Arthurworrey launches appeal

Victoria Climbie’s social worker this week began a fight to have
her named removed from the Protection of Children Act List.

Lisa Arthurworrey is appealing against the decision by the
Department for Education and Skills to put her on the list of
people deemed unsuitable to work with children.

Her barrister Peter Jackson QC told the Care Standards Tribunal in
London that placing Arthurworrey on the Protection of Children Act
list would bar her from working in social services, schools or the
NHS, prevent her from fostering or, if she had a child of her own,
stop her running a parent teacher association or going on school
trips.

He said there were seven “barriers to good practice,” which put her
mistakes into context including inexperience, lack of training,
overwork and non-existent supervision.

He questioned why not one senior manager at Haringey Council had
been placed on the list.

But Philip Coppel, acting for government, said people were only
placed on the list if they were guilty of misconduct, which placed
a child at risk of harm and were unsuitable to work with
children.

He said she was unsuitable to work with children because of her
failure to acknowledge the true nature of her responsibilities and
omissions.

A key witness said that some of the training Arthurworrey had
received at Haringey Council may not have been as good as he had
previously thought.

Bernard Monaghan, author of a report into the internal
investigation of staff in the Victoria ClimbiŽ case, told the
tribunal he had been presented with a statement by a police officer
involved in the council’s training by Arthurworrey’s barrister and
had changed his view.

At the time of writing his report Monaghan had felt that the
training was of good quality.

Arthurworrey was sacked for professional misconduct and placed on
the list, alongside social work manager Angella Mairs.

Mairs successfully appealed against her inclusion on the list last
November but the DfES is challenging the tribunal’s decision in the
High Court.

• Six police officers involved in Victoria Climbie’s case have
  been reprimanded for neglecting their duty of care towards the
  eight-year-old. All bar a detective chief inspector received
  reprimands after admitting to failing to investigate or supervise
  investigations relating to her care at Metropolitan Police
  misconduct hearings. The DCI denied charges which the Met refused
  to disclose, and was formally cautioned after being found guilty by
  a hearing
• Follow the tribunal at www.com munitycare.co.uk