Baby P council "still failing" children

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - Vulnerable children in the London borough where Baby P died are still not properly safeguarded, inspectors said on Friday, six months after a critical report found child protection at the authority 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.