The social worker dealing with the case of Victoria Climbie was overworked and insufficiently supervised, her colleagues have told the BBC.

Lisa Arthurworrey is facing disciplinary action following the eight-year-old's death from abuse and neglect, but staff allege she was told by management to close the file on Victoria to reduce her workload.

Ms Arthurworrey, who has been criticised for not visiting Victoria at her home in Tottenham, north London, is said to have had 18 cases to deal with rather than her target of 12.

Staff told BBC Radio 4's Today programme they were concerned that Ms Arthurworrey, a relatively inexperienced social worker, was being made a scapegoat while there had been failures at an organisational level.

Victoria Bristow admitted a decision to close the case had been made

Victoria died from hypothermia last February after months of "unimaginable" torture at the hands of her great-aunt and the woman's boyfriend.

Marie Therese Kouao and Carl Manning were found guilty of Victoria's murder and jailed for life on Friday.

An independent inquiry into the child's death is beginning after Health Secretary Alan Milburn vowed to "get to the bottom of what went wrong".

The inquiry, headed by Lord Laming, will look into a catalogue of failings by police, health and social services, Mr Milburn said.

'Whole system failure'

Anne Bristow, director of social services at Haringey, the local authority responsible for Victoria's case, admitted an order had been made to close the girl's file but she would not be drawn on why the decision had been taken.

"A decision was taken at one stage close it and we are looking at the reasons why that happened," she told Today.

The system that she was working in was very chaotic, it was managed in a crisis way, really Pauline Bradley, Haringey social worker

"We are reviewing workloads of cases of our social workers... at that time she (Ms Arthurworrey) did have a high case load but numbers alone don't tell you whether a social worker's case load is heavy, it depends what is happening.

"Haringey Council accepts that the whole system failed [Victoria]."

Ms Bristow added: "We take seriously every referral we receive, we do investigate.

"Over 200 children last year were protected by my council and we continue to do very difficult but good work with those families."

Special measures

The council has been placed under special measures by Mr Milburn and an investigation into why Haringey social services failed to protect Victoria is underway.

Pauline Bradley, a Unison shop steward in Haringey, said her colleague had been working under an excessive workload.

"It is really important that people realise that Lisa was working in a system where it was impossible for her to do her job well and properly, and it is not her fault that this child died," Ms Bradley told Today.

Victoria died of hypothermia after being forced to lie in a freezing bath

"She had 18 cases when she should have only had 12 cases. The system that she was working in was very chaotic, it was managed in a crisis way, really.

"All the decisions that were made on the case, she did not make on her own, she made with her managers. There were conversations with two separate managers about closing the case.

"In the frontline teams, there's a lot of cases coming in, and there's a real pressure to get the cases through the system, to do the work quickly, get the cases through the system, and then close them," Ms Bradley added.

Health minister John Hutton said the government would heed the advice of the statutory inquiry into the case, however radical its eventual recommendations.

"If there are genuine concerns... that we need to do a systematic root and branch reform of the entire structure of child protection in this country, then we do," he told the BBC.

The NSPCC has called for a comprehensive review of child protection procedures in the UK and a spokesman welcomed Mr Hutton's comments.

He said: "We particularly welcome his observation that we need to go outside this case.

'Watchdog' call

"We would welcome the opportunity to work with the government on ways to address this situation and develop a strategy to take things forward."

The charity wants a national strategy to cut the number of child deaths, and independent child commissioners to act as a children's "watchdog".

Victoria died despite the involvement of three local authorities, police and two hospitals.

She was twice taken to hospital with injuries caused by suspected abuse and twice handed back to Kouao and Manning to continue their terror treatment.

Commander Carole Howlett, who leads Scotland Yard's child protection team, accepted a systematic review was needed after a police response which had been "inadequate" and riddled with "failings and short-comings".

Eight officers involved in the case are under internal investigation and the case has been referred to the Police Complaints Authority.