The Case

Children and young persons Protection. The Administrative Court held, in dismissing the instant judicial review, that neither Ofsted, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, nor the local authority (Haringey London Borough Council) had engaged in unfair processes, or otherwise breached principles of natural justice, as those parties' respective decisions-actions affected the claimant, then the Director of Children and Young People's Services within the Borough: those actions-decisions were certain directions made by the Secretary of State pursuant to s497A of the ; Ofsted's publication of a report into the working of Haringey's Children and Young People's Department and the other agencies with responsibility for child protection; and Haringey's decision to dismiss the claimant, and the later confirmation of that decision by its appeals panel. The Court also commented on the consequence of the present lack of knowledge regarding the extent to which the inter-relation between the Secretary of State's powers under s497A of the 1996 Act and the contractual obligations of an authority towards an employee who had to be removed from a position because of a direction under that section had been considered by Parliament and what should be done by the relevant parties so as to ensure the situation which arose in the instant case did not arise again.