News round up: Haringey – Ministers ignored warnings

Haringey: Ministers ignored warnings

The government ignored a whistleblower’s plea for an investigation into Haringey Council’s failing social services department six months before the horrifying death of “Baby P”, The Independent has learnt. A former social worker at the council wrote to Patricia Hewitt, then Health Secretary, to highlight Haringey’s inadequacies in dealing with abuse claims.

Read more on this story in The Independent

Haringey issues apology after ‘anguish’ of Baby P case

The council of the London borough in which Baby P died, at the hands of his mother and two men, yesterday apologised and expressed “deep sadness” for the tragedy. The apology came as a fresh inquiry into the role of social workers in the case, the fourth review so far, was announced yesterday, as inspectors opened the investigation ordered by the children’s secretary, Ed Balls.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Police alerted hours before child killings

The family of a baby and his two-year-old brother who were stabbed to death at home expressed their complete devastation yesterday at the loss of their “beautiful, innocent” children.

A senior police officer described the scene inside the home in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, as “something no human being should ever have to see in their life”. Police and ambulance crews who attended the house have been offered counselling.

It emerged the family was known to social services, though the children were not on the at-risk register. The admission that the family was on the radar of social services is likely to once again focus attention on the efficiency of child protection measures in the wake of the death of Baby P in Haringey, north London.
Read more on this story in The Guardian

Academies accused of covert selection as number of poorer pupils falls

A major review of the government’s academy programme will conclude that results have improved markedly but that the proportion of pupils they take from the poorest homes has shrunk, the Guardian has learned.

The findings of the five-year independent inquiry are expected to support claims by critics that more able students are being selected to improve results.
Read more on this story in The Guardian

Council defies judge to ban family again from adoption

A council has defied a High Court ruling by refusing a caring family the right to adopt a girl because the father once smacked another child for swearing.
The original decision to ban the couple from adopting the half-sister of a boy they have raised for five years was described as bizarre and overturned by a judge last week.
Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

 

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