News

A former team manager at Haringey social services who was sacked over her involvement with the Victoria Climbie case has began her appeal against her inclusion in the Protection of Children Act List, writes Sally Gillen.

Angella Mairs appeared at the Care Standards tribunal in London in a bid to have her name removed from the list.

She and Lisa Arthurworrey were both dismissed for professional misconduct and put on the Poca List.

Mairs, who took over responsibility for Arthurworrey after her manager Carole Baptiste left, is criticised for failing to read Victoria’s file during a supervision meeting with Arthurworrey in November 1999, three months before Victoria died.

But she told the tribunal that the meeting was not formal supervision and her role had been merely to support Arthurworrey.

Mairs admitted mistakes were made and said she thought about the case every day, “not just in terms of my health and my career, but the fact a child died”.

Giving evidence before Mairs, Phillip Peterfield, a former chair of Haringey Area Child Protection Committee, described Mairs as a “courageous” contributor to case conferences. She exercised “careful and thoughtful judgement” in reaching conclusions, he said.

Peterfield, who worked with Mairs throughout the 1990s, said he visited her office weekly and the department was in chaos and workers were expected to tackle “a mountain of work”.

He added: “Mairs had been one of the people who stayed upright (when the department was re-organised) when lots of other staff fell by the wayside. It is in these circumstances that errors are made.”