Baby P

Those of you who regularly watch the news will have heard all about the horrific life and death of Baby P, who died on Aug 3 2007 after being toutured by his mother and her boyfriend. After watching the BBC Panorama last night I thought I'd find out more information about Baby P.

Baby P was born on March 1 2006, and concerns for his care were first raised at just 3 weeks old when he was treated for oral thrush by his GP. However, the first injuries reported came on October 13 2006 when he was visited by GP Dr J Ikwueke for 'bruising to the head and chest' after an 'accidental fall downstairs'. He was admitted to Whittington Hospital for bruising to the forehead, nose and shoulder on December 11 2006, and was released into the care of Angela Godfrey. Baby P was then examined and referred to the Child Abuse investigation team. The police then embarked on investigations into alleged abuse and arrested the mother on December 19th, but she was later released on bail and allowed to keep custody of Baby P, who underwent a number of X-rays on his leg. The next major incident reported was on April 5 2007 when Baby P was seen by the Gp for bruising to his face, which was caused by another child pushing him into the fireplace according to his mother, and P is admitted to North Middlesex hospital for bruising and swelling to his head. June 8, P is registered for neglect and returns to hospital again with an ear infection and head lice. Finally on August 1 P is seen by locum doctor Sabah Al Zayyat who recorded that P was 'quite miserable and crying' which did not allow a full examination, Dr Zayyat missed that Baby P had a broken spine. Two days later emergency services were called to the home of Baby P who was pronounced dead at 12:10 in hospital on August 3 2007.

The mother was then arrested at 13:45 for the death of her child. Last week her 32 year old boyfriend and their lodger Jason Owen 36 were convicted of causing or allowing the death of Baby P. The mother 27 had also admitted to a similar charge previously.

Social services clearly failed this baby, they were fully aware of his situation and there was reportedly a foster family set up to receive Baby P seven months before his death, so the question has to be raised, why was Baby P left with his mother?

Maria Ward was the social worker in charge of Baby P's case and she was dealing with 18 cases at the time of his death, although the Haringey council's limit is 12 cases per social worker. Her situation closely mirrors that of Lisa Arthurworrey, the social worker responsible for Victoria Climbe, the 8 year old killed in 2000, who had a case load of 19 cases. Maria Ward had suggested on a number of occasions that Baby P be removed from his mother's custody yet her superiors overruled her saying the baby was better with his mother. Yet with 9 visits to hospital, more than 78 dealings with authorities and Haringey council and more than 50 injuries to his body Baby P was not removed from his mother's care. Surely with this level of evidence for abuse, and being seen by 28 different social workers, doctors and police officers before his death someone should have taken action well before he tragically died?

Because of his death there is now an urgent inquiry into the running of Haringey social services, with Children's Secretary Ed Balls stating that 'where serious mistakes are made there must be accountability and I will not hesitate in responding to what went wrong'. Decisions will be made after the outcome of the interim report into Baby P's death on December 1 as to who could potentially be heald accountable for Baby P's death, or what action will be taken if any. Yet with all this, it has still taken the brutal suffering and death of a 17 month old baby to bring to light the shortfalls in the social services in this country. One can only hope that from this horrific ordeal there will be other children saved from the same fate.