Lisa Arthurworrey’s lawyer has accused Haringey council of making her a scapegoat for failings in the handling of Victoria Climbie’s case, writes Sally Gillen.
Reading a statement on behalf of Arthurworrey, Jane Hoyal criticised Haringey for offering her team manager Carole Baptiste a redundancy package after she was found to be professionally unfit for her job in 2000.
She told the inquiry that Arthurworrey "felt scapegoated and you may think with justifiable cause" because she was the only employee suspended in October 2000.
Hoyal said: "If Lisa had had a competent manager and stable management system Victoria might not have died. Senior management were fully aware that files were not read in supervision and did nothing about it."
"Her career and life have been shattered," Hoyal added.
The council’s failure to disclose key documents on time, which included a report on Baptiste, was also criticised by Hoyal.
If they been submitted before she had given her evidence, "Lisa would have been able to deal with them in her evidence and in the questions submitted to other witnesses on her behalf," said Hoyal.
Elizabeth Lawson, representing Haringey, admitted that some of the documents should have been produced earlier in the proceedings, but said "large numbers of them are of minimal if any relevance to Miss Arthurworrey's case".
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