Social workers at the same council responsible for tragic Preston Davey missed chances to save three other children from harm in recent cases, including another murder.
After secondary school teacher Jamie Varley, 37, was jailed for life for Preston's sexual abuse and murder, an independent review has resumed.
It will consider evidence including at least eight missed chances to intervene by hospital staff, social workers, police and Varley's colleagues, revealed in court during the killer adoptive father's trial.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said 'questions need to be answered' over how Varley was able to abuse and kill Preston, while former Home Secretary Jack Straw said police need to consider prosecuting officials involved in the case for possible 'malfeasance in public office'.
Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel De Souza said the murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey was a 'massive safeguarding failure' and she will pursue the question of whether it was preventable with 'that baby's broken body at the front of my mind'.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: 'Did that evil abuser hoodwink people? I want to know whether the correct level of professional curiosity was there.'
Previous safeguarding reviews in Oldham, Greater Manchester, highlighted shortcomings in three recent cases including that of murdered youngster Dylan Scanlon, it can now be revealed.
The five-year-old was beaten and fed a lethal dose of antidepressants by his mother Claire Scanlon on New Year's Eve, 2021, four years after welfare concerns were first raised.
Evidence in court revealed at least eight missed opportunities to save Preston Davey
Dylan Scanlon, five, was murdered by his mother - who was jailed the month Preston died
Less than two weeks before Preston Davey's death in July 2023, Scanlon, then 39, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years after being convicted of her son's murder.
A Child Safeguarding Practice Review published last July highlighted a series of opportunities by social services and police to intervene in Dylan's case – but their response was 'inadequate' and 'ineffective'.
Dylan first came into contact with social services aged one, when he was found crawling alone along a street.
Concerns were later raised on three more occasions, including by a dietician who feared Dylan's mother 'did not fully understand' her son's health needs as a three-year-old.
When Dylan was about to turn four, an anonymous caller reported Dylan 'playing alongside rats' among piles of rubbish outside the family home in Oldham.
But no action was taken after a health visitor said the home conditions were good enough – despite not having visited for three months.
Finally, six months before Dylan's death, an anonymous caller raised concerns to police, Dylan's school and social workers, saying he 'always looks very dirty, unkempt and the house is filthy'.
The concerned local told how Scanlon often forgot to pick Dylan up from school and 'smoked weed on a daily basis'.
The safeguarding review found Greater Manchester Police and Oldham social services both thought the other was responding – so no action took place in an 'incredible' misunderstanding.
In another case, a 13-year-old girl under Oldham Council care was raped and abused after running away from a residential school in September 2023.
She had been moved to the school, 70 miles away, after a series of placements when she was moved between nine foster carers in just over two years.
The girl had been under social services care since she was four and had spent the first four years in a settled foster home with one of her six siblings before arrangements broke down.
After a nine-day search, she was found with one of her sisters at a house where a man was arrested and later convicted of her rape. The girl later disclosed to social workers she had sex with multiple men and had been taking drugs.
The safeguarding review made 11 recommendations, highlighting the failure by officials to consider the impact of the repeated moves between foster homes, separation from her sibling and moving her so far away.
The review acknowledged 'relentless work' by professionals to try to keep the girl safe – but found failings in 'care planning' by social services and police.
There have been three recent Child Safeguarding Reviews involving Oldham social services over incidents before Preston Davey's murder
And in January 2023 - just two months before Preston was placed with adoptive parents Varley and his boyfriend John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, in Blackpool, Lancashire - Oldham Safeguarding Children Partnership published a review which revealed failings in the care of another child.
The boy, aged 10, whose mother was a heroin and crack cocaine addict, was admitted to hospital with 'potentially life-threatening' neglect which had been missed by experts.
He had been under a care order with Oldham Council for two years before the hospital admission in 2021.
There was a 'si…
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