No shortcuts in child safety

This is not a new phenomenon. A "systemic failure" in Calderdale's

child protection services was identified in March 2009 following serious case reviews into the deaths of two children. Subsequent reports have been less than complimentary.

Equally, serious concerns have persisted at Leeds for 18 months after the failure of social services staff to carry out a basic assessment contributed, according to an official report, to the horrific rape and murder of toddler Casey Mullen by her psychopathic uncle – a tragedy, like so many, that could have been prevented.

Yet, despite both authorities repeatedly assuring residents that they have recruited more staff and overhauled procedures, they are among 10 councils named and shamed by Ofsted's annual report. Irrespective of the improvements undertaken, complacency is not an option. Indeed, by Calderdale's own admission, one in five initial assessments is still not undertaken within seven days.

Those served by these councils have every reason to be fearful. It was the corresponding Ofsted annual report two years ago that identified unforgivable weaknesses at Haringey and Doncaster Councils as the full horror of the Baby Peter case, and the deaths of several children in the care of the troubled South Yorkshire authority, painfully emerged.

These incidents, coupled with the failings in Doncaster which saw a pair of brothers, well-known to care agencies, torture two boys in Edlington, should have prompted every council in the country to ensure it had sufficient front-line staff.

This does not appear to be the case, although it is welcome that Doncaster and Haringey escaped censure yesterday – the belated progress achieved by both is welcome.

What is clear, however, is that too much is still being left to chance –it only takes one misjudgment for a child to be placed in peril – and that the number of frontline social services staff actually needs to increase, rather than decrease, in the spending reappraisal now underway.