Morning:
9°c
The catalogue of public service failures which led to the death of Haringey toddler Baby P is not over yet.
Probes of the children's services department at Haringey council have already brought resignations because the 78 contacts with care professionals in his short life did not trigger a decision to remove him permanently from his now-jailed mother and her boyfriend.
However, our report today makes it clear that there were also deep-rooted problems at the St Ann's clinic, the place where a locum doctor failed to spot Baby P's broken back two days before his injuries finally led to his death.
The clinic was run jointly by Haringey Primary Care Trust and by Great Ormond Street Hospital, which provided the doctors. A year before Baby P died, four consultants there warned managers of staff shortages and chaotic record-keeping.
These factors were among those that proved fatal in Baby P's case. Even though he was seen so often by social workers, police and NHS staff in his life of just 17 months, he was not taken into care for good. The doctor who failed to detect his broken back was not even aware that he was on the at-risk register.
But failure to ensure adequate communication, contrary to the recommendations of the Laming report into the death of Victoria Climbié, is not the only issue in the NHS's role in the case.
Two of the four consultants who had issued warnings later resigned. As for the other two, Great Ormond Street, which has now taken over the clinic entirely, has serious questions to answer about the circumstances of their departure.
A report from the Care Quality Commission is due tomorrow, and another investigation is being carried out by NHS London. None of this will bring back the baby now known as Peter.
But there are unknown numbers of other children who will remain at risk if all the agencies concerned do not learn the lessons of his case.
Unfair charge
National Express is to charge travellers on lines into King's Cross and Liverpool Street £2.50 to reserve a seat, in addition to the ticket price.
This is nothing but a fare increase by another name. As this newspaper's Seat for Every Commuter campaign has made clear, a train ticket should guarantee a seat, not standing room only. Fares on these routes have already gone up by far more than inflation this year. Piling on extra charges for what should be part of the service anyway is an abuse of the rail company's effective monopoly.
It makes Ryanair's proposed charge of £1 to use the lavatory look like the height of enlightened customer care. Lord Adonis, the transport minister, has been praised for his journey around the country disguised as an ordinary rail user, without entourage or special privileges.
He should now make it clear to rail companies that using charges like this to boost their returns on unregulated fares is no way to treat the customer.
If this price rise in disguise is not removed, it will be a black mark on National Express's record when the time eventually comes around for franchise renewal.
We salute the bear
Britain's best-known and best-loved illegal immigrant, Paddington Bear, is the star of today's paper.
In a splendid despatch sent to us via Mr Michael Bond, the bear from Darkest Peru reflects on his time in London, on bendy buses, on taxi-drivers, on the Beefeaters (why not, he thinks, try lamb or pork?) and on the G20 summit, where his friend and protector Mr Brown (who is “something in the City”) was unavoidably detained by the police.
Here, as in Mr Bond's best-selling children's books, what is apparent is Paddington's cheerful curiosity, his willingness to think well of everyone and his delight in being a Londoner by adoption.
We salute this peerless bear, and his creator. It seems extraordinary, given the extent to which Paddington has enhanced the lives of so many, that Mr Bond has not been rewarded with a more substantial honour than an OBE.
Something, surely, that the other Mr Brown ought to remedy?
