Edlington attack report 'inadequate'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-17547667

Version 0 of 2.

A report on an attack on two boys in South Yorkshire is insufficient and a further review is needed, the education secretary says.

The boys, then nine and 11, were tortured by two brothers aged 10 and 11 in Edlington, near Doncaster, in 2009.

The brothers were later detained indefinitely and told they would serve a minimum of five years.

Michael Gove said the review was "an example of how the current model of serious case reviews is failing".

He added: "I have therefore asked Lord Carlile CBE QC to carry out a further independent review of the issues and the action taken and improvements made."

'Insufficient analysis'

The executive summary of the review's findings was released by the Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board in January 2010.

The report said the assault was not only predictable, but was entirely preventable.

It stated that over the course of 14 years nine agencies had been involved with the brothers' family and between them they missed 31 opportunities to intervene.

In June 2010 ministers confirmed the full report of the official investigation would be published.

Mr Gove said it "documents everything that happened but with insufficient analysis of why and what could have been done differently".

"In the future we want serious case reviews to focus on why professionals acted the way they did, and what was getting in the way of them taking the right action at the right time."