Child abuse cases to be re-opened

Baby P died after months of abuse

Five child abuse cases in Devon and Cornwall are to be re-examined, after reviews of them were judged inadequate.

Monitoring body Ofsted said since April 2007, 38 serious case reviews conducted nationally into child abuse or neglect had been inadequate.

Three were in Cornwall and two in Devon. Now Children's Secretary Ed Balls has said they must be reviewed.

The Cornwall and Devon authorities responsible for case reviews said they had addressed criticism.

Surprise inspections

The call for a review comes in the wake of the Baby P case in Haringey, London.

Baby P died aged 17 months although he was on the child protection register and was seen by professionals 60 times.

As a result of failings identified in Haringey, child protection services in England will be monitored more closely and subject to surprise inspections.

Case reviews are carried out by Local Safeguarding Children Boards, which include councils, police and health representatives.

The Cornwall board said it had undertaken a thorough review of its procedures and processes and had addressed the criticism from Ofsted.

Devon's board said it had appointed a new independent chairman and all the agencies involved would work in partnership to ensure everything possible was done to keep children safe.