiry that Haringey’s fundamental restructuring process during 1999, including halving the number of managers from 12 to six, “appears to have distracted [some of her colleagues] from their duties including the supervision, guidance, and management of Lisa”.

Arthurworrey’s team manager, Carol Baptiste, was found in November 1999 to be “professionally unfit for her job”. Baptiste and her replacement, Angella Mairs, were both subject to “months of uncertainty before the management changes took place”, Hoyal said.

“Working in a diverse, very busy area of Tottenham, with a clientele which included many people whose first language was not English, and suffered from multiple problems, [Arthurworrey] was left, literally at times, by her superiors to rely on her own judgment without appropriate guidance and support,” Hoyal explained.

She added that Arthurworrey had not been sent the discharge summary from Climbie’s two-week stay in the North Middlesex Hospital where she was admitted in late July 1999 with scalding to her head and face. She also denied that consultant paediatrician Dr Mary Rossiter had mentioned marks or physical abuse in relation to Climbie’s old injuries.

Outlining Haringey Council’s defence to the inquiry, Elizabeth Lawson QC said there was nothing in the dealings with Climbie’s great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao or her boyfriend Carl Manning that should have alerted the social workers involved to the possibility these were people capable of systematic abuse and murder.

“Many of those cases about which this inquiry will hear nothing will have presented as more grave, urgent or pressing than Victoria's did at the time,” Lawson said.

She went on to remind the inquiry that social workers had to carry out their work within a legal framework and said Haringey did not believe there was ever enough evidence to satisfy a court that the child should be removed from her “carers”.

Lawson added that the council denied allegations by counsel to the inquiry Neil Garnham QC that the decision to close Climbie’s file in February 2000 had been based “on a hunch of a social worker”.

“This was not something that Lisa Arthurworrey dreamed up, it was not a hunch,” she said. “Ms Kouao had told Rose Kozinos on 2 November that she was planning to go back to France again.”

The first phase of the inquiry, expected to finish late December, was due to hear evidence from Climbie’s parents today (Friday). Outlining their position yesterday, their lawyer Joanna Dodson QC, said: “So far as individual failings are concerned, Mr and Mrs Climbie believe that those professionals who failed to protect Victoria should be called upon to account for their actions, and they hope this inquiry will do that. They wish to make it clear that this is not in order to punish the individuals involved, but in the hope of improving professional practice in the future.”