Baby deaths as a result of abuse rise since Baby P

Deaths increased from 46 for the whole of 2008 to 56 just in the first 10 months of 2009. Taken as a monthly average, this represents a 46 per cent increase between 2008 and 2009. The figures have been obtained from Ofsted under a Freedom of Information request by Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming.

Hemming, who is chair of campaign group Justice for Families, claimed increased bureaucracy and pressure on social workers to respond to a surge in referrals had led to "the wrong children being taken into care".

"A lot more children have been taken into care, accompanied by an increase in babies not in care dying from neglect or abuse. The response to Baby Peter has been counter-productive," he said. "Social workers are overwhelmed by the number of referrals and too many are chasing things where they should be able to close the file."

Nushra Mansuri, joint manager of the British Association of Social Workers, rejected the claim that some children were being taken into care inappropriately. But she added: "There is a mismatch between current resources and needs. We're not doing enough to protect all vulnerable children because we are spread so thin."

Last week the government announced it would invest £23m to alleviate pressure on frontline services. A further £15m will be spent on improving local IT systems. It also scrapped Lord Laming's recommendation that all referrals should lead to a full initial assessment.