Concern at failings in child abuse inquiries

One in six of the serious case reviews assessed by children's services watchdog Ofsted during the 12 months up to March this year was found to be "inadequate", according to a new report.

Around 42 per cent were judged to be "good" and the same proportion were rated as "adequate" but none was outstanding.

Ofsted said it was still of concern that 23 of the 147 reviews it examined were inadequate.

Inspectors assessed 15 reviews carried out by councils in the region.

Nine were found to be good, five were adequate and one into a case of child abuse in North East Lincolnshire was rated as inadequate.

Serious case reviews are carried out after a child dies or is seriously injured through neglect or abuse to see what lessons can be learned. These investigations are then evaluated by Ofsted.

Last year Doncaster Council was named among the country's worst performers.

The authority had faced fierce criticism after it was revealed that seven children known to the town's social services have died since 2004.

Last year Ofsted said a third of the serious case reviews it inspected into suspected cruelty cases in Doncaster were inadequate.

However today's report found that three of the four reviews carried out by the council in 2009-10 and assessed by Ofsted were good with the other being adequate.

The Ofsted report into 147 reviews conducted between April 2009 and March 2010 covered 194 children – the majority of whom were aged five or under. Some reviews covered more than one child, and 90 related to cases where children had died.

In almost two-thirds of the cases the child involved was known to children's social services at the time of the incident and 25 per cent were subject to a child protection plan.

The watchdog's chief inspector Christine Gilbert said it was "encouraging" that fewer reviews nationally were being judged as poor.

But the report said: "While this progress reflects the high level of attention that has been given to serious case reviews, nationally and by most Local Safeguarding Children Boards, it is still of concern that inspectors found 23 reviews evaluated during this period to be inadequate."

The report also found that many reviews are not being completed quickly enough.

While 60 were completed in the set six-month timescale, 60 took up to 12 months, 19 took between one and two years and eight took more than two years.

The study found that many of the cases reviewed showed there are still persistent shortcomings in the protection of vulnerable children.

Agencies such as health, social services and the police failed to work together on some occasions, while in others workers accepted and failed to challenge the information given to them by parents and carers.

Ofsted's report comes just days after two previously secret, detailed, serious case reviews into the 2007 death of Baby P, now named as Peter Connelly, showed a catalogue of failings by the agencies involved in his case.