Jennifer Richardson Secures Swift Resolution for Child Minder
Senior Associate Solicitor-Advocate Jennifer Richardson has successfully represented a child minder wrongly accused of harming a child in her care.
The client, a registered child minder with an unblemished career spanning more than a decade, faced a serious ordeal after the NSPCC received an anonymous call alleging she had assaulted a child. The description of the child did not meet any of the children who had been in the client’s care. The report was passed to the police, resulting in the client’s arrest, and imposition of bail conditions prohibiting contact with children. Ofsted also swiftly suspended her child-minding registration for six weeks pending further investigation which in turn had a serious detrimental impact on the clients reputation and business.
Jennifer moved to urgently request that the police expedite their investigation which thankfully led to enquiries being made showing that there was no evidence connecting our client to the child in question. Within a week of being instructed this resulted in the investigation being closed with no further action.
With the police investigation concluded, Jennifer worked urgently to ensure the Ofsted suspension was lifted as quickly as possible, in the knowledge that any appeal of the decision must be submitted within ten working days to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT). The Ofsted suspension posed a significant risk to the client’s ability to work, with the six week suspension period potentially extending until mid-January.
Within 24 hours of the police decision, Ofsted confirmed that the suspension had been removed, allowing the child minder to resume work after only two weeks of disruption, and without the need for time consuming and costly litigation before the FTT.
Jennifer commented: “This case highlights the critical role of prompt and strategic legal intervention in addressing the damaging consequences of baseless allegations. Through a focused and determined approach I was able to successfully safeguard my client’s reputation and livelihood during an exceptionally challenging ordeal. This case also highlights the importance of individuals facing such intervention from regulatory bodies such as Ofsted being alive to the time limits they face in challenging decisions and instructing a firm to represent them at the earliest opportunity.”
Senior Associate Solicitor-Advocate Jennifer Richardson is a Chambers and Partners ranked lawyer in the field of professional discipline having defended professionals accused of misconduct both within and outside of the workplace.
Blackfords LLP specialise in all Professional Discipline matters, please reach out to any of our key contacts by calling us on 03330 150150.
