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London: The government will tighten child protection laws following the death of Baby P by requiring every local authority in England to establish a multi-agency Children's Trust Board, officials said on Tuesday.
The trusts aim to prevent abuse of children by bringing together health workers, police, schools and others to set a clear strategy for child protection in their area.
The move follows the failure of Haringey Council in north London to prevent the violent death of a 17-month-old toddler known only as Baby P even though he was on the authority's "at risk" register.
The trusts were first established following Lord Laming's report into the death of Victoria Climbie eight years ago but there is no statutory requirement for councils to establish them.
An Audit Commission report earlier this year criticised progress on establishing the trusts.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls told GMTV the Baby P case showed that the needs of at-risk children must be given a higher priority than the desire to keep families together.
Priority
"We've got to do better to make sure we get the police, the health services, the GPs, schools, with social workers to really focus on making sure every child is safe and, if those early signs of problems are starting to arise, that we act and we see things from the child's point of view," he said.
"I think too often in this case, and in other cases, what is happening is people are thinking 'is the mother okay' and keep the family together."
"The first priority has got to be the child and that they're safe and I think we all fear in the case of Haringey that wasn't what happened and that's what's wrong."
The Audit Commission report in October said it had found wide variation in how authorities were coordinating children's protection. It said nearly all authorities had created some form of partnership between children's agencies, but that only two-thirds operated under the name of a children's trust board.
It said there was little evidence that funding for children's protection was being coordinated.
"As a result, there is little evidence that children's trusts, as required by the government, have improved outcomes for children...," it added.
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