Recently a baby under the protection of social services was abused and killed. It was not the first and will not be the last, but the fact that “Baby P” was visited 60 times by social workers charged with his protection whilst the abuse was going on has caused a scandal. In an article published in Public Servant this month I reflect on the role of so-called “joined-up government” in the Baby P affair. I conclude that misguided mergers of children’s services and group think in panels designed to co-ordinate protection services may have contributed to the failure to save Baby P.

Full article now on-line at Public Servant

for a comment by another MBS professor with a different perspective see Peter Kawalek