baby p case study

• Search Menu

Sign in through your institution

• Advance articles
• Editor's Choice
• Author Guidelines
• Submission Site
• Open Access
• About The British Journal of Social Work
• About the British Association of Social Workers
• Editorial Board
• Advertising and Corporate Services
• Journals Career Network
• Self-Archiving Policy
• Dispatch Dates
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic
• < Previous

The Story of Baby P: Setting the Record Straight

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

Keith Popple, The Story of Baby P: Setting the Record Straight, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 45, Issue 3, April 2015, Pages 1069–1071, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv011

• Permissions Icon Permissions

The horrendous cruelty, torture and abuse to and deliberate neglect of Peter Connelly followed by his appalling death in north London at the age of seventeen months in August 2007 are etched on the minds of social workers practising in England and elsewhere. This dreadful incident continues to impact on the careers on both present and future generations of social workers, as it has led to changes in the delivery of qualifying social work education and of social work practice with children and families in England.

Briefly, and to remind international readers, Peter suffered from more than fifty injuries over an eight-month period before his death. Although during this period Peter was seen again and again by professionals from a number of public agencies including the local authority Haringey Children's Services and the health professionals, he was not removed from his abusive home life to a place of safety. Following the Old Bailey conviction and imprisonment of Peter's mother Tracey Connelly, her partner Steven Barker and Barker's brother Jason Owen, a number of statutory reviews of the case and a national review of social work took place, which together with a debate in the House of Commons revealed major concerns in the way that the professions had dealt with Peter.

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code
• Add your ORCID iD

Institutional access

Sign in with a library card.

• Sign in with username/password
• Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Short-term Access

To purchase short-term access, please sign in to your personal account above.

Don't already have a personal account? Register

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

• Recommend to your Library

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1468-263X
• Print ISSN 0045-3102
• Copyright © 2024 British Association of Social Workers
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Cookies on GOV.UK

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.

We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

Bring photo ID to vote Check what photo ID you'll need to vote in person in the General Election on 4 July.

Peter Connelly Serious Case Review reports published

Children's minister Tim Loughton comments on the publication of the two serious case review (SCR) reports into the death of Peter Connelly.

The Government is today fulfilling its commitment to publish the two Serious Case Review (SCR) overview reports into the tragic death of Peter Connelly, in order to restore public confidence and improve transparency in the child protection system.

The SCR reports have both been carefully and appropriately redacted and anonymised to protect the privacy and welfare of vulnerable children and their families.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton wants today’s publication of the Peter Connelly reports to help enable

• genuine lessons to be learned
• transparency, to restore public confidence, and
• the identification of everyone’s roles and shared responsibilities.

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said:

Today everyone can see and understand the events that led to Peter Connelly’s horrific death. The publication of both Peter Connelly reports means that across the country and across the child protection profession, full lessons can be learned and widely applied.

The Government’s commitment to publish full SCR overview reports has always been about transparency so that vital information is made available, so that agencies can be held to account and lessons properly learned. The reports have details of the events which are shocking to read but are necessary to publish in order to learn from them.

The publication of these reports is not about apportioning blame but about allowing professionals to understand fully what happens in each case, and most importantly, what needs to change in order to reduce the risk of such tragedies happening in the future. I welcome the progress that Haringey and local partners have made over the past two years and it is essential that this progress continues.

We have taken a great deal of care to prepare these sensitive and complex reports for publication in order to protect the privacy and welfare of vulnerable children and their families.

After two years of high-profile reporting, I want today’s publication of the Peter Connelly reports to bring some form of closure, so everyone - family and professionals - involved in this tragic case has the chance to move on.

Alongside the launch of the Munro Review on 10 June, Children’s Minister Tim Loughton committed to publishing - by applying the new criteria of publication - five specific Serious Case Reviews, including the two Peter Connelly reports, with identifying details removed. The minister also confirmed, as stated in the Coalition Government agreement, that the overview reports and executive summaries of all new SCRs initiated from 10 June 2010 should be published.

Chair of Haringey Safeguarding Children’s Board, Graham Badman, said:

The tragic death of Peter Connelly has quite properly caused a fundamental re-appraisal of child protection services in Haringey and throughout the country. If Peter is to have a legacy, it is that other children are now safer as a consequence of the honest analysis of events that led to his death, and the embedding in practice of the lessons learned.

Services in Haringey have improved dramatically but the LSCB will continue to be vigilant in both auditing and seeking improvement in the management and conduct of all services charged with child protection. The publication of the full Serious Case Review marks an end point but also demonstrates the integrity and willingness to change of all services that contributed.

Haringey’s Cabinet Member for Children & Young People, Cllr Lorna Reith, said:

We have accepted that things went badly wrong with our child protection services back in 2007 and have apologised unreservedly for our shortcomings and mistakes. Baby Peter’s death could and should have been prevented.

Since publication of the Serious Case Reviews, whose recommendations we have implemented in full, it has been our top priority to bring about substantial change and improvement to children’s safeguarding in the borough.

The recent unannounced inspection by Ofsted - which took place in August and reported in September - was tangible proof that significant progress has been made, but it is our responsibility to remain vigilant in Baby Peter’s memory and never stop improving.

The SCR overview reports relating to Peter Connelly were written by independent authors commissioned by the Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board. The only editing undertaken by the Department prior to publication is the redaction of information that it is not appropriate to put into the public domain. An explanation of the redactions is set out in the beginning of each report.

Notes to editors

• The first SCR was commissioned in August 2007 by Haringey LSCB, under the chairmanship of Sharon Shoesmith, and the executive summary was published by the LSCB in November 2008. This SCR was evaluated as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.
• In December 2008, the then Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families directed the appointment of a new LSCB Chair, Graham Badman, and asked the Haringey LSCB to begin a new SCR on the case of Peter Connelly. This second SCR was evaluated as ‘good’ by Ofsted and the executive summary was published in May 2009.
• The Coalition Government confirmed on 10 June 2010 its intention that the previously unpublished overview reports (together with the executive summary) of all of these SCRs would be published, appropriately redacted and anonymised. Birmingham published the SCR overview report relating to Khyra Ishaq on 27 July 2010.
• The process of redacting the overview reports has involved: * considering the welfare of children involved in the case * comparing the executive summary already in the public domain, with the corresponding overview report; no information that is included in either of the executive summaries has been redacted * considering the extent to which information in the overview reports is capable of being used to identify living individuals whose identity is not already common knowledge * considering whether information that is by its nature sensitive, personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998 (for example, because it is information about a person’s physical or mental health or condition, his/her sexual life, or the commission or alleged commission by him/her of an offence) is likely to have already been made public (for example, as part of the criminal trials), and whether its inclusion in the reports is necessary to give a complete picture of events * redacting personal data or information that would breach reporting restrictions imposed by the Court, and * redacting any personal or sensitive personal data, including clinically confidential information, that has not already been published and which cannot be justified as necessary or relevant, bearing in mind the overall purpose of publishing the overview reports.
• Only redactions that are strictly necessary have been made and the final versions of the reports to be published will allow the lessons from this tragic case to be learned as widely and thoroughly as possible.
• The SCR overview reports for Peter Connelly are available for download from this page: * First Serious Case Review overview report relating to Peter Connelly dated November 2008. * Second Serious Case Review overview report relating to Peter Connelly dated March 2009.
• The following related documents are also available to download from this page: * The executive summary for the first Serious Case Review overview report dated November 2008 relating to Peter Connelly. * The executive summary for the second Serious Case Review overview report dated February 2009 relating to Peter Connelly. * A copy of the letter of 10 June 2010 sent to DCSs and LSCB chairs by Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, to confirm new arrangements and amended guidance for publication of SCRs.

DfE media enquiries

Central newsdesk - for journalists 020 7783 8300

Share this page

The following links open in a new tab

• Share on Facebook (opens in new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in new tab)

Related content

Is this page useful.

• Yes this page is useful
• No this page is not useful

Help us improve GOV.UK

Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.

To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. Please fill in this survey (opens in a new tab) .

Last updated 27/06/24: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website: https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings .

Login Alert

• > The Story of Baby P
• > Appendix: Key reviews and reports

Book contents

• Frontmatter
• List of photo credits
• Foreword by Patrick Butler
• Introduction
• one The life and death of Peter Connelly
• two The ‘Baby P story’ takes hold
• three The frenzied media backlash
• four The influence of reviews and reports
• five The story’s damaging impact
• six The continuing legacy of the ‘Baby P story’
• Appendix: Key reviews and reports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2023

Reviews directly relating to ‘Baby P’ case

First serious case review (SCR) report (commissioned August 2007)

Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board (2008) Serious case review ‘Child A’ , Executive Summary, November, London: Department for Education (DfE) [DfE (2012) ‘Publication of the two Serious Case Review overview reports – Peter Connelly’, updated 12 July 2012 (www.education.gov.uk/a0065483/serious-case-review)].

Sibert and Hodes review report (commissioned January 2008)

Sibert, J. and Hodes, D. (2008) Review of child protection practice of Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat , London: Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust.

Individual management review prepared on behalf of NHS London (commissioned December 2008)

Lowton, A. and Bos, S. (2009) An individual management review into the care of PC on behalf of NHS London , February, London: Verita.

Second serious case review (SCR) report (commissioned December 2008)

Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board (2009) Serious case review ‘Child A’ , Executive Summary, May; full report published 26 October 2010, London: Department for Education.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) Review of NHS involvement with Peter Connelly (commissioned December 2008)

CQC (2009) Review of the involvement and action taken by health bodies in relation to the case of Baby P , May, London: Care Quality Commission.

Reviews relating Haringey Children’s Services

Haringey Joint Area Review (2006) London Borough of Haringey Children’s Services Authority Area, Joint Area Review , London, Ofsted.

Ofsted (2007) 2007 Annual performance assessment of services for children and young people in the London Borough of Haringey , 26 November, London: Ofsted.

Haringey Joint Area Review (commissioned November 2008)

Ofsted, Healthcare Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (2008) Joint area review: Haringey Children’s Services Authority Area , November.

Haringey further Joint Area Review (commissioned December 2008)

Ofsted (2009) Inspection of progress made in the provision of safeguarding services in the London Borough of Haringey , 3 July.

Other serious case review reports

Maria Colwell

Department of Health and Social Security (1974) Report of the Inquiry into the care and supervision provided in relation to Maria Colwell , London: HMSO.

Victoria Climbié

Lord Laming (2003) The Victoria Climbié Inquiry , Norwich: The Stationery Office.

Other relevant reports

Conservative Party Commission on Social Workers (2007) No more blame

game: The future for children’s social workers , London: The Conservative Party.

Lord Laming (2009) The protection of children in England: A progress report , House

of Commons, Norwich: The Stationery Office.

Access options

Save book to kindle.

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle .

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service .

• Ray Jones , Kingston University, London and St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
• Book: The Story of Baby P
• Online publication: 15 April 2023
• Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781447316305.009

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox .

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive .

Baby P death 10 years on: the case's lasting impact on child protection

Ray Jones Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The death in 2007 of Peter Connelly resulted in a media furore over failures in his care. Child protection expert Ray Jones charts how a decade on the impact of the case can still be seen in safeguarding services

It is the 10th anniversary of the death of Peter Connelly. He died, aged 17 months, in Haringey, North London, on 3 August 2007 following months of neglect and what is likely to have been a short and intensive period of abuse.

Many will not know his name, but many will think they know about "Baby P", which is what he was called then and now in the media.

It was in November 2008 that the "Baby P" story hit the headlines when Peter's mother, her boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother were each found guilty of "causing or allowing" Peter's death.

Media coverage

It was The Sun newspaper that took a particular interest in Peter Connelly's story, a story which is now known to have been mistold and misdirected.

It was a story which was shaped through collusive and contaminating relationships between the tabloid press, the Metropolitan police and politicians, with these relationships exposed through the criminal trial into phone hacking at the News of the World and through the Leveson Inquiry.

It is also now known that senior Ofsted managers, civil servants and the then Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls became compromised and complicit under the considerable media pressure.

In reporting the terrible death of Peter, The Sun newspaper set out on a campaign of vilification aimed at the professionals who had contact with the Connelly family and their managers. Some escaped scrutiny and were kept on the margins of the story, such as the managers within the health service (although a GP and, in particular, a locum paediatrician were targeted).

The police were largely airbrushed out of the story altogether and instead provided self-protective ammunition which was then fired at the social workers and managers.

It was these social workers and managers who became the focus of The Sun's campaign for "justice" that they all be sacked - which was subsequently achieved - with the newspaper's front page accusation that they had "blood on their hands".

The vehemence of The Sun's attacks on the social workers, their managers and especially Sharon Shoesmith, Haringey's director of children's services, was such that they and their children became the subject of threat and fear and of abuse and potential assault.

As an academic with recent senior management experience in social work, I was able to fill a media space which was difficult for others, including serving directors of children's services.

It kept me in touch with how the "Baby P" story was being shaped. It was this involvement and information that led to my growing concern about the impact of the "Baby P" story as told by The Sun and others.

Fuelled demand

Instead of making life better and safer for children like Peter, the past 10 years have seen the child protection system become over-loaded and overwhelmed, while at the same time children's social workers and social services have been denigrated.

A fifth of social workers in statutory children's services are now agency workers and around a third of children's services directors have changed each year.

There have also been difficulties in recruiting paediatricians and named and designated child protection doctors.

Since 2009, Section 47 enquiries have risen 93 per cent, child protection plans and conferences by 72 per cent and 66 per cent respectively and care applications 69 per cent. Ofsted has compounded the difficulties by introducing more demanding inspection standards and more demeaning judgment categorisation - for example, rebranding the "adequate" judgment as "requires improvement" in 2013.

What may not be remembered is that the other big news story in November 2008 was the national and international financial crisis.

It was the banker-created financial crisis that provided the platform for the 2010 Conservative and Liberal Democrat government to impose politically-chosen austerity. It has led to pervasive cuts across public services, with those who have key roles in helping and protecting children across professions and agencies having their capacity reduced and confidence rocked at the time of increasing workloads.

Swingeing cuts

One of the reasons workloads have increased is that along with public services and public servants, the other target of the coalition government's austerity policies was the undermining of the economic and social wellbeing of poor children and families.

Severe and stringent reductions in social security and housing benefits - continued by David Cameron's and Theresa May's Conservative governments - have moved many poor families from deprivation to destitution, increasing the pressure on families and making parenting much harder.

This context and consequence of increased need generating greater workloads at a time of cuts has then been used by the government to characterise public services as "failing" and to move them into a commercial privatised marketplace. This is already well underway with schools, universities, health services, housing, probation, prisons, the police, and the assessment and administration of welfare benefits.

Children's services ‘market'

It is now the turn of children's social care services which are being removed by the government from local authorities, while other councils are voluntarily contracting out children's social services responsibilities. The changes in statutory regulations in 2014 now allow any organisation or company to get these contracts.

Introducing more providers raises questions about greater fragmentation and confused accountability in children's services.

Will a commercial marketplace opened up to private companies, many of whom have been in discussion with the DfE about what is being called the children's services "industry", result in a greater commitment to the welfare of families and make children safer?

The continued cap on public sector salaries, debts accrued from undergraduate tuition fees and the introduction of a new national accreditation and examination system are all barriers to encouraging new social workers into the sector.

In addition, will the introduction of fast-track training, such as Frontline, with the promise of quick promotion away from frontline practice, create a more stable and experienced practitioner workforce?

Will stretched children's services departments have time to get to know and to work with those who need assistance?

Will the pressures on managers and practitioners to be risk-averse mean that the 130 per cent increase in care proceedings since 2008 will continue to eascalate?

Finally, when the next media furore erupts, will politicians be willing to stand up against tabloid bullying?

The answers to these questions are pertinent to whether the wellbeing and safety of children will improve or deteriorate over the past 10 years.

Positive developments

Set against all of these very real risks are the positive developments of newly qualifying social workers being recognised and celebrated for their commitment, care and increasing competence and confidence, more explicit expectations about practice standards and the development of the career-spanning professional capabilities framework, and the emerging creation of multi-professional teams and services.

Some councils have also remembered and held on to the learning of the past 50 years of what makes good child protection and children's social work - a well supported and developed workforce that is child and family-focused, the importance of relationships as much as risk management, good partnership working across communities, and a platform of continuity and stability despite the current DfE clamour for change and novelty under the banner of innovation.

The big lesson, however, over the past decade since Peter Connelly's death is how powerful people, punitive politics and pernicious policies can threaten what has been the world's safest and most successful child protection system.

Ray Jones is the author of The Story of Baby P: Setting the Record Straight, and a former director of social services

CYP Now Digital membership

• Latest digital issues
• Latest online articles
• Archive of more than 60,000 articles
• Unlimited access to our online Topic Hubs
• Archive of digital editions
• Themed supplements

From £15 / month

CYP Now Full Membership

• Latest print issues
• Exclusive offers

From £18 / month

CYP Now Magazine

From £12 / month.

© MA Education 2024. Published by MA Education Limited, St Jude's Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London SE24 0PB, a company registered in England and Wales no. 04002826. MA Education is part of the Mark Allen Group .

• Advanced search

Advanced Search

The lessons of Baby P

• Find this author on Google Scholar
• Find this author on PubMed
• Search for this author on this site

Although the case of Baby P, killed at the age of 17 months by his mother, her boyfriend and a lodger has provoked a national controversy, for me it is very close to home. I live near to where Baby P lived in the London borough of Haringey, whose officers have been held to blame, and I have long been involved in child protection work as a GP in the neighbouring borough of Hackney.

My immediate feelings of horror and outrage at the savage abuse suffered by Baby P and sympathies for his wider family, were soon followed by concerns for the doctors and other professionals involved, and the familiar sentiment of ‘there but for the grace of God …’. These concerns were particularly reinforced by vivid memories of a case with many similarities in our practice more than a decade ago.

In this case a baby of a similar age to Baby P was killed by his mother's boyfriend. The peculiar intimacy of the fatal blow — inflicted by head-butting — expressed both the ferocity and the barbarity of the assault, in a way strikingly similar to the account of Baby P's fractured spine and multiple injuries. The man who was convicted in our case (of previous good character and sound mental health) later conceded that he knew from the moment he met this baby he was destined to kill him. As Andrew Cooper, professor of social work at the Tavistock, observes in a thoughtful commentary, ‘the treatment of Baby P reminds us that there are people whose minds, actions, motives, and ways of relating to others seem incomprehensible’. 1 He also notes that research into serious case reviews of children killed or injured between 2003 and 2005 revealed that nearly 90% of the most dangerous cases were not on the child protection register. He counsels against concluding from such cases that the system is failing, because ‘arguably’, it was ‘never designed to deal with these extremes of human behaviour’.

The inquiry into our case came to the same banal conclusions as every other such inquiry over several decades: everybody was to blame, there was a lack of inter-agency coordination and everybody should try harder in future. In fact, as I observed in a response to the official report, the inquiry confirmed that, even though approved procedures had been followed to the letter, it was clear that nobody could have anticipated and prevented what happened. The striking difference from the Baby P case — reflecting the highly arbritrary and irrational character of the recent furore — was that this one attracted little local publicity and no national interest. Hence it was not followed by the sort of witch-hunting and political posturing that has accompanied the recent case, leading to numerous sackings and resignations in Haringey.

The vituperative media response to the death of Baby P reveals popular prejudices against people who live in relatively deprived inner-city areas and an inability to acknowledge the extremes of depravity of which human beings are capable. The scapegoating of the social workers and other professionals reflects the need to find somebody to blame and the wishful thinking that all cases of extreme cruelty to children can be prevented. It also serves to justify the extension of professional intervention into all aspects of child development in ways that will not improve protection against abuse but may further undermine parental confidence and family cohesion. 2

‘Think dirty’ is the prevailing advice to doctors and health visitors and others who are in day-to-day contact with young children and their families. Inflated estimates of the prevalence of child abuse encourage suspicion and mistrust between professionals and parents. 3 But working on the presumption that every child who comes into the surgery may be at risk of becoming another Baby P is not conducive to good relations with parents, or, ultimately, to the interests of children.

• © British Journal of General Practice, 2009.
• The Lancet, UCL Institute of Child Health, RCPCH

In this issue

• Table of Contents
• Index by author

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Citation Manager Formats

• EndNote (tagged)
• EndNote 8 (xml)
• RefWorks Tagged
• Ref Manager

• Tweet Widget
• Facebook Like
• Google Plus One

Jump to section

More in this toc section.

• Evidence-based medicine and Web 2.0: friend or foe?
• Tips for GP trainees working in obstetrics and gynaecology
• How to protect general practice from child protection

Related Articles

Cited by....

British Journal of General Practice

Homes and Property | Home Page

Timeline: The shocking events that led to death of Baby P

2006 March 1 - Peter Connelly is born to Tracey Connelly. November - Connelly's boyfriend, Steven Barker, moves into her home. This is kept from police and social workers. December 11 - Peter is taken to Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London, with bruises on his head, nose, chest and right shoulder. December 19 - Police arrest and interview Connelly on suspicion of assaulting her son. She denies injuring him. December 22 - Peter is placed on the child protection register.

2007 January - Peter is returned to his family. June - Barker's brother, Jason Owen, moves into the home with a 15-year-old runaway he describes as his girlfriend. July 30 - Maria Ward, a social worker with Haringey Council in north London, makes a pre-arranged home visit. She misses injuries on Peter's face and hands after he is deliberately smeared with chocolate to hide them. July 31 - Police hand reports to the Crown Prosecution Service, including statements from two doctors saying Peter's bruising was suggestive of "non-accidental" injury. Prosecutors decide there is not enough evidence to bring a case. August 1 - Peter is taken to a child development clinic at St Ann's Hospital in Tottenham, north London. Paediatrician Dr Sabah Al-Zayyat decides she cannot carry out a full check-up as the boy is "miserable and cranky". A post-mortem examination later reveals Peter had probably already suffered a broken back and fractured ribs by this point. August 2 - Police tell Connelly she will not be prosecuted. That evening, the child receives the fatal last blow to the mouth, knocking his tooth out. August 3 - A 999 call is made at 11.36am. Four minutes later paramedics find Peter lying in his blood-spattered cot. He is pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. An attempt has been made to cover up the crime, with the child's clothes and bedding removed and dumped.

2008 November 11 - Owen and Barker are found guilty at the Old Bailey of causing or allowing the death of a child. Connelly has already pleaded guilty to the same offence. November 12 - Children's Secretary Ed Balls orders an urgent review of Haringey Council's children's welfare services. November 21 - The General Medical Council suspends Dr Al-Zayyat's registration as a doctor. December 1 - Inspectors deliver a damning report on Haringey children services to Mr Balls, who describes their findings as "devastating". Haringey Council's leader, George Meehan, and cabinet member for children and young people, Liz Santry, resign. Mr Balls removes Sharon Shoesmith as the local authority's director of children's services, but she remains suspended on full pay. December 8 - Ms Shoesmith is sacked by a panel of councillors with immediate effect and told she will not receive any compensation.

2009 January 12 - A panel of Haringey councillors rejects Ms Shoesmith's appeal against her dismissal. February 17 - The General Medical Council suspends from practice family GP Dr Jerome Ikwueke, who twice referred Peter to hospital specialists after becoming concerned about suspicious marks on his face and body. March 6 - Ms Shoesmith lodges an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal against Haringey Council and launches an application for judicial review against the council, Mr Balls and Ofsted. March 12 - A review of child protection in England, commissioned after Peter's death and led by Lord Laming, finds that too many authorities have failed to adopt reforms introduced following the 2000 Victoria Climbie tragedy. April 29 - Haringey Council sacks four key social workers, including deputy director of children and families Cecilia Hitchen and Ms Ward. May 1 - Barker is found guilty at the Old Bailey of raping a two-year-old girl on Haringey's at-risk register. Connelly is cleared of cruelty to the girl. May 13 - The NHS is criticised by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission for "systemic failings" in the care given to Peter before his death. May 22 - Judge Stephen Kramer describes Connelly as "manipulative" and "calculating" as he jails her indefinitely with a minimum term of five years for her part in her son's death. Barker is jailed for life with a minimum of 10 years for raping the two-year-old girl and given a 12-year term to run concurrently for his "major role" in Peter's death. Owen receives an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of three years. July 3 - Inspectors warn that Haringey Council is still not protecting all vulnerable children from abuse and has made only limited progress in tackling areas of weakness. August 11 - Connelly and Barker are named for the first time after a court order protecting their anonymity expires.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Facebook
• Share on WhatsApp
• Share by email
• Link Copy link

Death of Baby Peter

On 3 August 2007, Peter Connelly (known as 'Baby P' or 'Baby Peter') died aged 17 months old, after sustaining severe injuries over an 8-month period. NHS health professionals had cared for Baby Peter on multiple occasions during this time. On 11 November 2008, his mother Tracey Connelly, her boyfriend Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen were convicted of causing or allowing Baby Peter's death. A doctor failed to spot the child’s severe injuries Following his death, an internal serious case review had been produced by Haringey Council. In December, Ed Balls asked for Ofsted to investigate the safeguarding arrangements at the council. The Ofsted findings suggested that there were significant weakness in the safeguarding and child protection arrangements in Haringey and criticised the serious case review which had been undertaken by the council. In May 2009, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report into the failures of the NHS organisations which had been involved with Baby Peter prior to his death in August 2007. The report focused on North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust and the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust. The report suggested that poor communication between health professionals and across agencies, such as social services and the police, meant that urgent action to protect Peter had been delayed. Additionally, staff involved in providing care for Peter did not consistently follow child protection procedures. Staff were also lacking experience in child protection issues. Another significant shortcoming highlighted by the report was the fact that healthcare staff at one trust were not clear on where responsibility lay for following up on social services referrals and were unclear on their roles in regards to safeguarding children. The CQC was particularly concerned that three of the trusts concerned had provided assurance that they were compliant with child protection standards. As a result, the CQC announced that it would ask all trusts in England to detail the arrangements they had in place for effective child protection, in adherence to government core standards and national statutory guidance.

Care Quality Commission. Care Quality Commission publishes report on the NHS care of Baby Peter. Care Quality Commission ; 2009.

Ofsted, Healthcare Commission and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. Joint area review; Haringey Children's Services authority area; review of services for children and young people, with particular reference to safeguarding. Ofsted; 2009.

Share this page:

• About this website
• About the Health Foundation
• Accessibility
• Terms and conditions
• Copyright statement
• Privacy policy and cookies

Hear from us

Receive the latest news and updates from the Health Foundation

Copyright The Health Foundation 2024.

Published by

Follow this blog

IMPACT CASE STUDY: The story of ‘Baby P’

by Ray Jones 23rd July 2019

It is just over ten years since the launch of the media story and storm about the death of a little boy who came to be called ‘Baby P’ . He was killed in August 2007 but it was in November 2008 that his mother, her boyfriend and the boyfriend’s brother were each convicted of ‘causing or allowing ‘Baby P’s’ – Peter Connelly’s –death.

The media frenzy which followed was led by The Sun newspaper and its editor, Rebekah Brooks, supported by her Cotswold neighbour and friend, David Cameron. At the time he was leader of the Conservative Parliamentary opposition and he made a political issue out of Peter’s death, blaming Labour-controlled Haringey council and the social workers it employed.

I am a social worker and a former Director of Social Services. From 2008 until 2016 I was Professor of Social Work at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London. Each week I also oversaw children’s services improvement in areas rated by Ofsted as not performing well.  My location in south London and my experience led me to be frequently called upon by television, radio and the print press to comment on the ‘Baby P’ and related stories (the record was 14 television and radio interviews on one day between 11:00 and 18:30 on one day).

The Baby P story targeted and vilified, in particular, Haringey’s director of children’s services, Sharon Shoesmith, and the social worker and her team manager who had sought to help the Connelly family and to improve the care of the Connelly children. They worked hard and were seeking to tackle the neglect the children were experiencing. It was only in the weeks before Peter died, which was after the boyfriend’s brother had moved to live with the family (unknown to the social worker and other professionals involved with the family), that neglect escalated quickly to physical violence and abuse.

The distorted media’s Baby P story of incompetent social workers and managers led to them losing their jobs and being threatened. The social worker had to move home several times. Sharon Shoesmith, on the advice of the police, had to have a secure safe room built within her flat.

Through my media work, I became more and more concerned about how the Baby P story was being miss-told, about the real dangers being created for the social workers, their managers and their families (who were also threatened), and how throughout the UK it made it harder to protect children due to difficulty in recruiting social workers, health visitors and paediatricians.

My increasing knowledge and concerns about what was happening led me to write The Story of Baby P: Setting the Record Straight, largely written in the summer of 2012. The mainstream publishers I contacted would not publish the book and I was delighted when Policy Press took it on board. It was not, however, published until June 2014, after the phone hacking trial in which Rebekah Brooks was one of the defendants.

How has the book made a difference? What impact has it had?

Firstly, it has provided a correction to the story created and peddled by The Sun and others. In addition to it selling 8,000 copies it was used in preparing a 90 minute BBC One television documentary broadcast during prime time in October 2014. It has formed the basis of over 40 conference presentations I have given to what must be more than 6,000 social workers, but also police officers, lawyers, doctors, health visitors, midwives and teachers. I have also given several public lectures attended by a wider public, plus book signings.

The book and the information within it has  been referenced in oral and written evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and it has been covered by a range of national and international media, including Russia Today, a South Korean national newspaper and a German magazine.

With an expanded and updated edition published in 2017, it has tracked the continuing impact of the media’s Baby P story with more children being caught in the child protection net. This has happened at the same time as politically-chosen austerity since 2010 has targeted poor families and public services leading to big cuts in the help which can be given to children and families. This tracking of the changes has been reported by broadsheet and tabloid newspapers as well as on radio and television. I still receive requests today from the media (one this morning, as I write this blog, from BBC Radio Four’s The World at One) to comment on what has happened to children’s social services and child protection over recent years.

The book has had an impact for those who gave their professional lives to help and protect children, but who themselves were the subject of harassment and hatred because of the skewed story promoted by The Sun and others. When I wrote the book I had not met those who were placed in danger by the campaign of hostility led by Rebekah Brooks. I did not want to add any more intrusions into their lives.

In the months prior to publication, Patrick Butler of The Guardia n, who wrote the Foreword to the book, helpfully and appropriately alerted Sharon Shoesmith to its forthcoming publication. I subsequently have met with Sharon, and with Maria and Gillie, the social worker and her team manager. They are each impressive. Wise, caring and with substantial former careers in social work and education, they were and should be much respected. Their commitment to help children was ended by the media coverage. They have not been able to continue their careers and work.  But they have found it helpful, as reported in Community Care magazine , that they and their families, friends and colleagues now have a public record of what actually happened and about the press and political opportunism which generated the hatred they have experienced and which has hindered the care and protection of children. It has left a legacy of a children’s social services system in England which has moved beyond crisis to, in some areas, collapse.

Policy Press newsletter subscribers receive a 35% discount – sign up  here . Please note that only one discount code can be used at a time.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blog post authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Policy Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.

Image Credit: Boudewijn Huysmans  on  Unsplash

Related posts

Promoting women’s access to political power, developing pioneering ideas in partnership: the bsg and policy press, from book publication to changing the law on cyberflashing, mps and peers hear why morality must be included in public policy, shaping government understanding on sex-for-rent.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Teaching Expertise

• Classroom Ideas
• Teacher’s Life
• Deals & Shopping
• Privacy Policy

Baby P: Lessons To Be Learned

May 12, 2013 //  by  Admin

What can schools learn from the Baby P case? Jenni Whitehead examines the report on Haringey children’s services and gives advice on how to prepare for unannounced inspections.

Following the conviction of two men and a woman for causing or allowing the death of Baby P, the secretary of state for children, schools and families, Ed Balls, instructed Ofsted, along with the Healthcare Commission and the chief inspector of constabulary, to carry out an urgent review of services to children and young people in Haringey, with particular regard to safeguarding. This joint area review has since been published.

In a press statement given on 1 December 2008, Mr Balls said:

‘The whole nation has been shocked and moved by the tragic and horrific death of Baby P. All of us find it impossible to comprehend how adults could commit such terrible acts of evil against this little boy. And the public is angry that nobody stepped in to prevent this tragedy from happening.

‘I want to say very clearly at the outset: social workers, police officers, GPs, health professionals, all the people who work to keep children safe, do a very difficult job, often in really challenging circumstances – all around the country and in particular in Haringey.

‘They make difficult judgements every day that help to keep children safe – and many of them are unsung heroes.

‘But they must also be accountable for their decisions. And where things go badly wrong, people are right to want to know why and what will be done about it. In the case of Baby P, things did go tragically wrong.’

The joint area review expresses serious concerns about the leadership and management of safeguarding, frontline practice and the supervision of frontline staff within children’s services in Haringey (see box). Its criticisms appear to be based on how Haringey measures up to the recommendations made in Lord Laming’s report published following the death of Victoria Climbié.

As a consequence of the joint area review, both the leader of Haringey Council and the lead member for children’s services announced their resignations. Ed Balls has directed Haringey to appoint John Coughlan as director of children’s services and the council has sacked the former director, Sharon Shoesmith, without payment of compensation.

The serious case review carried out by Haringey and published on the same day as the conviction (see Protecting Children Update , November) is described in the joint area review as inadequate. According to Ofsted’s first national evaluation of serious case reviews there is variable quality across the country in conducting such reviews. ( Learning Lessons, Taking Action ).

As a result of this finding Ed Balls announced that he would be asking ‘each local safeguarding children board responsible for a serious case review which has been judged inadequate to convene a panel to be chaired by an independent person to reconsider the review.’

Ed Balls has announced that Ofsted will carry out annual reviews of children’s services across the country. Reading the main findings of the joint area review gives us an idea as to what Ofsted will be looking for in such reviews. The main findings are given in the box above, and its recommendations are listed in the box below. Schools will be included in such reviews and as the main referring agency need to take account of the joint area review.

How does this affect education staff?

The following points are made to help schools check their current child protection practice in light of criticisms made by the joint area review in Haringey.

Making referrals

• Make sure all staff are aware of child protection procedures. If you are the named person, make sure that staff are passing on their concerns to you promptly.
• If you are asked to monitor a situation, or if you are asking members of staff to monitor, make sure that there is a clear plan. Agree how long the monitoring period will be. Be clear about what you or your staff are looking out for. Make sure you have systems in place in respect of recording throughout the monitoring period. Make sure that records are kept securely and not within the child’s curriculum file.
• If you make a child protection referral, make sure that you inform children’s social care of any past concerns or referrals. Research shows that where incidents are described in isolation there is a danger that they will be treated as discrete events. Remember it is often the relationship between incidents that is crucial in understanding the level of risk to the child.
• Follow up your referral in writing. (Many LAs have a child protection referral form for this purpose, check with your LA’s designated officer.)
• Be prepared to stand your ground. If in your professional judgement the situation warrants a child protection referral as opposed to a CAF assessment, stand firm. CAF assessments should not be used for child protection cases, they require a much more specialist assessment.
• When making a referral give as much detail as you can about the family make-up. If you know that people who are not part of the family are living in the household include this information in your referral. If children or adults in the family are known by more than one name make sure this information is given at referral.
• Keep records securely. If teachers and other staff make handwritten notes as part of their monitoring, keep the handwritten note and the typed-up version together.
• Keep records in a chronological order. Make sure all children in the family are acknowledged in your record keeping and where concerns are raised about one child, check with members of staff whether there are any concerns for the other children; if so, include this information in your referral.

Supervision

• If you are responsible for the management of staff involved in child protection work, ensure that supervision is offered on a regular basis and that it includes opportunities to address concerns about safeguarding.
• Some schools employ social workers. Be aware that registered social workers are entitled to regular supervision by an appropriate level of management.
• Ensure staff with child protection responsibilities are given adequate time to make case records. If you need to record an event, do so as soon as possible after it happens; if you are finding it hard to find time to record, take this up in supervision.

Named persons must refresh their child protection training every two years. All other education staff must refresh every three years. Check with your safeguarding board how you can access training.

Working together

The joint area review criticized the lack of collaboration and communication between agencies, and specific reference was made to agencies not being present at strategic meetings, case conferences and core group meetings. Such meetings provide a forum to share information and decision-making.

Working together successfully depends on the development of professional relationships across agencies. Strategic meetings can help to develop relationships but it is also useful to meet other professionals in less formal settings. Consider inviting social care workers into school to meet staff informally or to give a presentation to a staff meeting about their work.

• Make sure strategies are in place to ensure that members of staff are able to attend child protection meetings.
• In respect of case conferences, remember that it is important that the person who attends on behalf of school is in a position to make decisions and to commit resources.
• If the named person feels that the class teacher is the most appropriate person to attend, make sure that the case is discussed thoroughly beforehand.
• Schools are asked to prepare a report for the case conference. This needs time to prepare and schools are usually asked to send the report in before the conference. Also bear in mind that parents are invited to case conferences and children’s social care will want to go through any reports submitted to the conference with the parents beforehand.
• If you disagree with the recommendations made at a case conference, ask for your opinion to be minuted, otherwise it will be presumed that you agree.
• If you cannot attend the conference and cannot send a representative, let the chair of the conference know and request that the minutes be sent to you. Make sure that you check the minutes as a recommendation may have been made in your absence that you cannot commit or agree to. If this happens, contact the chair and ask for the conference notes to be amended.
• In respect of core groups, make sure appropriate staff are able to attend. Core groups demand consistency in membership. Core group meetings are where professionals and parents can really address the child protection plan. The first core group meeting date is usually set at the end of the case conference. This first meeting is absolutely key in keeping up the momentum from the case conference where parents will have been confronted with the issues and the need to change. If there is a long delay between case conference and first core group meeting the case can slip into drift, parents interpreting the delay as a message that issues raised at the case conference were perhaps not as serious as the conference had suggested.
• Strong multi-agency membership of core groups make it harder for deviant parents to play one agency against the other and ensures that all concerned are kept up to date with the progress of the case.
• Participation in core group meetings is expected; if you are asked to be a member try to get dates for future meetings set early to ensure that school can plan cover for your attendance.
• If the child protection plan is not bringing about the expected changes in how the parents respond to their children’s needs the case conference should be reconvened, if necessary before the date set for review.

Ongoing vigilance

The joint area review criticized the level of ongoing communication between all agencies. I have mentioned above some of the ways agency collaboration can be improved. However, it takes will on all parties to continue working together practice. One of the issues highlighted in the joint area review is that agencies did not keep each other up to date in respect of changed circumstances in the family or in terms of change of worker. On the first point, never presume that the parents have told the social worker what they have told you – always check. Parents may innocently tell one member of the professional network about a change in circumstance or an incident, presuming that in telling one professional they are telling all those working with them. On the other hand, the parent who is intent on covering up incidents may give one story to one professional and another story to someone else.

Child Protection in schools

As you are aware, schools have a statutory duty to safeguard and promote children’s welfare; make sure your child protection policy is regularly reviewed and that your governors are supportive of the child protection structures and processes. If you have concerns about how a case is progressing, seek advice from your education designated officer, the senior case worker for the case or your local safeguarding board.

Read Joint Area Review Haringey Children’s Services Authority Area

Ed Balls has announced that Ofsted will carry out annual reviews of children’s services across the country... Schools will be included in such reviews

We are unable to publish reader comments about individual child protection concerns on this website. If you are worried about a child please call the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000 for help and advice. Alternatively you can contact your Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) through your local council.

• Employer Profiles
• Workforce Insights
• Careers Zone
• Community Care Inform Adults
• Community Care Inform Children
• Mental Capacity Masterclass
• Community Care Live
• E-newsletters
• Choose Social Work
• Social work leaders
• Write for Community Care
• The Social Work Community
• Email sign up

Baby P: What would you have done?

In the wake of the full publication of the second Baby P serious case review, child protection consultant and trainer Perdeep Gill looks over the case history and re-examines the options that professionals on the case faced

On 3 August, the London Ambulance Service responded to a 999 call at 11.35am. The 18-month-old baby was pronounced dead at 12.19 pm.

Expert comments on the SCR

‘there needs to be better information sharing’.

Dick Henson, detective chief inspector, Child Abuse Investigation Command:

This review shows we need better sharing of information. That might sound like a superficial answer but the fact is that you will never know the significance of what you know until you share it with other professionals. It also needs to be done in a timely way so you can achieve dynamic risk assessments. Any new information needs to immediately lead to an appraisal of whether it changes the risk assessment or the control mechanisms in any way.

We also need to come back to the adage “assume nothing, believe nobody and check everything”. So, if the removal of large dogs in a house containing toddlers is part of the child protection plan, you need to make sure the dogs aren’t just being hidden out the back somewhere. If a toddler has chocolate smeared on the face and there are child protection concerns, ask for the child to be cleaned up.

It comes down to all professionals thinking “what’s it like to be this child?”. In this case, even without the injuries discovered after Peter’s death, if all professionals involved had been thinking about how much pain he was suffering throughout their dealings with him and the family it would have focused the thinking on to the child more than the mother.

There are also lessons on effective supervision and ensuring that professionals do not become isolated.

If there is disagreement on a course of action, as there was here, then that needs to be recorded alongside the reasons for the dispute so it can act as a flag on a case when new information is received.

Social workers should feel empowered by SCR’s

Nushra Mansuri, joint manager for England of the British Association of Social Workers:

Given the bias of some parts of the media to target the social work profession, by reading a SCR we empower ourselves to be better informed about a case and, while not wishing to condone the blame game, we can talk about things going wrong in terms of not just one agency but the relevant agencies in a case in order to put a more balanced view across to others.

‘We need to learn more about infant survival’

Sue Woolmore, child protection trainer and consultant:

What makes Peter’s story exceptional was that he lived as long as he did. One of the SCR’s lessons must be the need to gain understanding of infant survival.

Although Peter’s life ended with brutal force, he was also under constant threat from his unrelenting experience of fear and stress. The dysfunctional bond from his mother will have driven a wedge into Peter’s attachment to her.

Peter struggled on with outstanding courage, but other babies may lose that resilience, that will to live in the face of such a bleak and frightening existence. Their deaths may be inexplicable, despite the context of neglect and compromised parenting.

Date Published: 11 September 2010

Comments are closed.

More from community care.

The networking platform for social workers

The latest job opportunities within the social work sector

The largest free to attend event for the social work sector

The online learning and practice resource for social workers

Connect with us

• Social work leadership

More information

• Accessibility
• Advertise with us
• Terms & conditions