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Ofsted knew of Baby P tragedy when it gave council glowing report
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent14 Nov 2008
GOVERNMENT inspectors knew about the death of Baby P when they praised Haringey in a glowing child protection report, the Standard has learned.
The watchdog which is now investigating what went wrong congratulated the council on providing “a good service for children”.
The praise came despite an earlier report warning of a string of child protection concerns in the borough just months before the boy died.
Baby P's body was found in his blood-spattered cot in August last year after months of abuse at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger. Aged just 17 months, he had more than 50 injuries, including a broken back.
He had been on Haringey's child protection register for nearly half his life, and was visited 60 times by health and social workers.
But the council's children's services chief Sharon Shoesmith received a glowing report from Ofsted — written by her ex-colleague weeks after the boy died.
In the October 2007 report, inspectors congratulated Ms Shoesmith's department for improving “the life chances” of children and working with police to tackle domestic violence.
The praise came despite accusations that Haringey failed to pass on all relevant documents to investigating officers. Politicians condemned the watchdog for its “extraordinary” findings.
Inspectors led by Juliet Winstanley, who worked under Ms Shoesmith in a previous job, said: “Haringey Borough Council delivers a good service for children and young people.”
Ms Winstanley singled out the council's “good” child protection work for particular praise. “The number of children on the child protection register continues to decrease.
“Thorough quality assurance systems are in place and the number of re-registrations demonstrates effective planning for these children,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the watchdog confirmed inspectors knew of the Baby P case while writing this report. She said: “The death of Baby P was known about when the assessment was carried out in 2007, at which point the local authority was still in the early stages of carrying out the serious case review.”
The glowing write up of Haringey's children's department was based on paperwork and desk research, not a thorough inspection of the borough.
It was a follow up to a report one year earlier in which inspectors from Ofsted and nine other watchdogs raised concerns over child protection.
The October 2006 report found children at risk of abuse faced unacceptable delays, a high turnover of social workers and glitches in a new computer system in Haringey. It made urgent recommendations for improvements two months before Baby P was first placed on the child protection register.
On Wednesday, Children's Secretary Ed Balls said that Ofsted, with police and health inspectors, would lead a new inquiry into what went wrong. Lynne Featherstone, Lib-Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said she had “no confidence” in Ofsted's new inquiry.
She described Ms Winstanley's report as “quite extraordinary”. Shadow children's minister Tim Loughton said the new inquiry must be more “rigorous”. “
Reader views (14)
As a health professional myself I am only too aware that I am accountable for all my actions, were was the accountability of the social worker(s) involved in this childs care. I cannot understand how it came to this and why they did not intervene earlier, you use all your skills, knowledge and lastly intuition to assess situations, you talk it over with colleagues, managers etc. You liase with other professionals involved with the family, this child was already on the at risk register surely when it was attending A&E this was being reported back to the social worker involved in the case. The buck has to start with those immediately involved with this family as they have a code of professional conduct to adhere to and only then should we be looking at senior management and goverment bodies involvement.
- Eileen, Sutton, Surrey, 07/12/2008 10:24
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The summer will ask what we did in the winter?
- Kenny Richards, Caernarfon, North Wales, 02/12/2008 11:55
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Will Ofsted who carried out their inspection of Haringey's children services last year and gave it a good report be held to account?
- Brendan, Manchester, 01/12/2008 18:28
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People lose their jobs every day as a result of poor performance or neglect and for far less serious issues compared to the baby P case.
Like many british citizens, i am incensed by a government who continue to be 'Re-Active' as opposed to 'Pro-Active.' Worse still, the manner in which they 'Sort it Out Amongst Themselves' can be deemed by many as corrupt.
Having experienced the loss of a loved one himself, Gordon Brown of all people should understand that this is a human life and one of just 17 months NOT POLITICS! We all know that Haringey is a labour run council and has been for a considerable time (POLITICS) but surely public outrage and the Sun newspaper petition containing 1.2 million names is living proof that the public want justice and for those social workers who had many opportunities to intervene and protect the baby be sacked with immediate effect.
Mr Brown no doubt loves and protects his own and this is a perfect opportunity for the Prime Minister to demonstrate that he has a GENUINE CARE for people in this country.
I sincerely hope that on this occasion, POLITICS is put to one side and the right decision is made.
- Carlo Di Manno, Woking, Surrey England, 27/11/2008 16:18
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i find it hard to name the people who did this horrendous thing to Baby P . but in my opinion ,as i am sure others will think the same... the social services ,the doctor also should all lose there jobs , they have been receiving there nice fat pay packets living there nice comfortable lives,while they were doing that an innocent child was being tortured yet again, now ms.shoesmith defends her department HOW BLOODY "DARE SHE " there are a lot of good dedicated social workers but there are an awful lot of bad ones ,which it seems come from Haringey" these people should be sacked immeadiatly, with no golden handshake""""& as for the doctor she should be struck off to say that she has not experienced abuse in children is total rubbish any human being would have spotted those injuries but she was a trained doctor there are NO EXCUSES ,, i do dispair ,& i hope this will not be brushed under the carpet waiting for it to quieten down we owe it to BABY P & ALL CHILDREN NOT TO LET IT!!!!!!!
- Margaret Ridler, liverpool merseyside, 19/11/2008 23:02
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Some regulation needs to be introduced that forbids or as a minimum severely limits the involvement of former colleagues as inspectors. It might be difficult logistically, but I'm sure some working format could be found - or at the very least sought.
- Carol Brown, London, 16/11/2008 22:16
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Do you have any idea where you might get people worthy of trust? Seems like that's a good idea, but not sure you or anyone else can implement it!
We (both the people of the UK and the States) get the government politicians we deserve, methinks.
- Ron C Clair, Sarasota, Fl., USA, 16/11/2008 13:50
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And I maintain that Crash Gordon knew damn well that 4 of 'his' McLabour MPs [previously the same 4 named Ministers who were made aware of Haringey's chaos by the
whistle-blower's lawyer] were 'involved' last Wednesday at PMQs when Cameron was wanting answers on Haringey regarding Baby P.
Brown wrongly thought that Cameron also knew about these 4 Labour cretins when he totally over-reacted by crazily [mistakenly and falsely] dirtily accused Cameron of 'playing party politics' with Baby P.
- Dave, cumbria, 15/11/2008 11:11
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Labour at it's very best = incompetence.
Labour at it's very worse = corruption.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 15/11/2008 09:21
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This obviously goes right to the top. Today we have heard Cabinet ministers passed the buck to a quango which passed the buck to Ofsted whose impartiality is now in question. We must not stop until Baby P has some JUSTICE in death as he did not have in life!
- Susanna Smith, Newmarket Suffolk, 15/11/2008 00:27
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Sounds like another government and local authority whitewash to me. A child brutally killed but no one in the Social Services Department is to blame or gets the sack for an outstanding lack of vigilance even after 60 visits being made. Pathetic!
- D Holmes, Carmarthen Wales, 14/11/2008 15:28
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Damn. Just for once I thought Ed Balls had done the right thing. Now we have to ask is this incompetence or something rather cunning?
- Bill G, Slough, 14/11/2008 15:24
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this is the the root of all Britains troubles. the politicians who in the main are niave,rely on the administraters to execute their demands and they the civil and public servants who are too are wordly wise, take them for all we have got while they immune themselves from any hardships. remember the pension hike, joe and joan publc lost out but had to fork out for the civil and public servant one. no we have been brain washed too long so may i suggest no more votes till the politicians produce people worthy of our trust.
- John Green, Nottingham uk, 14/11/2008 15:03
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Inspectors led by Juliet Winstanley, who worked under Ms Shoesmith, congratulated her former boss's department on providing "a good service for children"
SAYS IT ALL REALLY DOESN'T IT?
- P I Staker, London, 14/11/2008 13:10
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