The 60 missed chances to save abused child's life
Despite numerous visits from social workers, a toddler was allowed to die from the horrific injuries inflicted by his guardians
By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent
Wednesday, 12 November 2008


PA
A computer simulation detailing the injuries that led to the death of Baby P

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A baby who was beaten, bruised and left to die by his guardians was seen 60 times by social workers but was never taken into care. The child was seen 18 times by council staff, 37 times by health workers and five times by welfare officers, yet no one rescued him from his abusers before he died.

Yesterday, a nationwide review of children's services was launched after Haringey Council in north London was again accused of failing to prevent the harrowing death of a child. Haringey was the authority involved in the case of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié, who was murdered at the hands of her great-aunt and her boyfriend in 2000.

Now the authority faces fresh criticism over the death of the 17-month-old child, known as Baby P, who was battered and abused for eight months, despite being on the council's child protection register.

Yesterday Baby P's 27-year-old mother, her 32-year-old boyfriend and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36, were convicted at the Old Bailey of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Murder charges against the mother and Jason Owen were dropped after the judge decided there was insufficient evidence to convict. The 32-year-old man was yesterday found not guilty of murder. After their conviction, attention turned to the authorities which apparently failed Baby P in the months leading up to his death. The Metropolitan Police admitted errors in their investigation, while a doctor at St Ann's Hospital, Tottenham, has not had her contract renewed for her failure to spot that the child had a broken back and ribs just two days before he died.

But it is the conduct of Haringey Council that prompted children's minister Beverley Hughes to announce a nationwide independent review of child protection services. The council's failings in the Climbié case led to Lord Laming's inquiry which made recommendations in child protection reform. But just five years after that report was published, the Government yesterday asked the peer to conduct another inquiry following the death of Baby P.

Ms Hughes said: "To ensure the reforms the Government set out after Lord Laming's inquiry are being implemented systematically, Ed Balls and I have asked Lord Laming to prepare an independent report of progress being made across the country."

Yesterday, Lord Laming, who called for a series of reforms in the wake of Victoria Climbié's death, said the similarities between her case and Baby P's were "dispiriting".

In the eight months that Haringey Council was involved in the case, social workers visited the home of Baby P 60 times – twice a week – but failed to take the child into care. At one point, they allowed Baby P to return to his mother even when she was on bail for attacking him.

The case has been described as "worse than Climbié". It is very similar. It involved the same council, the same health visitor clinic in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, and one of the same social workers, Sylvia Henry.

Ms Henry was accused of lying in official records relating to the Climbié case to cover up her team's lack of action. In the Baby P case, she was one of the social workers involved in the decision to return Baby P to his mother during the initial inquiry in December 2006.

Two social workers and a lawyer at Haringey Council have been given written warnings after a review into their conduct during the case. Ms Henry, it was confirmed to The Independent last night, will not be disciplined and she, along with every other social worker involved in the case, will keep her job.

Yesterday Sharon Shoesmith, the chairwoman of Haringey's local safeguarding children board – the body that led the independent review, refused to apologise for her council's handling of the case.

Instead, she criticised the child's mother for "deceit" in dealing with the council and the police, and extolled the benefits of hindsight, but said: "The very sad fact is you cannot stop anyone who is determined to kill their children.

"Of course we are shocked by the details of this but no agency killed this child. This child was killed by members of his own family. The agencies are not responsible." Dr Jane Collins, the chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provided paediatric services to Baby P, said that Dr Sabah Al Zayyat – the doctor who failed to spot Baby P's broken back and rib two days before he died – had not had her contract renewed – a decision the GP is fighting.

Asked about the hospital's role in the child's death, Dr Collins added: "Our doctor did not show the diligence expected. Do you not think we feel bad about that? We feel as uncomfortable about that as you do. Clearly we did not get things right. He