Downing Street Says » Baby P Case

Asked what the latest state of play was with the Government s approach to the Baby P case, the Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that the Government received this morning the serious case review, a review conducted in line with the statutory guidance which made clear that the report should be commissioned from independent authors and we had no reason to believe that that was not the case in this instance.

The Children s Minister and the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families having received that report this morning, were in the process of examining the content of the review and people could expect an announcement from them giving their response and the actions the Government was proposing to take, later today.

Put that it had been the case that Sharon Shoesmith was on the sub-committee that wrote the report, the PMS said that our understanding of the situation and Beverley Hughes was making this clear at lunchtime, was that the report should be commissioned from a person who was independent of all of the agencies and professionals involved. We had no evidence to suggest that this had not happened in this case.

Put that the report made clear that the independent body did collate the information from the other agencies but the sub-committee on which Sharon Shoesmith served, wrote the report, the PMS replied that the guidance was clear and we had no reason to believe that that had not happened in this case.

Asked whether the Prime Minister believed that Sharon Shoesmith should resign, the PMS repeated that we had received the serious case review. It was right that we followed the proper procedures and that we looked at this in an orderly way but having examined the evidence we then acted urgently. As the PMS had said, Ed Balls would be making an announcement later today.

Asked if there was any concern that following the events of PMQ s that the Prime Minister might be open to the accusation that he was responding in a particularly bureaucratic way to something that was a human story, the PMS said we would totally and utterly reject that suggestion. The PMS was slightly surprised that that question should even be raised. The Prime Minister, like any parent in the country, was totally appalled by this case, which had clearly had a deep impact on anyone that had followed it.

It was right that we examined the evidence properly and having examined the evidence and what went wrong, we then took action.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought he had been properly briefed for PMQ s, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was always happy with his briefing arrangements for PMQ s.

Asked if the Prime Minister stood by his accusation that the leader of the opposition was playing party politics in PMQ s, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had made his position clear during the course of the exchanges. The PMS added that it was not for him to get involved in a party political matter, but he thought the Prime Minister had made clear during the exchanges, that what he was trying to do was to identify the areas that everyone agreed upon.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had any view on how the exchanges generally would play out to the general public, the PMS said that the Prime Minister s view was that it was clearly a completely appalling case and anybody who had been following it would have been shocked by this very tragic incident. As a parent, of course he completely understood that and what the Prime Minister was trying to do was to identify areas that everybody could agree on.

Asked whether the Prime Minister would be looking at the report, the PMS said that he thought that the correct procedures for this case was that this was the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families and the Children s Minister to look at and deal with and decide on an appropriate way forward.

Asked if there were any plans by the Government to suspend or sack anyone from Haringey Council, the PMS said that people should check with the department on such procedures. The PMS said that it was his understanding that the Government had powers to take special measures if it felt that that was appropriate, but it did not have powers to sack individuals.

Asked if it was right that Sharon Shoesmith as Chairman of Haringey s Local Safeguarding Children Board actually chose the independent writers that carried out the report, the PMS said that on that level of detail on process, people should speak to the department.

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» Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Baby P Case

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