Full disclosure of past tragedies will be damaging, warns sector

In his first interview as the minister responsible for safeguarding children, Tim Loughton confirmed to CYP Now that the government would publish retrospectively the full serious case reviews of the four cases, which attracted widespread media attention.

Both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have said all along they would publish forthcoming reviews in full. But Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers, warned against revisiting old cases.

"So much was said and so many high emotions were running at the time of the cases, all this can do is resurrect some of that," she said.

While agreeing that current publications of serious case reviews do not go far enough in helping professionals improve practice, including the initial report into the Baby Peter case, Mansuri questioned the thinking behind opening up past reports.

Allison Roche, assistant national officer at trade union Unison, also believes returning to high-profile cases is a step backwards and could result in negative attention being brought to the social work profession.

She said: "There needs to be a focus on looking forward and implementing the recommendations of the Social Work Taskforce rather than going back to these cases."

Loughton denied that the publication of the reviews would create another media furore about social workers.

"When you read some of these reviews it becomes clear that a lot of fault can be laid at the door of other agencies," he said. "Yet it is always social workers who take the brunt of the criticism. Actually, this is a way of helping to restore some of the lost confidence in social workers."

Loughton said the review relating to Baby Peter would be released first.

Setting out his role as junior children's minister, Loughton also said he would be announcing the remit of the review into children's social work "imminently", revealing that among other areas, Professor Eileen Munro will be tasked with looking at children's trusts.

He also made assurances that work on finding a replacement to the ContactPoint database had been "accelerated" and that he was committed to having a continued role in ensuring joint working between youth services and youth justice professionals despite the Ministry of Justice taking sole responsibility for youth justice.

THE SERIOUS CASES

• Peter Connolly died in Haringey in August 2007 after months of abuse. Professionals were criticised for not picking up on obvious warning signs
• Khyra Ishaq was starved to death by her family in May 2008. Birmingham children's services faced criticism for not listening to concerns when she was deregistered from mainstream education
• The Edlington brothers were jailed after torturing two boys in April last year
• Karen Matthews was convicted of kidnap and false imprisonment of her daughter Shannon in December 2008 after hiding the nine-year-old in her step-uncle's home.

Read CYP Now's interview with Tim Loughton.