Sharon Shoesmith back in spotlight as report is published

Sharon Shoesmith's part in the Baby P tragedy was thrust back into the spotlight today with the publication of two official reports into why the authorities failed to prevent his death.

Ms Shoesmith, 57, was sacked from her £130,000-a-year job as director of children's services at Haringey Council in north London in December 2008 over shortcomings exposed by the case.

She chaired the panel that carried out the first serious case review into the August 2007 death of Baby P, now named as Peter Connelly, even though her own social workers were under scrutiny.

A 15-page summary of the document was published in November 2008 at the end of the Old Bailey trial of Peter's mother, her boyfriend and his brother.

It found "numerous examples of good practice" in the toddler's care and concluded that "many factors" contributed to officials' failure to realise he was suffering abuse.

But just weeks later Ofsted inspectors ruled that Ms Shoesmith's investigation was "inadequate" and then-children's secretary Ed Balls ordered a second report.

The second serious case review, chaired independently by child protection expert Graham Badman and completed in March 2009, was far more critical.

It concluded: "In this case the practice of the majority, both individually and collectively expressed as the culture of safeguarding and child protection at the time, was incompetent and their approach was completely inadequate to meet the challenge presented by the case of child A (Peter)."

Children's Minister Tim Loughton said today that there was a "certain complacency" to the first serious case review presided over by Ms Shoesmith.

He went on: "I think it was insufficiently thorough and insufficiently critical at trying to find out the underlying problems and the way that certain agencies did not interact with each other."

Ms Shoesmith, who is originally from Newtownabbey in Northern Ireland, found herself the focus of an outpouring of public fury when full details of Peter's extensive contacts with social workers, police and doctors emerged.

She admitted contemplating suicide after losing her job and receiving death threats for her part in the case.

An employment tribunal last month heard that she presided over a "deeply flawed" disciplinary process which concluded that two social workers involved in Peter's care should not be sacked.

Ms Shoesmith has brought a High Court challenge against her sacking. She lost the first round of her legal battle in April but was granted leave to appeal against the earlier ruling.

Appearing before MPs last month, the former children's services director refused to say that she made any personal mistakes surrounding Peter's death but accepted there were "errors of judgment" among staff.

She said: "To construct a narrative which told the public that Peter Connelly died because Haringey was uniquely weak, sack everyone from the director to the social worker and all would be well was, quite frankly, absurd."