Saturday, May 28, 2011

Procedurally unfair?

Hard to ignore the storm of media coverage (again!) over Sharon Shoesmith yesterday ...

... I've watched numerous colleagues jump to Ed Balls defence in recent days, arguing very strongly that he was right to sack Ms. Shoesmith. I agree with them - the buck has to stop somewhere.

But sadly, that's got nothing to do with the Court Judgement yesterday, which made it quite clear it agreed completely with the Ofsted Report that was totally damning of 'services for children' in Haringey.

The Court Judgement was actually about 'due process' not having been followed in the sacking of Ms. Shoesmith and when you read through their reasoning, it is hard to disagree with the Court's conclusion that her employers had been "procedurally unfair" in her sacking.

Having read the judgement, I seriously doubt if any Government Appeal will be successful.

What a mess.

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