Haringey children's services faces renewed criticism

The Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board serious case review follows the admittance of the toddler, who is referred to as Child Y, to hospital in 2008 suffering from a leg fracture that was inconsistent with his mother's claim that he fell off his bed.

Child Y was taken into care, but the serious case review details how a catalogue of opportunities to help Child Y before he was taken to hospital were missed.

Haringey's children's services came in for particular criticism for assessing the risk of abuse to Child Y as low level when he was born, despite his mother being just 15 and her boyfriend, who was 17 at the time, having already served three custodial sentences for violence.

The serious case review report says: "The response by Haringey children's social care to Ms Y's pregnancy in 2005/06 and Y's birth was insufficient - based on an inadequate assessment of vulnerability and risk for both parents as individuals, and as teenage parents.

"The mistaken view of the case as ‘low level' continued to influence the professional network until Y's injury."

Haringey's children and young people cabinet member Lorna Reith said: "We have accepted all the recommendations of the review and are addressing the issues identified by the local safeguarding children's board.
"These improvements form part of our wider programme of work that is well under way to bring the standards of our children's service up to the level of the best, to ensure families and children in Haringey get the support they need."

The council's children's services team is already under close scrutiny following the death of Baby Peter in Haringey in 2007.

This latest serious case review adds: "For professionals and public alike, it remains perplexing that practitioners, managers and professional networks, apparently, make the same mistakes over and over again."