Social worker tells tribunal sacking was retaliation

A social worker who brought an unfair dismissal claim against the States Employment Board told a tribunal police considered criminally investigating her.

Alison Renouf was dismissed after she shared a video of a safeguarding meeting with two charities which the board argued breached her obligations of confidentiality.

Renouf told the tribunal senior officials tried to shut down scrutiny and accountability of children's social care and she was dismissed in retaliation for whistleblowing.

Representing the board, advocate Chris Austin said there was no justification for sharing the video and it was "not plausible" she would not have understood it breached confidentiality given her experience.

In her opening statement, Renouf claimed officials "repudiated" the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, an investigation into decades of child abuse.

She said she shared the video of the safeguarding meeting with charities Family Nursing and Home Care and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

However, Austin argued the two charities had no standing to investigate her complaints and her contract made it clear a breach in confidentiality not sanctioned by the whistleblowing policy "could result, as it has done, in disciplinary action".

Renouf, who was representing herself, argued she shared the video in an effort to protect children but told the tribunal officials considered a opening a criminal investigation into her and a charity boss.

She said they wanted to "arrest us, seize our devices" to "get the meeting recording back" and it was "difficult to reconcile that response with a genuine commitment to protecting whistleblowers from retaliation".

However, Austin said it was entirely appropriate an investigation was considered.

In a review into a case where a child had experienced serious harm, Renouf told the tribunal director of children's services Donna Marriott and safeguarding partnership chairman David Goosey pressured her to "downplay the responsibility of senior leaders for decisions which meant a child was not protected from harm".

She said she was put "under intense pressure to either completely or almost entirely redact a serious case review" to "suppress highly critical findings".

Another issue which led Renouf to blow the whistle was a meeting in which she said senior officials "repudiated" the care inquiry.

The 2017 inquiry found there had been decades of sexual, physical and psychological abuse and children were "still at risk".

Following government efforts to block it, a video of the meeting was played to the tribunal in which Smith called the inquiry "a noose round the island's neck".

He said Jersey should "remove those shackles" and move forward, saying: "We've punished ourselves enough."

In a statement after his comments were reported in the media, Smith acknowledged his comments "may have caused concern".

"The point I was making was that, while we must never forget the past, we must also have the confidence to move forward and use those lessons to shape the future," he said.

In the meeting, the government's former chief executive, Dr Andrew McLaughlin, said people needed to stop "dining out on what happened a decade ago".

Renouf said if tribunal chairwoman Dr Elena Moran did not find she was dismissed for whistleblowing, dismissal would still be unfair, "because there was no misconduct".

She said she acted in good faith because she thought "serious safeguarding concerns needed to be raised" and she did not knowingly or intentionally breach confidentiality.

The board's advocate told Renouf meant the board could have had "no faith you would not share confidential information again".

The tribunal has up to six weeks to deliver a decision.

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