Baby P: Ed Balls Statement In Full And Sun’s Failed Campaign
Furthermore, in the particular case of Baby P, Ofsted has judged the Serious Case Review into his death to be inadequate.
Having studied the nine individual agency management reports on which the Serious Case Review is based, the inspectors judged:
– only three to be good;
– one to be adequate;
– and five to be inadequate – with the reports from Haringey children’s social care services and the Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust judged to “lack rigour in their analysis and thus significantly undermine the integrity of the serious case review.”
And they conclude that:
“As a result, the serious case review misses important opportunities to ensure lessons are learned.”
Overall, the Inspectors’ findings are – I have to say – devastating.
Their report sets out detailed recommendations, all of which must now be accepted in full. And having studied their report, I have decided to take immediate action.
My first priority is to put in place a new leadership and management team in Haringey children’s services to ensure that vulnerable children in the borough are properly protected.
I have directed Haringey Council to appoint John Coughlan as Director of Children’s Services. Haringey Council will now remove the current Director of Children’s Services from her post with immediate effect.
Mr Coughlan is one of the most highly respected Directors of Children’s Services in the country – and I am grateful that he has agreed to extend his secondment to Haringey to manage the transition to new management.
My direction takes place under section 497A (4B) of the Education Act 1996. It takes immediate effect and will last until 31 December 2008. I will identify a new Director of Children’s Services to take up post from 1 January 2009 – and it is my intention to direct this appointment too.
As a result of my direction, Mr Coughlan will now be in charge of making all appointments in Haringey children’s services. He has decided that Libby Blake should be appointed as his deputy
So I am also directing her appointment. Ms Blake is currently seconded to Haringey from Kensington and Chelsea where she is Director for Family Services. I have asked Mr Coughlan to consider and address any immediate staffing issues raised by the Baby P case.
Mr Coughlan will consider further staffing capability in Haringey children’s services in the coming days. I am sure that he will have the full support of all Haringey staff as he prepares to implement the recommendations of the Inspectors’ report. I have asked Mr Coughlan and his successor to provide me with monthly reports.
I have also asked Ofsted to review the progress made on the implementation of the Inspectors’ recommendations and report to me by the end of June. On the basis of these regular reports and the report from Ofsted, I will then decide whether further sanction is needed – and in particular whether I should use my statutory powers to require the Council to enter into a contractual arrangement with an external provider for the delivery of some or all of its’ children’s services.
And in the mean time, if I am not satisfied that there is sufficient progress, I will not hesitate to intervene again.
But I believe that I need to go further now to ensure that all the Inspectors’ findings are acted upon across all local agencies and that all the lessons of the Baby P case are learned and acted upon.
It is unacceptable that the Serious Case Review into the death of Baby P was found inadequate. So I am also today directing Haringey Council, under Section 7A of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, to appoint a new and independent Chair of its Local Safeguarding Children Board.
Mr Graham Badman, who last week retired as Director of Children’s Services in Kent, has agreed to take up this post. He will start work this week. I have asked him immediately to begin a new Serious Case Review into the death of Baby P. He will submit the new Serious Case Review to Ofsted by the end of February for evaluation. And he will publish the executive summary of the new Serious Case Review – which must provide a full and comprehensive and fair summary of the full Serious Case Review – by the end of March.
This new Serious Case Review will require the commissioning of new management reports from – and the co-operation of – all agencies involved in child protection in Haringey. And all agencies must also now implement the wider recommendations made in the Inspectors’ report.
The Health Secretary is therefore announcing this afternoon that the Healthcare Commission will undertake an analysis of whether national child protection standards are being applied as vigorously as they should be, while the Chief Executive of the NHS will also ask all NHS organisations to review their child protection arrangements.
Posted: 1st, December 2008 | In: Key Posts, Politicians Comments (13) | TrackBack | Permalink
