Ministers told to come clean about Haringey

Ministers were last night under pressure to disclose the full details of their response to a whistleblower who raised grave concerns about child protection in Haringey just months before the violent death of Baby P.

The Conservative leader David Cameron yesterday demanded that Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary, release all internal memos about warnings from a senior social worker about apparent failings in the authority's social services department.

Mr Cameron's demands came as it emerged that the social care watchdog, which was also contacted by the whistleblower, did investigate the allegations but decided that the authority was doing nothing wrong. Five months later Baby P was dead.

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Today, a picture of the 17-month-old boy can be published for the first time after legal restrictions were lifted. That decision, made at the Old Bailey yesterday, coincided with a statement released by the toddler's natural father.

It read: "The verdicts will help to bring closure for what has been a very traumatic time for me, P's family and indeed all those who knew and were close to him. P was a bouncing 17-month-old boy. I loved him deeply. Those who tortured P and killed him kept it a secret. Even after he died, they lied to cover up their abuse."

The row in Westminster erupted after yesterday's Independent revealed that Nevres Kemal, a former Haringey social worker, had contacted four ministers – including the then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt – detailing procedural flaws in the council's handling of a child sex abuse case and calling for a public inquiry. Ms Kemal's letters were sent on 16 February 2007 – four years after a report condemned the council after the Victoria Climbié case and six months before Baby P died. But no inquiry was launched.

Instead the Commission for Social Care Inspection took the letter to a pre-arranged meeting with Haringey on 12 March 2007, discussed the details and took no further action.

A statement released by the commission last night said: "CSCI inspectors acted upon the information in the letter and investigated Haringey's response to the allegations made. We raised these issues directly with Haringey and were satisfied that the council had dealt properly with the individual case raised by Ms Kemal."

Speaking about the case on a trip to New York, Gordon Brown said: "I am determined to do everything in my power to make sure this does not happen again. Every family needs to know that their children are safe at night."

Last night MPs of all parties called for Lord Laming's inquiry into the state of child protection services to be expanded to include the role of ministers and council leaders in the months before Baby P was killed last August. Mr Cameron also demanded to see all correspondence as ministers were accused by the Tories of "bureaucratic buck-passing". Letters were sent by Ms Kemal's solicitor, Lawrence Davies, to Patricia Hewitt, junior Health ministers Rosie Winterton and Ivan Lewis and local MP David Lammy, but it appears none saw the correspondence, which was instead dealt with by civil servants.

Mr Cameron said: "If letters are sent with both Haringey and children in the same sentence, then that should have been a real wake-up call. It seems that what may have happened is that bureaucratic changes in how inspections are carried out didn't help."

Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat frontbencher whose constituency covers Haringey, demanded that the Government widen its inquiries into child protection to cover the actions of ministers. She said: "Anything about Haringey child protection should sound the alarm. [But] they treated it like a normal council."

Mr Balls is likely to face a rough ride in the Commons on Monday, despite insisting that "things were done properly" with regard to Ms Kemal's concerns. He said: "The letter came into the Department for Education. The correct procedures said this should be given to the inspector who has the responsibility to act. They have acted by having a meeting with Haringey and they were satisfied. Things were done properly then but there is a wider issue which is raised by the serious case review, which is whether Haringey have acted properly in the case of Baby P. That is being investigated now by the inspectors. I will wait for their report."

What happened to the whistleblower's letter?

*Patricia Hewitt, then Secretary of State for Health She saidyesterday that she did not see the letter, which was passed to the Department for Education, which was responsible for social services.

*Rosie Winterton, junior Health minister Yesterday, her office referred all calls to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

*Ivan Lewis, then junior Health minister Mr Lewis could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

*David Lammy, constituency MP Could not be contacted for comment.

*David Mundell, MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, who was sent a copy Could not be contacted for comment.

*Dame Denise Platt, chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspectors Passed letter to a colleague. The issues were raised at a meeting on 21 March 2007.

*David Behan, former chief inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspectors

His successor, Paul Snell, passed it to the same person as Dame Denise did.