Thousands more children at risk

New concerns were raised about child protection in London and the South-East after a string of authorities were condemned for failing to act.

Ofsted promised tougher inspections of social services in future amid fears that the watchdog's inquiries had not been thorough enough.

The concerns follow an official inquiry into the "devastating" failure of the authorities in Haringey to save 17-month old Baby P. In a new report, inspectors warned they could not guarantee there would be no repeat of the tragedy.

Dozens of councils across England were failing to learn the lessons from child deaths and serious injuries, Ofsted said. Every council must conduct a "serious case review" into such incidents. The reviews are intended to identify what went wrong and how to prevent future tragedies.

But one in three of these reports was inadequate, and one in four authorities had not conducted a single review - perhaps because they did not think it was necessary.

The watchdog severely criticised three reviews in Surrey, one in Lambeth and another in Hertfordshire. In most of the tragic cases, the children who suffered were known to social care agencies, just like Baby P.

Reviews into serious cases in Southwark, Bromley, Tower Hamlets and West Berkshire were rated no better than "adequate".

In many cases, there were severe delays in completing the reports and question marks over their independence. The review into the death of Baby P has been branded a "whitewash". Ofsted called for "a fundamental shift" in the conduct of the reviews to focus more on "the practice of individual members of staff and managers".

Ofsted's chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "Many children's services are failing to learn fast enough from the most serious cases of abuse and neglect. Too many opportunities are missed and too many vulnerable children are still being let down by the system designed to protect them."

Despite Ms Gilbert's call for urgent action, Ofsted's own role in the process came in for criticism. Two months after Baby P died inspectors gave Haringey a glowing report, praising it for providing a "good service for children".

Their decision to award Haringey a clean bill of health sparked anger because it was based on a desk survey of paperwork, not monitoring the actions of social workers.