A baby girl who was murdered by her father had been seen by 30 health care workers, yet none of them realised she was at risk, a report has found.

Jessica Randall, who died when she was 54 days old, might still be alive if signs of abuse had been properly identified, according to the findings of an inquiry by Northamptonshire’s Local SafeGuarding Children Board.

From the day she was taken home from hospital, Jessica suffered injuries inflicted by her father, including broken ribs, a fractured skull and sexual abuse. When she showed signs that something was wrong, including “strange crying and twitching”, the doctor who saw her failed to record suspicions of abuse in his notes.

She died on November 21 2005. Her father, Andrew, 33, was jailed for life for her murder in March last year and an inquiry was launched. The findings, published yesterday, found that no individual doctor or health worker was to blame for failing to register Jessica as a child at risk of abuse. It was the process through which children were reported at being at risk which had failed.

“At no stage was Jessica Randall recognised as a child at risk,” the report concluded. “The outcome may have been different had these signs been acted on, as this would have created opportunities for assessment and involvement of other agencies by activating protective procedures.”

A nurse formerly in charge of a Birmingham nursing home where 27 elderly residents died in a year will face a disciplinary hearing next week.

Public sector recruitment is too often left in the hands of inexperienced human resources staff or narrowly focused recruitment consultants, a leading recruitment consultant said today.

Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg has called for an overhaul in how metal health services are provided in the UK.

Thousands of elderly people were charged too much for nursing care by the NHS. Patients wrongly charged for nursing care have had to be repaid a total of £180million by the Health Service, it has emerged.

DAME Helen Mirren has joined the fight to save services from being cut at the cash-strapped Fair Havens Hospice in Westcliff.

More than half of nurses on mental health wards have been physically attacked, a survey suggests.

Nurses working with older people are the most likely to be assaulted, the joint Healthcare Commission and Royal College of Psychiatrists report said.

The study of 69 NHS trusts and private hospitals in England and Wales said patients had also been attacked and more had to be done to stop violence.

Health bosses said the situation was taken “very seriously”. The audit covered eight in 10 of the organisations providing in-patient care for the 30,000 mental health patients in England and Wales.

Nurses, doctors, visitors and patients were all asked about whether they had suffered attacks, threats and what could be done about it.

Some 46% of nurses in mental health wards for working age patients said they had been assaulted. For those working in older people’s wards this rose to 64%.

Social workers are too often vilified for creating problems rather than given due credit for the work they do with the vulnerable, a senior Conservative politician said today.

Tim Loughton, the shadow children’s minister, told the National Children’s Services Commissioning Conference in London that social workers are caricatured as a result of general ignorance about what they actually do.

Loughton, who also chairs the Conservatives’ commission on social work, attacked what he described as the “deeply corrosive situation where too many social workers are seen as part of the problem rather than an integral part of the solution”.

He told the conference, which is supported by the Guardian, that recent research by the General Social Care Council found only 40% of the population see the contribution of social workers to society as “very important”.

“This is perhaps unsurprising when another survey found that more than half understood little or nothing about what social work involves,” said Loughton. “Misconceptions are too often fuelled by stereotyped social worker characters as they appear in the media, ranging from slightly alternative liberal busybodies to out-and-out child snatchers.

A CARE home was guilty of a “gross failure” to provide medical attention for a 95-year-old woman, a coroner ruled.

People who care for someone who has physical or learning disabilities or is elderly do have legal employment rights, but often there is a lack of awareness about these, a charity claims.