Ofsted Chief In Haringey Inspection Row Resigns

The man responsible for giving Haringey children’s services a clean bill of health three months after Baby P died has left his job at Ofsted.

Michael Hart has stepped down as director of children’s services at Ofsted, which is responsible for inspecting education and child protection services, to “pursue different career interests”, it was confirmed last night.

A spokesman for Ofsted said that Mr Hart’s departure was not connected to the Baby P case, adding only that he had “chosen” to go and had not been given a payoff.

Mr Hart, a former teacher, joined Ofsted as director of children’s services in July 2007. A month later Baby P died at 17 months old after suffering more than 50 injuries at the hands of his abusive mother, 27, her boyfriend, 32, and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36, despite 60 contacts with the authorities in Haringey over eight months. They are due to be sentenced next month.

Soon afterwards, in November 2007, Ofsted gave Haringey children’s services a “good” annual assessment. It turned out later that Haringey had given inspectors false data on which to base their report.

Ofsted’s failure to look beyond the data and investigate the quality of services on the ground has been criticised severely.

Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary, said that Ofsted had learnt lessons over the case. MPs have summoned Christine Gilbert, head of Ofsted, on two occasions in the past month to question her on the strength of child-protection inspections.

In response to the Baby P case, Ofsted will now conduct spot checks on children’s services each year. However, there is growing appetite in local authorities for far bigger changes.

Senior figures have complained to the Government that Ofsted, which took on responsibility for inspecting children’s services in 2007, is still primarily a schools inspectorate, with many staff lacking experience of social work and child protection.

Mr Hart was previously head of children and community and acting director of education in Harrow, northwest London. He has been replaced temporarily by Roger Shippam, Ofsted’s deputy director of education.

A spokesman for Ofsted said that the inspectorate was in the process of restructuring. “Michael Hart . . . made a significant contribution to the development of the new Ofsted,” he added.

The spokesman said that Mr Hart had been retained by Ofsted as a consultant to produce a key report on private fostering, which was due to be published soon.

Mr Hart is the fifth person to have left the position of overseeing childcare and early years at Ofsted since 2001.