The former head of Haringey LBC’s children’s services Sharon Shoesmith has received a payout of nearly £680,000, according to the council’s accounts.
Ms Shoesmith was unfairly dismissed from her £133,000-a-year post in December 2008 by then children’s secretary Ed Balls in the wake of the Baby P scandal.
Draft accounts for 2013/14 published online by the council show a breakdown of the £679,000 settlement the authority reached with Ms Shoesmith following a ruling in her favour by the Court of Appeal in 2011.
But Ms Shoesmith told the BBC yesterday she ‘did not recognise’ the figure while a council spokeswoman refused to comment on the exact sum, citing a confidentiality agreement.
Last week Ofsted told the council its children’s social care service and local safeguarding children’s board required improvement, the second-from-worst category.
Haringey LBC’s cabinet member for children, Cllr Ann Waters, said the council had taken on board the recommendations made by the inspectors and work was ‘already underway on many areas for development’.
But Haringey’s Lib Dem spokeswoman for children, Cllr Liz Morris, said: ‘Ofsted was right to criticise children’s services at Labour-run Haringey LBC.
‘Much more can, and should, be done to protect the most vulnerable children in Haringey.
‘The Lib Dems will continue to press for more reforms and scrutiny of children’s services.’