GIRFEC failed Mikaeel Kular

A mother who beat her three-year-old son to death and hid his body in a suitcase before sparking a huge search for him by claiming he had gone missing has been jailed for 11 years. Rosdeep "Rosie" Adekoya, 34, was originally charged with murdering her son Mikaeel Kular but pleaded guilty last month to the reduced charge of culpable homicide...

Lord Glennie told Adekoya at the High Court in Edinburgh: "What you did was cruel and inexcusable. Striking a child even once is bad enough...

Mikaeel’s death has also prompted an independent inquiry into the handling of the case by social workers after it emerged that he and his twin sister were monitored until weeks before the attack.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/11054730/Mother-who-beat-three-year-old-Mikaeel-Kular-to-death-jailed-for-11-years.html

This is not only a failure by social workers - and we can be assured that we will never hear about them if past standards of reporting apply - but it is a failure of GIRFEC and the named person approach.

The named person is supposed to step in with early interventions in order to avert a crisis. Yet this was a family known to social services, with red flags a-flying, and the named person in place, chose not to do a thing. Or has there been confusion about the lead person role? It is worth reading the 2013 Report:
In considering the details of how a named person would go about their work, however, there were some very different expectations about the role. For example, there was doubt around the level of involvement that the named person would be expected to have in complex child protection issues, such as where a child’s plan was required. Barnardo’s Scotland described the named person role as "a named co-ordination point" and considered that "the moment we start talking about managing a child’s plan, we move into lead professional territory". Highland Council’s view was similar: "the named person would support early interventions but as soon as more than one agency got involved the co-ordinating role would move to the lead professional
11th Report, 2013 (Session 4): Stage 1 Report on the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill (914KB pdf) See also http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/significant-case-review-into-social.html

And  http://www.home-education.biz/forum/64484-post4.html