Lord Laming to announce child welfare services review

Published on Thursday 12 March 2009 11:09

THE tragic deaths of Baby P and Victoria Climbie will come under the spotlight again today with the release of a report into whether enough is being done to protect vulnerable children.

Lord Laming will announce the findings of a review into whether all councils in England have adopted reforms introduced after his landmark inquiry into failings in the Climbie case.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls ordered the audit at the end of the trial of those responsible for 17-month-old Baby P's death in August 2007.

He asked Lord Laming to carry out an urgent nationwide review of child welfare services in the light of the authorities' failure to save the little boy's life.

Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was on the child protection register when he died at the hands of his mother, her abusive boyfriend and their lodger.

He had suffered more than 50 injuries despite receiving 60 visits from social workers, doctors and police over an eight-month period.

Haringey Council in north London was heavily criticised over both the Baby P and Climbie cases.

Lord Laming said after the Baby P trial it was "dispiriting" that the same local authority was involved again.

Setting out the terms of the current review in November, Mr Balls said: "The reforms introduced by Government following the Victoria Climbie inquiry set a very clear direction and have significantly strengthened the framework for safeguarding children.

"But it is vital we ensure that these reforms are being implemented systematically by all local agencies so that children in every part of the country receive the protection they need."

In December, Lord Laming praised the "robustness" of the foundation on which children's services were now based and said the main challenge was to ensure the system was fully in place all over the country.

Victoria Climbie was eight when she died in February 2000 having suffered horrific abuse.

She had been beaten for months, had 128 separate injuries and died from malnutrition and hypothermia after being forced to sleep in a bath.

Her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and Kouao's boyfriend, Carl Manning, are now serving life sentences for her murder.

The public inquiry chaired by Lord Laming heard Victoria could have been saved on 12 separate occasions if the relevant services had intervened.

She had been seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers but they failed to spot and stop the abuse.

Lord Laming's 2003 report into the tragedy made more than 100 recommendations to the Government for reforming the child protection system.

But there are concerns some councils have still not implemented them more than six years on.

The local MP in Haringey, Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone, repeated her calls for a full public inquiry into the Baby P case.

She said: "Clearly the rulebook doesn't need to be rewritten, the rules just need to be applied. To do this Haringey needs two things above all – more accountability and more openness.

"However key questions remain unanswered, such as why did Haringey's whistle-blowing policy fail so badly.

"Why were the people who warned that something was wrong ignored? We have had review after review and yet we seem no closer to the truth."

Local Government Association chairman Margaret Eaton said striving to maintain the status quo in child protection was "not nearly good enough".

She went on: "Poor performance needs to be driven out, in this area above all, and where good support does not result in improvement it has to be dealt with firmly.

"These sad events surrounding the death of Baby P shine a light on the enormous responsibility councils bear in working with the most vulnerable children and families, and the equally difficult responsibility we ask children's social workers to carry on our behalf."

Clare Tickell, chief executive of charity Action for Children added: "We know the complex, challenging and successful work that goes on day in day out to keep children safe in difficult circumstances and are proud of our role in helping to make this happen.

"We look forward to seeing Lord Laming's recommendations and hope that the report recognises the importance of investing in social workers to help them do their job, through nothing less than first class training, supervision and management."