Tag Archives: baby p

Great Ormond Street Hospital finally apologies to whistleblower who was suspended rather than listened to

By Mark Pack | Published 16th June 2011 - 8:51 am

Belatedly, and after initially refusing to follow the recommendations of an investigation, Great Ormond Street Hospital has apologised to whistleblower Kim Holt who raised concerns about the unit that subsequently failed to properly protect Baby Peter.

Kim Holt (along with three other senior consultant paediatricians) tried to warn about serious failings in the unit which were, in their view, putting vulnerable children at risk. However, the hospital’s reactions ranged from suspending her through to blocking her return to work and failing to follow up on the recommendations of an investigation into her case.

The belated apology has taken Kim Holt three …

Posted in News | Also tagged great ormond street hospital, jane collins, kim holt | 2 Comments

How Great Ormond Street’s Jane Collins escaped investigation last year

By Mark Pack | Published 13th June 2011 - 8:32 am

Jane Collins, the Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital, is facing calls to resign after it was revealed that critical details about the hospital’s role in the death of Baby Peter were withheld from one inquiry into the tragedy and, despite the hospital’s subsequent claims, were also not supplied to the second inquiry.

However, what has been less commented on in the coverage in the last few days is the way Jane Collins escaped being investigated by the General Medical Council last year:

The chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital has escaped investigation over the Baby P scandal …

Posted in News | Also tagged dan falchikov, great ormond street hospital, jane collins, jonathan calder, kim holt, lynne featherstone, richard morris | Leave a comment

Pressure builds on Great Ormond Street Hospital as second inquiry author joins criticisms

By Mark Pack | Published 10th June 2011 - 7:26 am

Yesterday I blogged about Lynne Featherstone‘s call for Jane Collins to quit as Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital following revelations that key information was withheld from the first inquiry into Baby Peter’s death and, despite the Hospital’s claims to the contrary, the public statement from the chair of the second inquiry that he was not shown the full evidence either.

Today The Guardian has a damning verdict from the author of that first inquiry, Edi Carmi:

The author of the serious case review, Edi Carmi, said she was shocked by the BBC’s report and that much of

…

Posted in News | Also tagged edi carmi, great ormond street hospital, lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

Great Ormond Street Hospital under fire over claims it covered up blunders

By Mark Pack | Published 9th June 2011 - 9:13 pm

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone today called for Jane Collins, Chief Executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), to resign after the BBC published evidence that key criticisms of the hospital were withheld from an inquiry into the death of Baby Peter. In a further twist today, claims by the hospital that they subsequently did provide all the evidence to a second investigation were denied by the person who ran that investigation.

An investigation by BBC London found that Great Ormond Street Hospital did not pass on to the first Serious Case Review into the death of Baby Peter several key …

Posted in News | Also tagged featured, great ormond street hospital, jane collins, lynne featherstone | Leave a comment

Mother left 10 children starving and lice-ridden in same borough where Baby P and Victoria died

By Mark Pack | Published 27th April 2011 - 8:55 am

That’s the Evening Standard headline about the latest tragedy in the London Borough of Haringey, home already to two of the most shocking and notorious failures in child protection in recent years:

A mother has been jailed for the abuse of 10 children in her care in Haringey, the borough at the centre of the Baby P scandal.

She left the children starving, smelly, crawling with head lice and covered in ingrained dirt.

One child was so hungry that when a foster carer fed her she pressed the milk bottle hard against her mouth, leaving a red mark. The skin beneath her

…

Posted in News | Also tagged haringey council, victoria climbié | 3 Comments

Social workers sacked over Baby P lose their appeal

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd October 2010 - 8:55 am

From the Evening Standard:

Two social workers sacked over the Baby P tragedy have lost their claim for unfair dismissal, it emerged today.

Gillie Christou and Maria Ward claimed they were unjustly fired by Haringey council in response to the public outcry about the toddler’s horrific death.

But an employment tribunal panel ruled that the local authority acted reasonably in dismissing them because of serious failings in their care of the child.

You can read the full report here.

Posted in News | Also tagged gillie christou, maria ward | Leave a comment

Baby P whistleblower stands as councillor

By Mark Pack | Published 28th March 2010 - 7:15 pm

From the Evening Standard:

The whistleblower who warned that Haringey social services were failing to protect children just six months before the death of Baby P is to stand for election there as a Liberal Democrat councillor.

Former social worker Nevres Kemal, above, who will contest the Noel Park ward, said she will try to rid the council of a culture of “lying, deception and cover-ups”.

Best of luck Nevres.

Posted in Local government, News | Also tagged haringey council, nevres kemal | Leave a comment

David Lammy and Quentin Davies provoke warning from Treasury over ministerial behaviour

By Mark Pack | Published 26th October 2009 - 11:50 am

Rapid criticism of Public Accounts Committee reports from Quentin Davies (defence minister) and David Lammy (higher education minister) have resulted in the Treasury issuing a memo warning that such behaviour can result in ministers being censured.

As the November edition of Public Servant reports:

An attack by two ministers on parliamentary reports revealing waste and incompetence in their departments has provoked the Treasury to warn that ministers will face public censure if they make immediate statements to the media on future reports.

Statements by defence minister Quentin Davies and higher education minister David Lammy have led to a new Whitehall member to accounting

…

Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged david lammy, iain dale, lynne featherstone, public servant, quentin davies, sharon shoesmith | Leave a comment

So, were the courts right to keep names secret in the Baby Peter case?

By Mark Pack | Published 13th August 2009 - 9:20 am

At the time, there was stringent criticism from a vocal minority expressed online (such as in the comments thread on this site) of the court’s decision to keep secret the names of the adults involved in the Baby Peter case.

Now we know for sure the reasons:

There were two reasons behind the veil of secrecy. The first being the need to protect the identity of Baby Peter’s four siblings.

Connelly has three other children by Baby Peter’s father and gave birth to her youngest, who is Barker’s child, in prison.

The anonymity order was lifted because all four of Connelly’s remaining children are

…

Posted in News | 6 Comments

Haringey Labour increase their allowances by stealth

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd May 2009 - 5:32 pm

A quick quiz for you. One of the Haringey local newspapers, The Hornsey Journal, had this story on 14 May:

Under fire councillors opt to take pay freeze
The recession is about to hit councillors in the pocket, after both Haringey Labour and Liberal Democrat parties decided NOT to take a pay rise …

Councillor Claire Kober, Leader of the Labour-controlled council, said, “… This move will mean any savings can go straight into providing essential services for the people of Haringey.”

So, do you think that Labour voted through changes that resulted in the council’s allowances bill:

a) Staying the same, or
b) Increasing by £44,751 (7%)?

I’ll …

Posted in Lib Dem TV, Opposition watch | Also tagged claire kober, haringey council | 2 Comments

Baby P’s death “could and should” have been stopped

By Mark Pack | Published 2nd May 2009 - 12:33 am

The awful news about the second case of child abuse involving someone Haringey Council was meant to be protecting – with the conviction of the boyfriend of Baby P’s mother for raping a two-year old – has rather pushed to one side the publication of the second Serious Case Review into Baby P’s death.

The original Serious Case Review concluded that essentially nothing too significant was done wrong by those involved in protecting Baby P, but was rapidly discredited once its finding were publicised. This new review paints a very different picture, including the key conclusion that the death of Baby

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david lammy, haringey council, lynne featherstone, sharon shoesmith | Leave a comment

Mainstream media catches up with concerns over Haringey Chief Exec Ita O’Donovan

By Mark Pack | Published 13th March 2009 - 7:55 am

Evening Standard, 12 March 2009:

The head of the council at the centre of the Baby P scandal faces questions today over a series of other child protection failures.

Haringey chief executive Ita O’Donovan has held senior positions at three councils that were condemned for failing children so seriously that the Government was forced to intervene.

Dr O’Donovan has worked in authorities embroiled in some of the country’s most shocking child deaths. She has said she considered resigning over the Baby P tragedy but decided the council needed stability.

She was in charge of Stoke-on-Trent council when 15-year-old Gareth Myatt choked and died

…

Posted in Local government, News | Also tagged haringey council, ita o'donovan | Leave a comment

Opinion: Civil liberties in a modern context

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Published 2nd February 2009 - 12:41 pm

What does an innocent person have to fear?” That’s one of the most common arguments rolled out time and time again to justify chipping away at our freedoms. If you’re innocent why should you be worried if the government can do X, knows Y or stops Z?

The counter-arguments tend to be a mix of principle and pragmatism. Principled arguments around issues such as rights that we have as humans and the restrictions there should be on what governments can do. Pragmatic arguments such as the costs (e.g. spend money on ID cards or on police?), practicalities (e.g. what odds that …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged civil liberties, haringey council, lynne featherstone | 2 Comments

The 12 Op-Eds of Xmas (Day 11)

By Alix Mortimer | Published 4th January 2009 - 3:20 pm

Throughout the festive season, LDV is offering our readers a load of repeats another chance to read the 12 most popular opinion articles which appeared on the blog during 2008. The second most popular opinion article was by Alix Mortimer, and appeared on LDV on 16th November…

After Baby P: what can be done?

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged john hemming, lynne featherstone, xmas12 | Leave a comment

Old habits linger on at Haringey Council as Labour block Baby P debate

By Mark Pack | Published 6th December 2008 - 8:42 pm

This morning’s newspapers brought the news that the head of Ofsted is accusing Haringey Council of misleading her inspectors:

Ofsted’s assessment of local authorities’ children’s services last year consisted of a checklist of the information managers had to provide to demonstrate, among other things, that they had adequate social workers and were assessing children promptly. Managers in Haringey misled Ofsted by providing inaccurate data, the chief inspector said.

Tactics used by the council included claims that managers had assessed children promptly when the files revealed that those assessments were in fact incomplete. The same files showed that such assessments of children

…

Posted in News | Also tagged haringey council, lynne featherstone | 3 Comments

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