The woman fighting to have her name removed from a list of people unsuitable to work with children failed in her fundamental responsibilities as Victoria Climbie’s social worker, a tribunal has heard, writes Simeon Brody from the tribunal.
 
Barrister Philip Coppel, acting on behalf of the government, said the file Lisa Arthurworrey was given when she took on Victoria’s case should have made it clear to her that the girl was at risk of serious harm.
 
He told the Care Standards Tribunal that Arthurworrey should have recognised the warning signs in accounts of scars on Climbie’s body, her reported nervousness in the presence of Marie-Therese Kouao, who was later convicted of her murder, and her bed-wetting.
 
Arthurworrey, who is appealing against her listing on the Protection of Children Act List, had argued she did not have enough training, support or experience to carry out her child protection role at Haringey Council.
 
But Coppel told the court: “You didn’t need more training, more supervision, more experience for you to pick up then that this was a child seriously at risk of harm.”
 
He also accused Arthurworrey of not probing deeply enough into issues of concern at a later meeting with Kouao. He said: “This was not a point of needing to dig beneath the surface, it had been put on a plate right in front of you. You just failed to follow it through. That’s correct isn’t it?”

“No, that’s not correct,” replied Arthurworrey, who maintained she had not received a clear medical diagnosis that Climbie might have been suffering from abuse.
 
The case continues