Exclusive: Too scared to stop torture boys

The Audit Commission is considering a snap inspection into the running of the authority, where just one person has been brought to book over multiple failings that led to the attack in Edlington. This was despite the fact that the brothers and their family had been known to social services for 14 years.

A report released yesterday revealed that officials missed a chance to prevent the assault on the victims, aged nine and 11, just days before it took place in April last year. It said the attackers should have been removed from their family, where they suffered "sustained exposure to violence and neglect".

As the brothers, aged 11 and 12, were sentenced yesterday to an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of five years detention, a string of failings was revealed in an official report. It said 10 separate agencies had been in contact with the family, including police, health workers and the fire service, while the pair showed an "escalating pattern of violence" against other children and adults.

But it added: "The very serious and escalating pattern of violent behaviour in education and in the community was never examined and analysed within the context of their home and family. An important reason for that failure was the reluctance of Children's Social Care services to become involved."

When the boys were removed from their home they were placed with elderly foster parents who lived near the new home of their abusive father.

The council said that fact was not known to it, and insisted that the foster parents were "experienced".

Doncaster's interim director of children's services, Nick Jarman, offered an apology over the failings highlighted in the report, released by the town's independent safeguarding children board, and said an independent investigation had been commissioned.

He vowed that the findings of the probe would be made public but said he could not discuss the case of the person who faced disciplinary action, as a hearing was due in the next few weeks.

Mr Jarman said when he arrived in Doncaster in April to take over Children's Services the department was "dangerously broken" and he described what had happened in Edlington as a "catastrophe". But he defended the council's decision to publish only a summary of the report into the case, saying the authority was "following Government guidelines".

The MP for Don Valley which covers Edlington, Caroline Flint, told the Yorkshire Post the attack "should not have happened" and spoke of her concerns over suggestions that problems in social services had been hidden from elected councillors.

"I think it is worrying that there has not been a more open situation," she said. "Elected members of the council were not kept informed which meant that they were not able to see how the service was performing and not able to take action."

The chief executive of children's charity NSPCC, Andrew Flanagan, said social services departments should learn lessons from the case and added: "(It]raises serious questions about how children can be left to drift in homes seriously damaged by violence and neglect. Where families cannot give their children a decent start in life, the authorities need to act swiftly and robustly – both for their sake and the rest of society."

An inspection carried out by the Audit Commission would look at the whole authority. Children's services in Doncaster are effectively already being run from Whitehall after seven children died while on the at-risk register of the social services department.

After the sudden resignation of council managing director Paul Hart last week, citing "personal reasons", the Department for Communities and Local Government admits it is "keeping a close eye" on the running of the council.

A spokesman added: "The Audit Commission is reviewing whether there needs to be a corporate governance inspection and is discussing this with the council."

The lost opportunities

n Too much reliance on using agreements and warnings to address brothers' increasingly violent behaviour.

n Not enough planning or leadership within Children's Services at the council.

n Education services failed to ensure attackers were attending school.

n High reliance on interim and temporary staff to deal with case.

n Independent psychological report carried out on the boys was "ignored" by staff.

n Focus of social workers was the boys' mother, and staff treated them as "naughty boys".