Age Concern has demanded that next week’s pre-budget report allocates at least an extra £1billion for social care to help plug the yawning gaps in care home funding.

The government said last night it may send a new management team into Haringey council, to take over the running of social services in the borough where Baby P died at the hands of his mother and two men.

The government is investing £200 million in efforts to end rough sleeping within four years. The Communities and Local Government department has today launched a 15-point strategy to meet its pledge, which is backed by the prime minister Gordon Brown.

The horrific case of Baby P, who died after abuse and neglect in Haringey, north London, has provoked headline-grabbing stories. The newspapers have pored over the gruesome details of his death and called for the sacking of social workers involved in the case.

We are less surprised than many that reforms following the death of Victoria Climbié failed to protect Baby P. Our research, examining everyday frontline practice in children’s social care in five local authorities in England and Wales, raises a number of serious questions about whether well-intentioned, modernised systems may actually have compromised the conditions in which good practice can flourish.