Resignations and Presevations

As expected the report into the Baby P case has just been released to the dozen or so Members of Parliament who have been deemed fit to read it. In the wake of the Damian Green arrest none of them will dare to discuss any of the details so we've all had to make do with the Children's Minister's press conference where he described the reports findings as "devastating" and "revealing a catalogue of failures" with out giving any details of what these failings are or who carried them out. The press conference was proceeded by the announcement of two symbolic resignations from Haringey council;

• George Meehan, the head of Haringey council. As the elected head of the council Mr Meehan has ultimate responsibility for all of the councils services, child protection included, but he has no hands-on involvement in the day to day activities and decision making of his staff. There is no evidence that he made or had any knowledge of the decisions that led up to Baby P's death. As an elected member of the council his resignation means that he will still be able to draw his salary as a councillor.
• Liz Santry, the council cabinet member for children and young people. Ms Santry is the nominal figurehead of children's services. This means that she had little or no knowledge of the events that led up to Baby P's death. She was however responsible for attempts to cover up the case and withhold evidence from the trial of Baby P's mother and step-father. Like Mr Meehan she is an elected member of Haringey council so in spite of her resignation she will still be allowed to sit on the council and draw a salary for doing so.

In order to appear to be getting tough with Haringey council the minister used his press conference to announce that he will be appointing a new management team to run children's services in Haringey. This team will stil be directly answerable to Haringey council but will also report to the Children's Minister on a monthly basis. The appointment of this new management team will bring about one high profile termination of employment;

• Sharon Shoesmith, Head of Children's Services. After declaring that she saw no reason for Haringey Council to apologise or punish any member of staff over Baby P's death Ms Shoesmith became the lightning rod for much of the public anger generated by the case. As operational head of the department she had full knowledge of the case and made some of the key decision's that resulted in baby P's death. I am not familiar with the exact details of Ms Shoesmith's contract of employment but for the minister to announce that "her employment will be terminated" rather then that she will simply be sacked for misconduct suggests that she will receive a severance payout and still be allowed to claim her generous public-sector pension.

While Sharon Shoesmith will make way for a new head of department there is no indication that her replacement will carry out any investigation into the conduct of other members of the department to see if the they too should lose their jobs.

In short all the minister had done is to make a symbolic sacrifice in order to diffuse public anger and safeguard the jobs of those who, through their actions, caused or allowed Baby P's case. It would appear that the only person who had hands-on care of Baby P who will actually face punishment is Dr Sabah Al Zayyat who has been suspended by the General Medical Council.