The appointment of a former director of children’s services in the English town of Rotherham, where 1,400 children were sexually exploited, to a senior position in Victoria’s education department was appropriate, a government review has concluded.
Dr Sonia Sharp, who began working in Melbourne as the deputy secretary of the department’s education and early childhood development division in 2012, was director of children’s services in Rotherham for three of the 16 years during which the abuse there was believed to have occurred. She is currently on secondment to the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
In August, Sharp was forced to defend her appointment as deputy secretary after her former role was made widely public by abuse survivors, and said she wished she could have done more to prevent their exploitation.
“As soon as I commenced in April 2005 as Rotherham’s first director of children’s services, I was briefed by politicians, senior managers and frontline staff about the issue of sexual exploitation of young people,” Sharp said in August. “We knew that there were many children in the community at risk and feared that this was the tip of an iceberg.
“Across our children’s services there were many people who dedicated themselves to stopping these awful crimes,” she said. “There was a lot to do: shifting attitudes, raising the quality of services for these vulnerable children, improving early identification and strategies for prevention, and importantly, getting agencies to work together to achieve convictions.”
In September, Victoria’s deputy opposition leader and now deputy premier and education minister, James Merlino, used parliamentary question time to attack her position.
“How on earth did Dr Sharp’s role in a systematic cover-up that allowed children to be raped, trafficked and abused by men in the UK not disqualify her from a senior job in [the education] department, earning up to $300,000 per year?” Merlino asked at the time.
Despite vowing to sack Sharp if elected, the Labor government led by Daniel Andrews instead referred the case to the Victorian Public Sector Commission to investigate upon being elected in November.
On Monday, the commission released a statement to say it had completed that review. The review concluded Sharp’s recruitment “was conducted in accordance with appropriate processes for senior public sector appointments”.
There was nothing to suggest that Sharp should not continue in her role, or that doing so was out of line with the integrity and conduct standards of Victoria’s public sector, the review also found.
Guardian Australia has contacted Merlino for comment.
The special minister of state, Gavin Jennings, said the government stood by its investigation of Sharp.
“The government makes no apology for raising these issues nor for seeking a thorough investigation after these very serious issues came to light,” Jennings said. “I am advised that Dr Sharp is now seeking opportunities outside of government and I wish her well.”
Jennings said the findings had been provided to Sharp.
An education department spokeswoman said, despite the review being concluded, the department could not comment on the findings “due to our privacy obligations”.
“Clearly, commenting in this case would be breaking those obligations,” she said.
Last year, Sharp was described by the then secretary of the department, Richard Bolt, as “an outstanding leader in education and early childhood development who has dedicated her career to advancing the life chances of children and young people”.
