Mairs begins appeal against being on Poca List

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.”