Every agency slammed over Baby P's death

A serious case review concluded that the toddler suffered as a result of incompetence on the part of almost every agency involved in his case, from social workers to doctors, lawyers and police.

It said that the 17-month-old's death could have been prevented but the approach of the majority of staff who played a role was "completely inadequate."

The toddler's mother, Tracey Connelly, named her violent boyfriend as her next-of-kin on an official form but the authorities still failed to discover he was living with her, the documents revealed.

Child protection staff also continued to believe Connelly's innocent explanations for the suspicious injuries that her son kept suffering.

Peter Connelly died in August 2007 at home in Haringey, north London, after months of abuse.

The 17-month-old boy had suffered more than 50 injuries, and had been visited 60 times by the authorities in the eight months before he died.

His mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were jailed last year for causing or allowing Peter's death.

Publishing the serious case review into Peter's death in full for the first time, Children's Minister Tim Loughton said he hoped it would bring "closure" to the case.

The report, chaired by independent child protection expert Graham Badman, was scathing about the decisions made by social workers, doctors, police and lawyers in December 2006.

It concluded: "(Peter's) horrifying death could and should have been prevented.

"If the assumptions and approaches described in this report had been applied by the four protecting professions, the developments in the case would have been stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident.

"(Peter) deserved better from the services which were there to protect him."

The report condemned the "incompetent" practice of the majority of those involved in Peter's care and their "completely inadequate" approach to meeting the challenges of his case.

Children's Minister Tim Loughton said there was a "certain complacency" to the first serious case review presided over by sacked children's services director Sharon Shoesmith.

He added: "I think it was insufficiently thorough and insufficiently critical at trying to find out the underlying problems and the way that certain agencies did not interact with each other."

Mr Loughton said he wanted the documents published so everyone involved in the tragedy could move on and "that agencies can be held to account and lessons properly learned."

The second case review criticised the attitude of child protection professionals, who regarded Peter as a "routine case" who suffered injuries "as a matter of course".

It said officials took an "insufficiently serious view" when the little boy first came to their attention in December 2006, when he was just 11 months old.

The report highlighted officials' failure to establish Barker's identity, interview him and carry out background checks. It also condemned the failure of social workers to question Connelly about her abusive boyfriend.

This latest report is the second review into the case of the toddler. The first review was an internal investigation completed by Haringey Social Services.

Parts of that report had already been published which also revealed there were six opportunities to save the toddler's life.

Fresh scrutiny for sacked chief

The release of the report yesterday brought fresh scrutiny onto sacked children's services chief Sharon Shoesmith's handling of the mistakes of social workers under her management.

She was dismissed as Haringey's director of children's services in December 2008 following a critical report into her department, commissioned by then Children's Secretary Ed Balls. Ms Shoesmith, from Mirfield, near Huddersfield has taken her appeal against her sacking to the High Court.