Agencies abandoned Victoria

A PUBLIC inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie two years ago has called for radical reforms of child protection services in England.

Among the report's major proposals is the setting up of a children's commissioner to head a national agency.

The eight-year-old died from abuse and neglect while living with her aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning.

Victoria was seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers before she died, but all failed to spot and stop the abuse as she was slowly tortured to death.

Victoria's death triggered a wide- ranging inquiry headed by Lord Laming, who described it as the worst case of neglect he had ever heard of.

His year-long public inquiry identified social services departments at four London boroughs, two police forces, two hospitals, and a specialist children's unit who all failed to act when presented with evidence of abuse.

After Health Secretary Alan Milburn unveiled the report's key recommendations to the House of Commons, Lord Laming told a press conference the failings were "a disgrace".

In the report a number of key recommendations were made:

Children's commissioner appointed in England to head a new national agency for children and families;

chief constables to review police child protection units;

chief executives of local health services and local authorities to consider duties towards vulnerable children;

new social work degrees;

shorter, clearer guidance for one million professional staff dealing with protecting children;

police, health and social services have three-month deadlines to improve basic practice; and children's trusts to draw together local services for youngsters in a single organisation.

Lord Laming said: "In most cases, nothing more than a manager reading a file, or asking a basic question about whether standard practice had been followed, may have changed the course of these terrible events." In his report, he wrote: "The legislative framework is fundamentally sound the gap is in the implementation." Lord Laming said the greatest failure lay with senior managers and those in charge of staffing and financing these services. But he believes the publicity during the inquiry had already caused some improvements.

His report proposed the national agency would report to a ministerial committee and attempt to improve co-ordination between groups responsible for child protection.

Mr Milburn said the relevant agencies had more than a dozen opportunities within 10 months to act to save Victoria Climbie but failed to do so.

"This was not a failing on the part of one service, it was a failing on the part of every service," he said.

He said "good practice" on their part could have saved her life.

"We cannot undo the wrongs done to Victoria Climbie but we can seek to put right for others what so fundamentally failed for her," he added.

When Victoria died, on February 25, 2000, she had 128 separate injuries on her body, including cigarette burns, scars where she had been hit by a bicycle chain and hammer blows to her toes. She was also forced to sleep in a bin liner in the bath at the home in Tottenham, north London, where she lived with Kouao and Manning.

Both were jailed for life for her murder in January 2001.