1,400 at risk children 'not safe'

There are 1,400 children deemed to be at risk who are not safe in Britain's second largest city because the council is unable to "guarantee the standard of safeguarding work", the head of children's services in Birmingham admitted to ITV News.

The shocking admission comes after a damning report into the death of two-year-old Keanu Williams, who was beaten to death by his mother, found he became "invisible" to the authorities in Birmingham.

Peter Hay, Birmingham City Council's acting strategic director for children, said: "The position facing children in Birmingham tonight is very frail.

"We do not have enough social workers able to do enough great social work and that means we are not able to adequately guarantee the standard of the safeguarding work that we are putting to children today. "

The Government has threatened Birmingham's under-fire childcare agencies with further action unless it sees rapid improvements in services.

Commenting on the findings of the report into toddler Keanu Williams' murder, Children's Minister Edward Timpson said, "This is an awful case and the Serious Case Review (SCR) shows that improvements are urgently needed."

He continued: "I have issued the council with a final warning - Ofsted will return to Birmingham this autumn to determine what progress has been made.

"There is no quick fix, however I have been very clear with Birmingham that unless I see rapid improvement further action will follow."

Children's charity the National Children's Bureau (NCB) said the case of murdered toddler Keanu Williams "starkly demonstrates the unintended consequences of recent reforms to child protection".

The NCB said those were: an overly bureaucratic process, lack of individual responsibility' increasingly complex organisational relationships and responsibilities and no one advocating in the interests of the child.

'It is particularly worrying that the review found that no conversations were held with Keanu to find out what he was feeling. No child at risk should ever be only seen and not heard", the charity added.

Read: Toddler 'failed by every agency'

The independent chair of Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB), which published the report into Keanu Williams' death, has expressed "very deep regret" on behalf of all the agencies involved.

A Serious Case Review has criticised nursery staff for not raising the alarm after seeing marks and bruises on the body of Keanu Williams.

The two-year-old, who was beaten to death by his mother, had 37 separate injuries, including extensive bruising to his head, stomach, back and legs, when he died.

"No referral was made and clear guidelines and procedures were not followed as staff believed the explanations put forward by Shuttleworth," the report noted.

The panel conducting the Serious Case Review into Keanu Williams' murder agreed his death "could not have been predicted."

However, the report added that in view of his mother's background history, "It could have been predicted that Keanu was likely to suffer significant harm and should have been subject of a child protection plan on at least two occasions to address issues of neglect and physical harm."

Keanu, who was born in Torbay, died in Birmingham in January 2011 after suffering a skull fracture and a severe abdominal injury caused by his mother, Rebecca Shuttleworth.

The report made eight recommendations to the organisations involved in Keanu's care, with the review's author saying various agencies were guilty of a "loss of focus" after a core assessment made shortly before the toddler's first birthday.

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Two-year-old Keanu Williams became "invisible" to the authorities while being subjected to months of cruelty, a damning report has found.

The Serious Case Review into the toddler's murder concluded that the professionals involved in his care failed to meet even basic standards of good practice.

Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board's independent report said child protection workers in various agencies "collectively failed" to prevent Keanu's death.

Read: Toddler had 37 separate injuries when he died

The Serious Case Review into Keanu Williams' death found the toddler died "because people missed opportunity after opportunity to intervene, and do something decisive to ensure he was safe and properly cared for."

The review, which was undertaken by the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB), stated that although some staff "did their best" for the two-year-old boy, others "did not comply with required practice, processes and procedures."

"Those staff have already been held to account for this by individual agencies," Jane Held, chairwoman of the BSCB said.

A Serious Case Review into the death of a two-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his mother has found Keanu Williams died "because there was failure across every agency to see, hear and respond to him in the context of what he was experiencing at any one point in time."

Rebecca Shuttleworth, 25, is serving life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years for beating her son Keanu to death.

Read more on this story at ITV News Central's website