Third of child case reviews are inadequate say inspectors

SOCIAL workers are failing to learn the lessons from cases in which a child is killed by suspected abuse, inspectors warned today.

When a child dies or suffers serious harm and abuse or neglect is suspected, councils, health workers and the police are required to investigate what went wrong and whether they could have done more to protect the victim.

Ofsted inspectors found that one in three of these serious case reviews they evaluated over the past three months was "inadequate".

A spokeswoman for Ofsted said the number of inadequate reviews was "of great concern" to inspectors.

"If we are to prevent such incidents happening again, effective serious case reviews are of great importance."

She said there were "some early signs" that the quality of serious case reviews was improving.

The reviews assessed included Haringey's failed investigation into the death of Baby P. The 17-month old died in August 2007 after months of abuse and neglect despite being seen 60 times by social work and health professionals.

Councils must publish executive summaries of the serious case reviews but not the full reports, which are supposed to detail exactly what went wrong and who, if anyone, was to blame.

Ministers say publishing reports in full would deter staff from co-operating with investigations and make it harder to learn how to prevent future tragedies. But MPs called for the reports to be published in their entirety so "avoidable mistakes" are not repeated.

In London, Ofsted inspectors evaluated 10 serious case reviews and judged three as failures - in Haringey, Bexley and Kingston - and another three as barely adequate. Across England, 23 out of the 64 reviews assessed from December last year to the end of February were inadequate.

Shadow children's minister Tim Loughton called for the findings of reviews to be published in full. He added: "This will help everyone to learn the lessons of mistakes, will restore public confidence in the protection process and will ensure that no material facts are swept under the carpet."

Liberal Democrat children's spokesman David Laws said councils failed to learn lessons after the death of Victoria Climbie nine years ago and must make sure they learn from the Baby P case.