Baby P effect? For the first time more than 900 children were removed from their homes in a single month
Steve Doughty writes in The Daily Mail: The number of children taken from their parents by social workers is poised to hit a record 10,000 this year.
The flood of children into state care has more than doubled over four years in the wake of the scandal after the killing of Baby P.
Social work chiefs have clearly concluded that they were leaving too many children in homes where they were in danger.
For the first time, more than 900 children were removed from their homes in the course of a single month, prompting warnings that more resources must be provided for care, and that adoption must be speeded up.
Baby P, later named as Peter Connelly, died in August 2007 after suffering more than 50 injuries.
Social workers in the borough of Haringey in North London had decided he was safe living with his mother and that her major difficulty as a parent was poverty.
Getting tougher: Social workers in the borough of Haringey in North London, led by Children’s Service Director Sharon Shoesmith, pictured, had decided Baby P was safe living with his mother
Numbers of children removed from their homes rose rapidly in the wake of the death, and shot up even faster after Peter’s mother and two men were jailed for causing his death at the Old Bailey in November 2008.
In April 2008 some 380 children were taken from their homes into state care.
Last month the figure was 903, and in the first ten months of the financial year which started last April 8,403 children were taken into care.
The total being looked after by the state is more than 65,000.