Khyra Ishaq's death was preventable, says full serious case review

This is the first SCR to be published in full as part of the coalition government’s pledge to open up the reports to greater scrutiny of major cases.

Children’s professionals missed a raft of opportunities to intervene, the SCR found, with Birmingham City Council’s children’s services department receiving particular criticism.

Concerns about Khyra by school staff were not "properly heard" by children’s social care. Information was then inaccurately recorded and too much focus was placed on school attendance, rather than the increasingly aggressive behaviour of Kyra’s mother.

In addition, an initial assessment by children’s social workers was not completed. "As a result, children’s social care failed to accurately assess the risks," says the report.

Hilary Thompson, chairwoman of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children’s Board, which published the SCR, said: "Although the scale of the abuse inflicted would have been hard to predict, Khyra's death was preventable.

"The report identifies missed opportunities, highlighting that better assessment and information-sharing by key organisations could have resulted in a different outcome."

Khyra died in 2008, weighing less than three stone. She had been suffering from pneumonia and had around 60 injuries.

Khyra’s mother Angela Gordon and her schizophrenic boyfriend Junaid Abuhamza had subjected her to months of beatings and starvation, and were later convicted of child cruelty and manslaughter. Gordon is appealing against her 15-year prison term.

The SCR report also criticises the current laws regarding home schooling, as Gordon chose to educate Khyra at home.

It says: "Within current legislation, the assessment requirement for home education is weak and there is no mandate to monitor, assess or inspect the quality of home education provision once approval to home educate has occurred."

Education Secretary Michael Gove said that he will consider changes to the "existing arrangements" around home education, adding, "clearly lessons need to be learned by the tragic events in this case".