Decision day for sacked social services chief

Ms Shoesmith is challenging a High Court ruling that cleared regulator Ofsted, former children’s secretary Ed Balls and Haringey Council of acting unlawfully.

Her lawyers argue that she was the victim of “procedural unfairness” when she lost her £133,000-a-year post as director of children’s services at Haringey Council in north London.

Ms Shoesmith was sacked in December 2008 after a damning Ofsted report exposed failings in her department as a result of the case of Baby P, now named as Peter Connelly, he was just 17 months old when he died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker and their lodger, his brother Jason Owen.