Arthurworrey’s caseload not sufficiently highlighted in report, tribunal told

The failure to find out the details of Lisa Arthurworrey’s
caseload represented a “serious hole” in an inquiry
into Victoria Climbie’s death, it was alleged to the Care
Standards Tribunal today, writes Amy Taylor from the
inquiry.

Peter Jackson, counsel for Arthurworrey at her appeal to be
removed from a list of people considered unsuitable to work with
children, also said that the inquiry report by Bernard Monaghan did
not adequately stress that Arthurworrey had an “excessive
workload” at the time of Victoria’s death.

Monaghan was employed by Haringey Council to write reports on
staffing issues related to the Climbie case.

He said that he had asked for Arthurworrey’s case load
list when conducting his inquiries in 2001 but he had difficulties
getting the information.

“I asked and it wasn’t available. There was a lot of
pressure to get this done [his inquiry] in a certain time
limit,” he said.

Monaghan added that at the time of his inquiry he was content
that Arthurworrey’s caseload was higher than it should have
been, despite not knowing the details.

He concluded that he thought he had said that her caseload was
in “excess of the norm” in his report.

Arthurworrey is appealing to get her name removed from the
Protection of Children Act list. She was sacked by Haringey Council
for gross misconduct over her handling of Victoria Climbie’s
case while she was a social worker at the local authority.

Her then manager and supervisor Angella Mairs was successful in
an appeal to get her name removed from the list last November.