Council in Baby P Panorama row (From Haringey Independent)

Council in Baby P Panorama row

9:46am Tuesday 18th November 2008

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Haringey Council has been accused of preventing Baby P being taken into foster care and over-ruling their own social workers.

The allegations, which were contained in last night's BBC Panorama documentary into Baby P's death, have been denied by the council.

In the half-hour programme into the death of 17-month-old Baby P, it was revealed a social worker raised concerns about the toddler's placement with a family friend, which were allegedly over-ruled by her boss.

The anonymous member of staff told reporter Alison Holt that she did not want to place Baby P in the care of his mother's friend Angela Godfrey. She alleges she was over-ruled by her boss.

Yesterday Haringey Council hit back denying these accusations. A council spokesman said: "This is not true. No concerns were raised regarding placement with the friend at the time of the placement."

The programme also alleges major disagreements between police and social services about whether to return Baby P home to his mother after her second arrest in June 2007.

The spokesman added it would expect a "rigorous discussion" between professionals and they wanted police to proceed "as quickly as possible".

The programme underlined a series of missed opportunities by health professionals to save Baby P from the systematic abuse at the hands of his family.

Haringey Council reiterated its apology for not doing more to protect him and insisted it was co-operating with the current investigation into its actions.

The results of the inquiry will be presented to education secretary Ed Balls on December 1.

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