Service was inadequate, assistant director tells inquiry

Child protection cases were not adequately managed in Haringey,
the council’s assistant director of children’s services
told the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, writes Jonathan
Pearce.

Asistant director Carole Wilson said: “I am not for one minute
suggesting there was adequate management control. There
wasn’t.”

At the beginning of her evidence to the inquiry, Wilson ducked
questions over whether Haringey had handled Climbie’s case
“inadequately”, claiming that she had not yet “come to a
conclusion”.

“I don’t defend and never have defended areas of bad
practice,” she added. Wilson pointed to management policies,
procedures and practices that were in place, but failed to protect
Victoria, who died at the hands of her great-aunt Marie Therese
Kouao and boyfriend Carl Manning in February last year.

But when questioned by Laming at the end of her evidence, Wilson
was less equivocal in her answers. “[Haringey’s] practice was
poor. Procedures were in place,” she said. “The monitoring was in
place, but it failed Victoria. We all bear a collective
responsibility at different levels and in different degrees.”

“I don’t think we served Victoria well,” added Wilson.
“But there are so many unanswered questions in the service I
knew.”