Revealed: 210 children were killed by abuse in 16 months

A TOTAL of 210 children, 21 of them babies, died of abuse or neglect in only 16 months in England, it was revealed today.

The "horrific" figure - equivalent to three deaths a week - was revealed by the schools and social work watchdog Ofsted to MPs on the Commons schools select committee who are investigating the Baby P tragedy.

MPs said they feared another Baby P after hearing of Ofsted's failure to police councils. They described the announcement by Michael Hart, head of Ofsted's children's department, that "something like 12 a month" were dying from abuse and neglect, as "the most horrific figures ever brought into the public domain".

Tory MP Graham Stuart said: "We are talking about more than three children every week in this country killed by abuse. That is a horrific statistic."

Committee chairman, Labour MP Barry Sheerman, told the Ofsted officials: "You bring us the most horrific figures ever brought into the public domain I am not confident at all that there isn't another Haringey waiting to happen."

Earlier estimates had suggested that one child died from abuse every week or 10 days.

The new figure of 210 in 16 months represents a far higher rate than previously believed. Ofsted said it had been back over its records for the period to check the accuracy of the figures.

The revelation came amid a national outcry over the tragic case of Baby P in Haringey. Aged 17 months, he had more than 50 injuries, including a broken back when he was found dead in his cot in August last year.

He had been on Haringey's child protection register for nearly half his life, and was visited 60 times by health and social workers.

In October 2006, a full Ofsted inspection of Haringey warned there were problems recruiting enough social workers in the borough and expressed concerns over child protection.

But a year later, another Ofsted study based only on follow-up paperwork congratulated Haringey for improving "the life chances" of children.

Inspectors praised the council's director of children's services at the time, Sharon Shoesmith, for providing a "good service" to children.

Ofsted's chief inspector was grilled over the verdicts by MPs on the committee today.

Asked to justify rating Haringey as "good" in the study weeks after Baby P died, Ms Gilbert blamed Haringey for providing inspectors with misleading data. But she admitted that all the evidence on which the report was based had been destroyed.

She told the MPs that it was standard to destroy all the data and notes taken for these annual desk-based reports after three months.

But Mr Sheerman said it was impossible to know whether Ofsted had been misled by Haringey or simply failed to do its job. "It is not clear to me what the evidence trail is if you destroyed the records after three months," he said.

"Shouldn't we keep that material, especially in safeguarding children?"

Ms Gilbert said Ofsted was setting up a "whistleblowers' hotline" for social workers to call if they are concerned that children are falling through the net and promised Ofsted's inspections in future would involve monitoring the work of staff on the ground and not just reviewing paperwork from an office.

Mr Sheerman called for one Ofsted inspector to be permanently based in every council to keep proper checks on child protection systems.

Mr Stuart later told Prime Minister's Questions that the "death toll of the innocent" showed there was "something profoundly wrong with our society". Prime Minister Gordon Brown replied: "We have to do everything in our power to prevent the needless loss of young life as a result of child abuse."

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