Sharon Shoesmith, who was head of children services in Haringey at the time of the Baby Peter case, is set to receive a sum that could be as large as a million pounds in compensation. The Court of Appeal has ruled that the way Ed Balls, then the secretary of state, and Haringey took the decision to dismiss her was procedurally unfair to Shoesmith and so she was not lawfully removed, entitling her to compensation possibly including full pay and pension for the last couple of years.
Shoesmith might be legally entitled to this money. But given the circumstances in which she is receiving it and the institutional flaws exposed by Haringey’s approach to the Baby Peter case, the honourable thing to do would be to not accept it.
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