UK call for Children's Commissioner

A powerful children’s commissioner with responsibility for shielding youngsters from abuse could soon be appointed in Scotland following an independent inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbié.

Senior Executive sources confirmed last night they would seriously consider plans in England and Wales to adopt a "children’s tsar" to co-ordinate the work of child protection officers across the country.

The proposals south of the Border came last night after the independent report into the horrific death of Victoria, aged eight, a schoolgirl from London. It made harsh criticisms of the lack of communication between social services, the police and medical staff over the maltreatment of the youngster.

The Victoria Climbié Inquiry was established by the Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, in September 2001, shortly after Victoria’s great aunt, Marie Therese Kouao, and her boyfriend, Carl Manning, were sentenced to life in prison for the schoolgirl’s murder.

During the trial, it emerged that care professionals had missed at least 12 chances to save the youngster, who was beaten, starved and trussed in a bin-bag by Kouao and Manning, who continue to deny responsibility for her death.

The trial heard that before her murder, the youngster had come to the attention of four social services departments, two housing authorities, two police child protection teams, the NSPCC, and two hospitals.

Yesterday, the life peer responsible for the inquiry, Lord Laming, a former president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, used his report to blame social workers, doctors and police officers for Victoria’s death.

The Laming report makes no fewer than 108 recommendations to try to prevent a repeat of the "gross failure" which led to the girl’s death. It claims that the greatest failure lay not with the "hapless frontline staff" but with managers and senior members of those authorities responsible for children’s services.

The report also calls for a new National Agency for Children and Families, to ensure police and health and housing services can carry out their duties, and says the chief executive of the agency should take on the functions of a Children’s Commissioner for England and Wales.

Revealing the contents of his study yesterday, Lord Laming said: "I remain amazed that nobody in the key agencies followed what are straightforward procedures on how to respond to a child about whom there is a concern of deliberate harm."

It emerged last night that Lord Laming’s inquiry will be studied for possible implications in Scotland.

A senior Executive source told The Scotsman that the report would be examined by child protection experts north of the Border. He said: "We are keen that lessons from this tragic case are taken into account in developing Scotland’s three-year programme of child protection reform. There have been similarly troubling cases in Scotland and we must prevent these incidents."

The reform programme was prompted by a report last year on social services across Scotland which found that half the children at risk of abuse or neglect were not being adequately protected or cared for.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=112122003

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