Victoria Climbie suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her carers

The Children Bill will create a children's commissioner for England to champion their rights.

It will restructure local child safety provision, and give officials a legal duty to protect children. But there are fears it does not go far enough.

Victoria, eight, was tortured to death in 2000, after the authorities missed a dozen opportunities to save her.

'Responsibility'

An inquiry into her death found social services, police and childcare workers failed to communicate properly, enabling Victoria's aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her aunt's boyfriend, Carl Manning, to starve and beat her to death.

The shake-up has been broadly welcomed by Victoria's parents, charities and the children's commissioners for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

"Hopefully, a greater focus on responsibility and accountability for those who work with children can help prevent other parents suffering the kind of tragedy that happened to us," her parents Francis and Berthe Climbie said.

However, there are concerns England's commissioner will have limited independence, and that the bill does not address the lack of experienced social workers.

THE BILL'S PROPOSALS Electronic record of every child in England - on regional or national level Restructuring of local child protection provision Legal responsibility on childcare officials to safeguard children Children's commissioner for England to champion their rights

The Children's Rights Alliance, a coalition of more than 130 organisations, including Save the Children and the NSPCC, said the English commissioner would be "considerably weaker" than those in other areas of the UK.

It urged Parliament - to whom the bill was introduced on Thursday - to beef up the post.

"Without independent powers to access information, to enter establishments, to subpoena witnesses and to meet children in private, the commissioner will be indistinguishable from children's charities," it said.

Northern Ireland's children's commissioner Nigel Williams was also concerned about the independence of his English counterpart - questioning whether they could "really go and investigate cases on their own behalf, and not just wait for the secretary of state to tell them to do it."

Children's minister Margaret Hodge said she hoped the bill would tackle problems thrown up by every report into a child abuse tragedy she had read.

I'd be concerned if the English commissioner didn't have the same independence that I have Northern Ireland's children's commissioner Nigel Williams

"In every report, people never feel the buck stops with them, they always pass responsibility to somebody else," she told BBC Breakfast.

She also wanted the child's voice to be heard, saying that in the Victoria Climbie case "nobody, but nobody asked her what she wanted or asked her how she felt."

'Weaker'

Education minister Charles Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the commissioner - expected to start work in April 2005 - would be independent of government.

In a typical social worker's eight-hour day now, they spend seven hours filling in forms and talking to other professionals, and only one hour talking to children or parents Eileen Monroe, LSE

"The children's commissioner can investigate and report on any matter he or she wishes."

The government also announced that �200m of lottery cash to provide facilities and activities for young people, with an additional �100m over two years "to help address pressures on children's services".

But Eileen Monroe, reader in social policy at the London School of Economics, said the bill did not tackle a key problem - the huge amount of paperwork which meant social workers were leaving the profession in droves.

"In a typical social worker's eight-hour day now, they spend seven hours filling in forms and talking to other professionals, and only one hour talking to children or parents," she said.