Baby P council 'still failing' on child protection - inspectors - July 4, 2009

Vulnerable children in the London borough where Baby P died are still not properly safeguarded, inspectors said yesterday, six months after a critical report found child protection was inadequate.

Ofsted inspectors said there had only been "limited progress" in improving the quality of social work and developing effective case-recording systems at Haringey council.

They blamed severe difficulties in recruiting and high staff turnover, which had reduced the council's capacity for improvement.

Dealing with a backlog of 400 child protection cases had revealed overstretched managers and caseloads that were too high for individual social workers.

"Inspectors and the council identified serious concerns about the safety of some children named in social care files and the council and its partners accept that currently not all children are adequately safeguarded," Ofsted said.

However, the inspectors said there had been progress in some areas and noted that six months since the previous inspection was probably too short a time to see any real change.

Baby P died in August 2007 aged 17 months after suffering a broken back and over 40 serious injuries during prolonged domestic violence, despite being on Haringey's child protection register.

The case provoked outrage from politicians and the public and led to the sacking of Sharon Shoesmith, head of children's services at Haringey, and the departure of other senior council officials.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said progress at Haringey had to accelerate in the coming months and ordered a further inspection in six months' time.

"It is clear from the discussions I have had around this report that, if anything, we underestimated the depth of the challenge last December," he told BBC radio. Council leader Claire Kober said the authority would redouble its efforts to put things right for Haringey's children.

"We are putting in place more social workers, we are supporting the front line services, we are ensuring that all of our social workers get the basics right," she told BBC radio.

"The reality is that sort of transformation takes some time to put in place, it cannot be done overnight."

Robert Gorrie, leader of the council's opposition Liberal Democrats, said the report had revealed a "bigger hole" in child services than previously thought.

He questioned the viability of the authority's three-year plan to transform its children's services.

"Based on the current rate of progress, that feels like an awful long way away.

"Unless there is some action that can be taken quicker, I think people need to review that timetable," he told BBC television.