Child protection service warnings were ignored

An investigation has been launched into what happened to two reports which warned of problems with a council's child protection services years before serious failings were made public.

Doncaster Council has been at the centre of a storm of controversy centred on the deaths of seven children previously known to social services in the town. Last month the Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, sent in a new management team to Doncaster to take over the leadership and management of children's services, following a "thorough diagnostic review" of the town's child safeguarding services ordered by Children's Minister Beverley Hughes in January.

Yesterday it emerged that a senior council officer, Mark Eales, produced separate reports which were submitted in 2005 and 2007 but which were not immediately acted on. The council's managing director Paul Hart said that he had launched an internal investigation.