Urgent change urged after Baby P case

LONDON (Reuters) - The body responsible for monitoring children's services, Ofsted, has called for an urgent review of how abuse cases are dealt with in the wake of the failures that led to the death of Baby P.

Ofsted said that, since April 1997, more than a third of serious case reviews carried out after a child died or was injured through abuse or neglect had been inadequate.

Its findings came after the government said on Monday inspectors had delivered a "devastating" report into the case of Baby P, who died after suffering more than 40 injuries during a campaign of abuse at his home, despite being on an "at risk" register and having had 60 visits from care workers.

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the inspectors' report raised serious concerns about the safeguarding of children in the London borough of Haringey.

Ofsted's Chief Inspector of Education Christine Gilbert said there needed to be an urgent rethink of the serious case review system to ensure lessons were learned.

"This report and the latest figures available clearly show that many children's services are failing to learn fast enough from the most serious cases of abuse and neglect," she said.

"Too many opportunities are missed and too many vulnerable children are still being let down by the system designed to protect them."

She said all those who came into contact with children, such as teachers and health visitors, had to learn how to spot warning signs of abuse, while action was required to make sure that children did not fall "through the gaps between agencies."

Balls said on Monday that national inspectors from Ofsted sent to assess Haringey's children's services had found a catalogue of failings.  Continued...