Childcare chief ‘was suicidal’ after Baby P scandal

Sharon Shoesmith was director of children’s services at Haringey Council, in north London, when 17-month-old Peter Connelly – initially identified only as Baby P – died after suffering more than 50 injuries over an eight-month period.

The 59-year-old former public servant became a hate figure following the Baby P scandal, after it emerged the child was seen 60 times by either Haringey children’s services or the NHS but was still sent home to his tormentors.

Baby Peter died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker and their lodger, Barker’s brother Jason Owen. All three were jailed.

In a rare interview with Public Servant magazine, Ms Shoesmith said: “I was certainly no softy, but being held directly responsible for the brutal murder of a child was something that I found impossible to live with.

“I remember turning to my two grown-up daughters in tears and asking them, ‘Did I murder him?’ I was in such a state that I actually believed I had killed him.”

She said she contemplating killing herself but eventually sought counselling for help.

Still tormented by the scandal, she said she avoids public places for fear of being recognised and does not use the London Underground after police warnings that she might be pushed under a train.

Ms Shoesmith was a schools inspector looking at schools and special needs provision in Sheffield and York while living in Mirfield, near Dewsbury, before moving to Haringey in 2001.

She is battling for a reported £1m compensation after the Supreme Court refused in August 2011 to allow an appeal against a ruling that Ms Shoesmith was unfairly dismissed by the then Children’s Secretary, Labour’s Ed Balls, the MP for Morley and Outwood who is now Shadow Chancellor .

She said: “People I used to know ask me what I’m doing now, and they’re shocked when I say ‘nothing’. They can’t quite grasp that my life hasn’t moved on at all in the last four years; that I can’t find any work and I’m living on benefits.

“I used to have a £130,000-a-year job running my own department and was a national reference point for Ofsted for special educational needs, but no organisation will take the risk of employing me because of who I am.”

Peter’s mother Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen were all jailed in 2008 for causing or allowing the death of a child.

Connelly and Barker were tried in 2009 on charges relating to the rape of a two-year-old girl, also on Haringey’s child protection register. Barker was convicted while Connelly was cleared of child cruelty charges.

Ms Shoesmith argues that children are now more at risk than they were before the Baby P case because social workers are seen as people to hide from, rather than people who can help.

She added, despite all the inquiries and reviews, crucial questions were still not being asked and “that is why we are achieving nothing”.

The British Association of Social Workers has warned its members fear unmanageable caseloads could result in another Baby P case.

In a survey last year, it said 77 per cent of 1,100 staff questioned were concerned about caseloads; 65 per cent were concerned about use of unqualified staff and 46 per cent said they were afraid to speak out for fear of repercussions.

And it warned the system was at breaking point as local authorities, including those in Yorkshire, struggle with the rate of referrals following the Baby P case, at a time they are having to make massive savings.

In November, the Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, Coun David Simmonds, warned of increasing possible risk to children from cuts after the report by Lord Carlile of Berriew into children’s services at Doncaster Council, which had been ordered after the Edlington attacks in 2009. Doncaster has seen the number of child protection referrals to social workers between 2009/10 and 2011/12 rise 67 per cent, from 3,270 to 5,441.