By yesterday, when Children's Secretary Ed Balls delivered his verdict on the independent inquiry into the Baby P case, the effect of superlatives had worn thin.

By yesterday, when Children's Secretary Ed Balls delivered his verdict on the independent inquiry into the Baby P case, the effect of superlatives had worn thin. Most of them - "damning", "devastating", "shocking" - have already been used up as the details of the tragedy revealed themselves to government, the courts and the public.

Baby P, a 17-month-old boy, endured a short life of misery and pain that ended in August 2007. He was found dead in a squalid flat in Tottenham, London, having suffered more than 50 injuries including a broken back and eight fractured ribs at the hands of his abusive mother, her boyfriend and their lodger.

The 17-month-old baby was on the child protection register and had been visited 60 times by professionals from social services. After doctors noticed repeated "non-accidental" injuries in 2006 the baby was put on the child protection register and a police investigation began.

But despite opposition from investigating police officers, and from medical consultants, at the end of January 2007 Haringey social services decided to return Baby P to the family home.

Last month, the boy's mother, her boyfriend and a lodger were jailed over his death. Yesterday, three senior figures from Haringey Council were counting the cost over the way they handled the case.

There are four separate investigations into what went wrong in Haringey Council but Ed Balls said an independent report and an Ofsted inspection had painted a "devastating and damning" picture of failings in the London local authority's systems. All of the report's recommendations must be accepted by Haringey said Mr Balls.

That meant that two councillors, the leader George Meehan and cabinet member for children and young people Liz Santry, had to quit with both accepting responsibility for their failure to provide political leadership.

The head of children's services, Sharon Shoesmith, was removed from her post at Mr Balls request and she is one of six staff now suspended on full pay, the council confirmed last night.

The government went further, imposing a new director of children's services, John Coughlan, who was seconded to Haringey last month to oversee children's services in the wake of the Baby P trial. Mr Balls said he had ordered a new serious case review into the death of Baby P, with an executive summary to be published by the end of March.

The Children's Secretary, who found the report of the independent inspectors devastating, said that their recommendations must be carried out in full. "Having studied their report I've decided to take immediate action," said Mr Balls. "My first priority is to put in place a new leadership and management team in Haringey children's services to ensure that vulnerable children in the borough are properly protected."

The minister accepted that social workers, police and other officials who dealt with children's safety often worked in "challenging circumstances" but he added: "They must also be accountable for the decisions, and when things go badly wrong people want to know why and what can be done about it."

The report listed the "catalogue of failings" at Haringey Council.

There was a failure to identify those children and young people at immediate risk of harm and to act on evidence. Agencies were found to be working in isolation from one another and without effective co-ordination and there was poor, recording and sharing of information.

Senior management were found wanting and inconsistent in supervising staff and reporting to councillors and, most worryingly for Mr Balls, there was a failure to talk directly to children at risk.

He said: "Where children were not seen alone, it worries me greatly that the inspectors found little evidence of management follow-up to ensure that children suspected of being abused were properly heard and able to speak up without fear."

The report found that the serious case review into Baby P's death was "inadequate". The investigators used the same words over and over, describing reports from Haringey Children's Social services as "inadequate", "lacking rigour" and undermined the review process. The conclusion, Mr Ball accepted, was one of "missed opportunities" and "lessons to be learned" - again.