Social workers responsible for the care of Baby P tried to prevent his mother’s newborn child being taken into care against the advice of police, despite the fact it was born in jail, The Times has learnt.

Council officials did not want the new baby – a girl – to be taken into care as they said it was "against the human rights" of the mother, even though she was on remand over the death of Baby P.

A social worker told police: "We need to let her bond," but Scotland Yard officers eventually over-ruled Haringey on the issue. A source involved in the investigation said: “There was no way that police were going to allow this baby to be looked after by the mother.”

Today the council finally apologised over the death of Baby P, who suffered months of abuse despite being on the “at-risk” register, and 60 visits from health and social workers in the last nine months of his life.

However, it emerged that the day before he died, the council’s social workers offered to pay for his mother to go on a trip to the seaside as a “treat”.

The mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had just been told by police that they were not going to take any action after she had previously been arrested on suspicion of assaulting Baby P.

Unaware that the boy was probably already seriously injured, including having fractured ribs and a broken back, social services said that they would arrange the trip for the next week.

The mother told the Old Bailey: “I felt like everything was finally falling into place. I was so happy, nothing could get me down.” But the next day the child was found dead in his cot.

However a council spokesman denied the mother's claims that a trip was offered and said: "No such offer of a holiday or a trip to be paid for by the council was either made or implied. It is not our practice to offer such a holiday or a trip."

Today Councillor Liz Santry, Haringey cabinet member for Children and Young People, said: “On behalf of Haringey Council I would like to say how deeply saddened I am about the death of Baby P. This is a really tragic occurrence and the circumstances of his death are really dreadful.

“He died over 15 months ago, and for those past 15 months in Haringey there has been a huge amount of anguish, and endless discussion about what more we might have done to save this little boy.

“I have to say that we are truly sorry that we did not do more to protect him. Our duty is to protect our children. We did not do so in this instance and I would like to say how truly sorry we are.

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