Sacked Baby P chief Sharon Shoesmith won payout of more than £600,000
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Version 0 of 1. Haringey council has had to pay out more than £600,000 to its former children's services boss Sharon Shoesmith in compensation for unfair dismissal, unpaid wages, and pension contributions, according to reports. Shoesmith was sacked without compensation by the north London council in December 2008 after a public and media outcry over the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly, known as Baby P, a year earlier. A financial settlement between Haringey and Shoesmith was agreed last October, more than two years after the appeal court ruled she had been unfairly dismissed and "unfairly scapegoated", but the sum was not divulged. However, a BBC report on Wednesday night claimed the council's draft accounts for 2013-14 show Shoesmith received £377,267 for salary, fees and allowances, £217, 266 in compensation for loss of office, and £84,819 in pension contributions. The salary figure may reflect the fact that when Shoesmith won her appeal court case for unfair dismissal in July 2011 she was effectively reinstated as a Haringey employee, with her unpaid £130,000-a-year salary backdated by more than two years. Shoesmith told the Guardian she "did not recognise" the overall £600,000 figure quoted. Shoesmith and Haringey said the terms of the settlement were confidential. Shoesmith, prior to her dismissal a highly respected children's services manager, has not worked since losing her job more than five years ago and has been working on a PhD on child protection policy. The Department for Education is understood to have made a financial contribution to the settlement, after the appeal court ruled that the former children's secretary Ed Balls, who removed Shoesmith from her post in December 2008, was in part to blame for Haringey's subsequent, unlawful, decision to sack her without compensation. Shoesmith became the focus of tabloid media blame after the conviction of Peter Connelly's killers, triggering one of the biggest child-protection controversies of recent years. Peter, who was on Haringey's child-protection register, died after months of abuse. His mother, Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend, Steven Barker, and his brother, Jason Owen, were convicted in November 2008 of causing or allowing his death. Although the media blamed Haringey social workers and Shoesmith for failing to intervene to protect Peter, subsequent inquiries showed that Metropolitan police officers and Great Ormond Street hospital doctors had all made serious errors. Haringey council said: "The terms of the settlement are confidential. We are unable to comment further on this matter." The council previously revealed it had spent £196,000 on legal costs fighting Shoesmith's appeal. |