Warning over Baby P 'witch hunt'

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More children would be taken into care despite being better off staying with their families as the system became "unreasonably risk-averse", Local Government Association (LGA) chairman Margaret Eaton said.

Ms Eaton said a knee-jerk reaction to Baby P's death would lead to fewer people wanting to become social workers and paediatricians.

The little boy died in a blood-spattered cot in Haringey, north London, in August last year despite 60 visits from the authorities over eight months.

Addressing an LGA summit in central London Ms Eaton said: "These sad events shine a light on the onerous responsibility councils bear in working with the most vulnerable children and families, and the equally onerous responsibility we ask individual members of staff, children's social workers especially, to carry out on our behalf."

She announced she had written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking for his help in implementing the LGA's five-point plan to support councils' child protection work.

This includes a call for extra Government investment in children's social work so councils can recruit and retain high-calibre staff.

Ms Eaton said: "Let us be clear, poor performance at the front line in any of our services must be effectively challenged, in this area above all, and where good support does not result in improvement it has to be dealt with very firmly.

"But that's no excuse for a witch hunt, which is not only unreasonable, but also threatens to be seriously counter-productive.

"There is a risk now that we repeat the depressing pattern of the past and have a short, intensive period of soul-searching and recrimination, followed by a long period of relative silence."