Diane demands law to make it easier to sack social services bosses in child abuse cases

26 Feb 2010

On the tenth anniversary of the death of Victoria Climbie and the day after the sentencing in the horrific child abuse case in Birmingham, Diane Abbott MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington is calling on the government to implement all of Lord Laming’s recommendations before further vulnerable children pay the price.

Lord Laming made 108 recommendations in his 2003 report following the death of eight year-old Victoria Climbie, ten years ago this week - 46 of which should be implemented within three months, 38 within six months and the rest within two years.

But his later report into the death of Baby P found that many of his original recommendations had not been implemented.

Diane said: “The failure to take up Lord Laming’s original recommendations in his report into the Victoria Climbie case, including that the law should be changed so that Heads Social Services can be disciplined when tragic events like this occur, should have happened years ago. In the ten years since Victoria’s death, we have witnessed other children lose their lives and yet we still we ignore expert advice.

Everytime a horrific incident of child cruelty occurs like the Baby P case or Khyra Ishaq case in Birmingham, there is call for further inquiries and new rules. But what is really needed is real accountability at the top of social services departments. In his original report on Victoria Climibe, Lord Laming called for Heads of Social Services to be disciplined in particularly bad cases. If the law does not allow this, then the law should be changed and contracts for all Directors of Social Services should be changed accordingly. Only when directors of Social Services know that they can not hide behind junior staff, and that they personally will pay a price, will we see fewer of these horrific cases.”



back ⇢