Council in Climbie case censured again

The council at the centre of the Victoria Climbie child abuse scandal has been criticised by an internal inquiry sparked by the scalding of a two-year-old boy.

The council at the centre of the Victoria Climbie child abuse scandal has been criticised by an internal inquiry sparked by the scalding of a two-year-old boy.

The report highlighted examples of communication failures and poor record-keeping by health and social services staff dealing with the boy's family when he suffered 28 per cent burns after an accident with a boiling kettle.

An investigation was launched into the case of the boy, known only as Adam, and found he had been the victim of an accident. The boy still lives with his parents and is not on the "at risk" register.

The head of Haringey social services insisted yesterday that the accident which sparked the inquiry was "every parent's nightmare" and could have happened in any home.

But an independent review of the way the case was handled highlighted a series of problems with health and social services teams. Both a lack of communications and failings in record keeping were highlighted as problems in the run-up to the death of Victoria Climbie four years ago.

Yesterday Haringey Council insisted that record-keeping had improved since the report by Lord Laming into Victoria's death, and insisted that lessons had already been learnt from the latest case. It said the recommendations of the review had already been accepted.