04 December 2008
By Vivienne Russell Ofsted head Christine Gilbert has been summoned to appear before the children, schools and families select committee. She will be asked to explain why the watchdog failed to spot problems at the London Borough of Haringey, where Baby P died after months of violence and neglect. Gilbert will appear on the morning of December 10 alongside Michael Hart, Ofsted’s director for children, and other senior colleagues. Committee chair Barry Sheerman said the committee would ask ‘some pretty searching questions of the chief inspector’. Controversy over Ofsted’s role in the Baby P case arose after it emerged that it had given Haringey’s children’s services department a ‘good’ rating in 2007 and praised leadership at the council. Yet in the review of Haringey’s child protection services, commissioned by Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and published on December 1, Gilbert said she had ‘serious concerns’ about the safeguarding of children in Haringey. ‘Haringey is clearly still not doing enough to ensure that children are properly protected,’ she said. The review, which Ofsted conducted with the NHS and policing watchdogs, highlighted poor leadership and found that access to child protection services was inconsistent. Gilbert has said Ofsted’s earlier positive conclusions about children’s services in Haringey were derived from paperwork submitted by the council itself. She will be expected to account more fully for the inspectorate’s change of view when she appears before MPs next week.
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