BRITAIN'S LABOUR Government found itself at the centre of mounting outrage over the Baby P case yesterday after it emerged that ministers were warned about failing child protection procedures in Haringey Council six months before the 17-month-old child died.
Lawyers for former social worker Nevres Kemal confirmed they wrote in February 2007 to then health secretary Patricia Hewitt and two junior health ministers - as well as to Tottenham MP and then culture minister David Lammy - warning that children were again at risk in the London borough, where eight-year-old Victoria Climbie was tortured to death in 2000.
Baby P died in August 2007 at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and another man, whose systematic cruelty and torture went undetected, despite some 60 visits by social workers, police and health care professionals in an eight-month period during which the child suffered more than 50 injuries including eight broken ribs and a broken back.
Prime minister Gordon Brown rejected Tory complaints that ministers had engaged in "bureaucratic buck-passing" following the emergence of the whistleblower, who is currently the subject of an injunction.
But Ms Kemal's lawyer, Lawrence Davies, claimed his client had been "pushed from pillar to post" in her attempt to alert the authorities to the fact that new statutory child protection procedures introduced following the Climbie case were not being followed.
Mr Brown's spokesman insisted: "There is an appropriate body for complaints regarding social care. "It is right that complaints should be directed to the Commission for Social Care Inspection to take appropriate action."
Ms Kemal's lawyers did in fact alert the commission after being told by the department for children, schools and families (DCSF) that ministers could not comment on the specific details raised by her in the context of an employment tribunal case.
Yesterday's Daily Mailrevealed that Ms Kemal was suspended from her job but that an employment tribunal subsequently found she had been "targeted for a witch hunt" by her management, and ordered an undisclosed sum in compensation.
Mr Davies told BBC Radio 4's Todayprogramme: "If the social care inspectorate had acted on it or the ministers had acted on it, it seems hard to believe that the situation in which Baby P was seen 60 times in total . . . presumably several times after February [when the lawyers wrote], couldn't have been averted."
Mr Davies also confirmed that his client, who no longer works for Labour-controlled Haringey council, was unable to discuss the case as a result of an injunction obtained by the local authority preventing her from doing so.
Following their failure to prompt a ministerial intervention, Mr Davies said: "We just went full circle, really. By that time we had an injunction against us so we couldn't go back to the inspectorate. The inspectorate had been properly advised at the time and had done nothing."
Mr Davies indicated he was seeking to have the injunction lifted because his client possessed information that would be of interest to the government inquiry into the Baby P case.
He said Ms Kemal - who was not involved with Baby P - had been effectively calling for a public inquiry into a situation that "seemed to be out of control".
Lord Laming, who led the inquiry into the Victoria Climbie case, spoke of his distress that another child known to the authorities had suffered a similar, violent death in the same borough. "What I had hoped was that Haringey would develop services that would make it an exemplar of good practice," he said.
"Although our recommendations were not directed only at Haringey, I had hoped they would be a sufficient stimulus for Haringey to say 'never again'."
Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was taken from his mother and released into the care of a friend in December 2006 following the intervention of GP Dr Jerome Iqwueke, who concluded that marks found on the baby suggested non-accidental injury.
But at the end of January 2007 social services returned Baby P to his mother, despite the opposition of police, whose investigation into alleged child abuse had not been completed. On August 2nd that year the police finally confirmed they were dropping their investigation. Baby P was pronounced dead less than 24 hours later.
Astonishingly, according to yesterday's reports, Baby P's mother subsequently gave birth to a baby girl in prison and police had to overrule social workers who wanted to let her keep the child, saying: "We need to let her bond."
Last night the boy's natural father, who also cannot be named, spoke of his anger at the three responsible for his son's death. "Those who systematically tortured P and killed him kept it a secret, not just from me but from all the people who visited the house up until his death," he said. "Even after he died, they lied to cover up their abuse."