Like everybody else we were horrified to read the Serious Case Review (SCR) and the tragic circumstances leading to the death of Daniel. No doubt, as evidenced in the report, there has been catastrophic failure of all agencies involved and all the agencies must accept their share of responsibility and accountability.
In 2009, the current Conservative Leader, Cllr John Blundell, was the Cabinet Member when a previous SCR was published and a number of recommendations were made and supposedly implemented. A key recommendation was to ensure there was an improvement in communications and sharing information between agencies and assurances were given that this was work in progress and a joined up approach was in the process of being implemented.
What has been made very clear in the review of Daniel's case is that this has failed and poor communication between agencies, poor record keeping and lack of information sharing played a key part in this tragedy. Without robust information sharing processes in place, where all concerned parties are aware of all the facts, decisions will be made that are flawed and in this case it has resulted in the tragic death of a child.
It is also obvious from this report that processes have not been adhered to and performance management has failed.
Commenting, Councillor Blundell said: "The public expect the people who were involved to be held to account and I would expect appropriate disciplinary processes to take place as a matter of urgency. All too often we hear the phrase 'lessons will be learned' time and time again. Sometimes it feels as though people are more concerned about disclosing confidential information than speaking out about their concerns. Now is the time to have a radical look at the legal framework surrounding Child Protection and whether it should be a legal requirement for a professional working with children to report suspected or known abuse to the appropriate authority."
Cllr Lepoidevin, the Conservative Spokesman for Children Services said: "What is made worse is that we have been here before both nationally and locally, so why are we here again and when will children be protected. At the Scrutiny Meeting on 26 September I intend to ask a number of questions of both the Council and partner agencies and I would expect all agencies to be fully represented and held to account."