Regulators Need to Keep their House in Order Too
Published:
November 23 2009, 09:30 AM
by
Chris Palmer
A recent High Court challenge to the findings of an employment tribunal hearing in the UK has highlighted the need for Regulators to be as careful with their records as those they regulate. The need to keep supporting material as carefully, in particularly sensitive cases, was also raised.
When the former head of a social services department sought a judicial review of the findings of the initial employment tribunal against her former employers for wrongful dismissal, her Counsel requested the Child Care Regulator, OFSTED, whose report had prompted her sacking, to disclose draft versions of the report which had been so critical of her.
They requested original notebooks and emails, too, but were told they did not exist. A Freedom of Information request revealed the materials as the review was nearing its conclusion, in fact when the judgment was close to being handed down. Lawyers for OFSTED had to issue a humiliating apology for a "serious and deeply regrettable error" and the hearing has had to be reconvened.
The Judge, Mr. Justice Foskett, told the court that the request for disclosure had been "batted away" and that the draft report had been said not to exist - "and now they do". The already damaged reputation of the regulator has been brought into further doubt....
(Further information can be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/baby-p/6538096/Ofsted-issues-apology-for-serious-error--in-Baby-P-case.html although some may find the circumstances of the incident which originally prompted Ms. Shoesmith's sacking particularly harrowing, as it involves the physical abuse and eventual death of a young child.)