Carers missed chance to save Toni-Ann

Blundering care workers missed opportunities to save the life of a seven-year-old murdered alongside a crack dealer, an official report has revealed.

Council chiefs were today unable to explain why a social worker failed to visit Toni-Ann Byfield six days before she was shot in the back in a Harlesden hostel in September last year. He had been ordered to visit her in the week beginning 8 September "to take control of the situation" after she was found to have disappeared the previous month with a man thought to be her father, in breach of her care rules. A new allegation that she had been sexually abused was also ignored.

Toni-Ann was murdered on 14 September by an unknown gunman who also killed Bertram Byfield, 42. DNA results have since shown that Byfield, who had previously-been sentenced to nine years for crack cocaine dealing, was not her biological father - a fact unknown to him or her mother, Roselyn Richards.

Today Birmingham Area Child Protection Committee published the findings of a report into how the council's social services

department lost track of the child's whereabouts when it let her move to London last year, into the care of a woman thought to be Bertram Byfield's great-aunt. It is now understood that the woman was a former girlfriend of his.

The report reveals that the council knew on 3 September that Toni-Ann and Byfield had disappeared for six days in August. A social worker was then told to visit her in London to check on her care arrangements. But the visit never took place and Toni-Ann was killed only days later.

The council allowed Toni-Ann to go to London because her Birmingham foster parents were on holiday abroad, and immigration service delays meant they were unable to obtain a passport for her.

The report shows how care professionals continually placed Byfield's needs as a parent above Toni-Ann's - despite the council's partial knowledge of his criminal past and the fact that some interviews were conducted while he was in custody.

A children's guardian appointed by a government agency to oversee the actions of the social worker, and the social worker's team leader, also failed, the independent inquiry by social services inspector David Lambert finds.

All three staff are still in their jobs, though both social workers no longer work with children and are understood to be facing further disciplinary action in the wake of the report. None have been named.

The report criticised all three for "seriously inadequate" checks on Byfield and his "great-aunt". The professionals failed to check their backgrounds with the Metropolitan police or Brent council, despite Brent's concerns about both.

The report says Toni-Ann should have been visited weekly by her social worker during her five weeks in the capital, but states: "During her stay in London, Toni-Ann was seen once by the local authority social worker and, apart from one other telephone contact, it is difficult to conclude this allowed adequate opportunity to assess the child's wishes and feelings."

Peter Hay, Birmingham's social care director, said today: "We would acknowledge serious failings in the way we dealt with this case."

The report found care professionals guilty of "unsafe practice" in failing to carry out the weekly visits and investigate the allegation of child abuse.