New child safety boards 'have done little except produce paperwork'

Children have been left at risk of abuse, violence and murder by new child safety boards that were set up to help them, according to a scathing Whitehall report.

The organisations which were supposed to prevent a repeat of the Victoria Climbie killing have not understood their job and have done little except produce paperwork, it found.

Rather than investigate lapses in the way social workers protect children, the Local Safeguarding Children Boards have spent their time arguing about money, the report said.

The inquiry findings were revealed in a report produced in the summer, but left unpublicised by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

It remained buried on the Department's website until it was highlighted by the Centre for Policy Studies think tank.

The Local Safeguarding Children Boards went into operation in April last year to bring social work chiefs, police, NHS managers and schools together to try to ensure that no child in trouble goes unnoticed.

Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said: "After a spate of tragic cases in which children have been tortured or killed despite being monitored by child protection officers, the results of the Government's own review give serious cause for concern."

Department of Children, Schools and Families minister Kevin Brennan said: "The report shows that Local Safeguarding Children Boards can make a real difference.

"However it also shows that delivery is uneven, that these boards need to be adequately resourced to be effective and to show strong leadership in progressing the safeguarding agenda locally."