It is, as yet, impossible to imagine the sequence of events that led up to the death of Khyra Ishaq, the seven-year-old girl who allegedly starved to death in a Birmingham suburb. But the tragedy raises yet more concerns about the system of child protection. Fury, predictably, is already being directed at social workers. Yet the State alone cannot bear the whole responsibility for spotting every child who is at risk. Neighbours, friends and relatives could also have done so. The belief that government should monitor every child may be unintentionally making it even harder to identify those most in need.

Khyra's case is, in part, a test of the wholesale changes that were made after the Climbié inquiry. Victoria Climbié died in 2000 at the hands of her great-aunt and boyfriend, despite having been seen by police, doctors and social workers. While direct comparisons are premature - Khyra's family do not appear to have been previously known to social services - her case does raise similar questions about whether different agencies are working closely enough together. The removal of the Ishaq children from school did, apparently, lead to a visit from an educational social worker. But this does not seem to have triggered a more serious alert to child protection officers.

Lord Laming's report after the Climbié inquiry became the basis for an extensive reorganisation of local authority children's services. What became known as the “safeguarding agenda” put a welcome focus on children at risk of long-term, low-level neglect: children whose plight had sometimes been ignored because it had not yet reached shock pitch. Child protection services were also merged with the provision of general services to families, based on the belief that children at risk were more likely to be identified if all children were monitored.

The perfectly reasonable theory was that a more multidisciplinary approach would prevent children slipping through gaps between agencies. In reality, however, the paperwork involved in tracking and assessing so many children seems to be trapping many social workers in offices, when they should be out tramping the streets. In some parts of the country there have been turf wars between social workers and health professionals. The changes also seem to have significantly increased the number of automatic referrals to children's services, which has inevitably diffused attention away from those most in need.

In what we like to think of as a civilised society, it is unbearable that children can suffer unnoticed, even to their death. Handsworth is not a poverty-stricken ghetto: it is a respectable suburb. It is not yet clear what happened to Khyra. But Birmingham City Council has rightly promised to review the case. It must have the courage to make its conclusions public. The child protection system is not noted for its openness, or its accountability. Professionals must own up to mistakes, if mistakes have been made. But the response must be more thoughtful than a mere demand for more counter-productive bureaucracy.

Britain cannot become a country with a police officer at every door, inspecting every child. It should not become a country where neighbours turn a blind eye, assuming that “government” will step in. But it must also have a system that does its absolute best to ensure that no child can fall unnoticed out of society. That is a responsibility for all of us.