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From The Times
November 18, 2008

Family of social worker talk of blame and hatred

Sam Coates

The daughter of the senior social worker at the centre of the Baby P scandal has defended her mother, saying that her family were shocked by the “hatred” that she has experienced.

Sharon Shoesmith, the head of children’s services at Haringey, has refused to resign over the death, despite repeated calls for her to leave her job. However, one of her daughters spoke for her mother on the BBC Radio 4 programme Any Answers. She said: “It has really shocked me how much of the media has missed the point that this is a horrendous tragedy and everybody obviously is horribly shocked by it, but there is so much blame, there is so much anger and hatred out there. Perhaps this is part of how our tabloid media works.”

More than 60 head-teachers in Haringey have signed a letter supporting Ms Shoesmith and say that when she was the director of education she transformed a demoralised education service.

Maria Ward, who was the allocated social worker for Baby P, has yet to comment since details of the case were made public last week.

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