Action promised on 'inadequate' child protection inquiries
Three out of four serious case reviews into child protection standards in Northamptonshire have been judged to be inadequate, according to a Government watchdog inspection.
Ofsted ordered a review of four inquiries, which took place in the county between April and August 2007, and revealed yesterday three of them failed to meet expected standards.
Serious Case Reviews (SCR) are conducted after the most serious cases of abuse, and help councils learn from any mistakes in their system for protecting vulnerable children.
They have been increasingly scrutinised in the past few weeks following the death of 17-month-old Baby P in north London.
In response to the initial Ofsted report, a spokeswoman for Northamptonshire's Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) said the council would always act on recommendations following a SCR.
She said: "The board, which is independently chaired, has a strong focus on improving work to safeguard children in Northamptonshire.
"We take very seriously both the issues that have arisen from recent coverage of the Baby P case and the outcomes of the serious case reviews that have been undertaken in Northamptonshire.
"For some time we have proactively used the Serious Case Review process to inform and improve cross-agency practice. We have always used independent authors for these reviews. We act on recommendations resulting from reviews and have made significant improvements as a result.
"Agencies will continue to work as hard as possible to protect children and young people."
Three people were suspended from Haringey Council yesterday after a "damning" inspectors' report into the case of Baby P.
The toddler was systematically abused by his mother, her boyfriend and their lodger and died after suffering a broken back and broken ribs. The case came eight years after the same council was heavily criticised for its child protection systems in the wake of the death of Victoria Climbie.
Sally Keeble, Labour MP for Northampton North, said: "It's important the county council looks at this and learns from it. We need to make sure that if failings need to be put right, that is what happens. People cannot go into a bunker and claim things are not as bad as they seem.
"A lot of the failings are not judgments, they are processes. Processes are easier to put right and the council must ensure this is what happens."
In the past year five serious case reviews were published by the LSCB in Northamptonshire.
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