Police chief makes Baby P pledge

Sir Paul Stephenson says lessons must be learnt

The acting head of the Metropolitan Police has pledged to put right any faults in his force's child protection work in the wake of the Baby P tragedy.

Acting Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson acknowledged that his force was one of the agencies tasked with protecting vulnerable children in the capital.

He said the damning report into the system's failings would be acted upon.

Welfare professionals had visited the abused 17-month-old boy, from Haringey, north London, 60 times before he died.

Speaking at London's City Hall, Sir Paul said it was right that the police and other agencies came under scrutiny for not having saved the child's life.

'Serious concerns'

He said: "Nobody could have read the reports of Baby P's death and not been deeply saddened and moved and felt quite shocked about what has gone on here and I include myself in that."

Baby P, who cannot be named for legal reasons, died in August last year, having suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of his mother, 27, her boyfriend, 32, and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36.

Baby P died after suffering months of abuse

The three were convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey next spring.

Inspectors sent to Haringey after the trial identified a string of "serious concerns" about the area's "inadequate" child-protection services.

They condemned everything from poor record-keeping to a failure to identify children at immediate risk of harm.

The acting commissioner said recommendations made by a review into Baby P's death had already been implemented in police child abuse investigation teams across London.

Sir Paul added that the force's Child Abuse Investigation Command had introduced new training regimes for police officers and staff.

But he said that following the review into Haringey's children's services, the Met's Acting Chief Inspector of Constabulary would make additional recommendations specific to the Met.

"Where things have gone wrong, we will work with our partners to put them right," said Sir Paul.

"Our priority has to be to ensure the effective safeguards and practices are in place.

"The recommendations from the reviews will be implemented so that London's children are properly protected."