• Report highly critical of council’s handling of inquiry.
• ‘Cynical’ Labour council issues critical report on day of Climbie Inquiry publication.

The Lib Dems have criticised Haringey Council’s handling of the report from the Plank Inquiry into how the Labour-run council conducted itself during the Climbie Inquiry. During the inquiry, Haringey’s repeated failure to hand over vital documents was widely condemned.

The Lib Dems says the council issued the highly critical Plank Report on the same day as the Laming Inquiry was published, when attention was instead rightly focused on the outcome of the Laming Inquiry itself.

The Lib Dems have also revealed that Haringey acquired the services of a public relations company to ‘assist’ its press office in handling the reaction to the Laming Inquiry and the issue of the Plank Report.

The Plank Report into Haringey conduct during the Climbie Inquiry was completed in December, but publication was held back. The Lib Dems believe that senior Labour Councillors were allowed to see advance copies of the Plank Report, but this courtesy was not extended to any opposition councillors.

Ironically, the Lib Dems note that the report has heavily criticised the council’s handling of briefing for the opposition, whose main source of information on Haringey’s much criticised behaviour during the inquiry was the media. The report also identifies conflicts of interest between council officers and members, a lack of coordination and poor team-working.

It damningly concludes that the council failed to take the issue seriously enough or give it proper priority.

The Lib Dems now want the council to implement the recommendation that a project board is set up, including members of the opposition, to ensure that these mistakes do not occur again.

Lib Dem social services spokesperson, Ron Aitken, comments:

“We have written to the council to complain about their handling of the release of information to councillors, particularly yesterday.

“It seems the council has not yet learned the lesson of recent events. We will now be pushing to ensure that proper systems are established to avoid this situation in future.

“This report is not a small matter that the council members and senior managers can bury to save face. It has been published so that lessons are learned that will ensure that no other child suffers the way the Victoria Cimbie did.”