New child scandal at Baby P council after 10 starving children covered in lice taken into care

[Alison J Stevens]

New child scandal at Baby P council after 10 starving children covered in lice taken into care

• Case presided over by shamed boss Sharon Shoesmith

By Kirsty Walker

PUBLISHED: 23:24, 27 April 2012 | UPDATED: 23:24, 27 April 2012

 

More scandal: Haringey council's former head of children's services Sharon Shoesmith (above), who was sacked over the Baby P case, presided over another child abuse crisis involving the neglect of ten youngsters

The shamed council boss at the centre of the Baby P case has presided over another child abuse scandal, it emerged yesterday.

A damning report into the horrific neglect of ten children in Haringey, North London, blamed ‘wholly dysfunctional’ management at the council department meant to protect them – led by Sharon Shoesmith.

Police found the children, aged from eight months to 16 years, filthy, starving and covered in lice following a tip-off from a member of the public in  April 2009.

An independent report into the case said the family had been known to Haringey Council’s social services department since July 2002 – seven years before the children were rescued.

It blamed a ‘wholly dysfunctional’ management culture for social workers’ failure to spot they were being abused.

The management of the department, it found, was ‘overbearing’, ‘dysfunctional’ and ‘shouty’.

The report added: ‘Anxiety bred a culture of harassment and bullying.’ It said the management style left staff ‘demotivated’ and feeling unable to challenge decisions.

It also noted there was a high turnover of staff who dealt with the family.

 

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Miss Shoesmith, who is not named in the report, was in charge of children’s services in the borough between April 2005  and December 2008, most of the time that the family was being monitored.

She was sacked over the Baby P case and is battling for compensation of £1million.

In February 2006, all ten of the boys and girls were placed on a Child Protection Register.

 

Damages claim: Miss Shoesmith is battling for compensation of £1million after being sacked over the case of Baby P (above) who died from abuse in 2007

But despite social workers being refused access to the house and facing ‘open hostility’ from the parents, the children were removed from the register ten months later.

The report found that between January 2007 and April 2009,  no social worker, police or health professional saw the children’s bedrooms.

After they repeatedly failed to turn up at school, Haringey’s Education Welfare Service manager wrote a desperate email to social services in December 2008.

It read: ‘How can we rule out neglect if no-one has seen the children?’ The reply came back  that their case did not ‘meet  the threshold for any kind of strategy meeting’.

The report found: ‘By April 2009, when the children were taken into police protection, it is the view of the Review Team that they had been allowed to live in appalling conditions for at least five months too long. The appropriate action of police came too late for these children.’

The children’s mother was jailed for 18 months in April last year  for child cruelty, but has now  been released.

Her ex-partner was also jailed for five child cruelty offences.  Last year the Supreme Court refused to allow an appeal against a ruling that Miss Shoesmith was unfairly dismissed.

Peter Connelly, known as Baby P, went on Haringey’s child protection list eight months before he died from abuse in August 2007, aged 17 months.

Councillor Lorna Reith from Haringey Council, said: ‘This review covers a period when there were serious shortcomings in our children’s safeguarding services and we apologise unreservedly for the past failures identified.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2136422/Haringey-council-Ne...