Baby P entered popular consciousness last week as another Victoria Climbie. He died in the same London borough - Haringey - 15 months ago. Two men have just been convicted of causing, or allowing, his death. The mother pleaded guilty to the same. Children's Secretary Ed Balls responded by asking Lord Laming to examine progress on recommendations made in his Climbie inquiry. He then took the unprecedented step of ordering inspectors to conduct an urgent joint area review of safeguarding in Haringey.
Crucially then, what are the implications for those working with children and young people? Unlike Victoria Climbie, the death of Baby P does not reflect a failure of information sharing between professionals. "This is about practice, not procedure and process," says Colin Green, safeguarding spokesman at the Association of Directors of Children's Services. "Fundamentally, you need to look at what people actually did and why they did not see what seems obvious in hindsight."
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