SOCIAL Services bosses today revealed what they had done to improve the service since their own report into the tragedy was published in March.
A six-person panel of social services bosses, health professionals and police was strongly critical of failings in the system which should have protected Emma and revealed care workers made five critical errors in the weeks before her death.
It revealed that her case should have been looked at more carefully because of her mother's health problems, threats made by the mother to harm the baby were not recorded, social services failed to support the family, health and social workers failed to pass on information about the family to each other and the "vulnerable" mother and baby were left on their own after the father returned to work following the birth.' It was also revealed today that the family was left without a social worker after theirs moved away from the area. It recommended that professionals must accept responsibility to ensure action was taken on child protection conference decisions, child protection concerns to be comprehensively recorded and made know to relevant staff, pre-birth child protection conference should be held as early as possible and that there must be effective working between mental health and child care professionals. Lancashire social services today said there had been £1million investment across the county and all recommendations of the March report had been fully implemented.
In the Burnley area there has been a doubling from three to six managers, an overall increase of managers from 11 to 20 covering the East Lancashire area. Gill Rigg, Chair of the Lancashire Area Child Protection Committee said: "We are determined to learn the lessons from the tragedy of Emma's death and to ensure all agencies continue to strive to improve the protection of vulnerable children in Lancashire."
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