Shoesmith fight opens in Court of Appeal

Sharon Shoesmith’s legal fight over her dismissal as director of children’s services at Haringey Council reached the Court of Appeal today.

In April 2010, Mr Justice Foskett in the High Court rejected her judicial review action against the local authority and former Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, ruling that their decision to remove her from her post could not be impugned on the grounds of fairness.

However, the judge also granted Shoesmith permission to appeal in a ruling issued in September 2010. He described the legal relationship between the Secretary of State, who has the statutory power to intervene in a local authority’s affairs, and the local authority as the employer of someone who can effectively be removed from his or her employment as “an extremely difficult area”.

According to the BBC, Shoesmith’s barrister James Maurici argued before the Court of Appeal that there had been “buck passing” between Ofsted, Balls and the local authority.

He added that Shoesmith was not given a chance to respond to the Ofsted report into the death of Baby Peter which the Chidren’s Secretary used to justify his decision to remove her from her post. Mr Justice Foskett had described this lack of opportunity as unsatisfactory.