The day before Baby P died, social services are said to have offered his mother a seaside trip as “a treat”.

Police had just told her that no action was being taken over allegations that she had assaulted her baby.

Unaware that the boy was probably already seriously injured, with fractured ribs and a broken back, social services allegedly told her that they would arrange the trip for the following week.

During her evidence at the Old Bailey the mother said: “I felt like everything was falling into place. I was so happy, nothing could get me down.” She added: “I told my kids we were going to the seaside.” The next day Baby P was found dead in his cot.

A spokesman for Haringey Council denied, however, that a trip was offered. “No such offer of a holiday or trip to be paid for by the council was made or implied. It is not our practice to offer such a holiday or trip.”

Baby P’s mother gave birth to a child while on remand in Holloway prison and social workers argued with police that she should be allowed to see it. They told officers that they “needed to let her bond” with the baby as to do otherwise would breach her human rights.

But “furious” police objected and said that she had no right to see the child. A source in the investigation said: “There was no way that police were going to allow this baby to be looked after by the mother.”

Maria Ward, Baby P’s social worker, and Gillie Christou, her manager, face an investigation that could result in both of them being struck off. The General Social Care Council is “conducting preliminary inquiries into the actions of social workers in the case”.

All social workers are required to be registered with the GSCC.

The council is being investigated by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Ofsted and the Healthcare Commission, with reports due in two weeks.

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