Children's secretary, Ed Balls, has launched a Whitehall-based plan to improve children's services, following the Baby P case at Haringey. Councils will soon be invited to put current and potential directors of children's services through an intense, year-long leadership programme' to equip them with the skills to manage increasingly-complicated child protection. It follows private concerns within Whitehall that some failings exposed by the death of Baby P - which led to the dismissal of Haringey LBC's director of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith - could be repeated across the UK, unless action is taken to improve councils' oversight of vulnerable children. Publicly, Mr Balls has stressed the Baby P case was a one-off, and that most children's services are adequate but, privately, concerns have mounted.
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