Councils still missing signs of child abuse
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Children's workers are still failing to identify and report signs that a youngster is the victim of abuse, inspectors warned today.
In its annual report, Ofsted said it was a "cause for concern" that almost a third of the serious case reviews (SCRs) it evaluated this year were inadequate.
Serious case reviews are conducted by local authorities when a child dies, is the victim of serious harm, or where abuse or neglect is known or suspected.
This year - 2008-09 - inspectors have evaluated double the number of SCRs compared with the previous year.
The watchdog warned that safeguarding children was "too important to leave until we can be confident that everything possible is being done to keep children and young people safe".
The report adds: "Events such as the Baby P tragedy have clearly shown we are not there yet."
Figures from the report show:
* Some 29 per cent of SCRs were judged to be inadequate, 43 per cent were rated adequate, and 28 per cent were found to be good. None was outstanding;
* Ofsted was notified about 414 serious incidents by councils between September last year and this August;
* In that period, it conducted 199 evaluations of SCRs. The previous year it evaluated 90.
In the SCRs which were found to be inadequate, inspectors identified many of the same poor practices as in the previous year. These included "a failure of staff across agencies to identify and report signs of abuse" - this includes social workers.
There was also "poor recording and communication, and a failure to consider the situation from the child's perspective".
Too often, professionals "took the word of parents at face value without considering the effects on the child".
And in some cases "factors relating to drug and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, mental illness and learning difficulties were often not properly taken into account".
Officials were "particularly poor" at assessing the impact of long-term neglect on children, the report said.
Ofsted Chief Inspector Christine Gilbert said: "Whilst most local authorities are providing good services to protect vulnerable children, there are still too many that are inadequate in this vital respect.
"If practice for protecting children is poor, the consequences can be devastating."