Editorial: The right reaction to Baby P's death is vital

Now let's be clear: Baby P's death was wholly avoidable. The Haringey serious case review pinpoints a number of failures to intervene. People must be held to account.

However, if we're not careful, the ensuing flurry of reviews and media blame game could make matters worse, not better, by crippling confidence among social care and child health professionals. There's a danger good practitioners will begin to doubt their own judgment and obsess over procedure and process, spending more time on paperwork to cover their backs, and less time with client families.

There is a further risk of practitioners becoming cautious about building relationships with clients and more prone to start care proceedings for those children who are actually better off with their family. Parents facing difficulties might be more reticent about contacting children's social services for fear of their children being taken into care. The ripples of shattered confidence resulting from the anger and emotion of this case spread far and wide. Good people could be put off from entering the safeguarding workforce or working with children and young people full stop.