The death of two-year-old abuse victim Ainlee Walker exposes continued failings in Britain's child protection system, experts have warned.

They are calling for the appointment of a national children's commissioner and new 'child safeguarding teams' across the country, to help prevent further deaths.

David Hinchcliffe MP, chairman of the Commons health select committee, told BBC News Online that lessons first highlighted by the death of seven-year-old Maria Colwell in 1973 were still going unheeded.

Child protection is everybody's concern - we must not just ignore a child Liz Atkins - NSPCC

The NSPCC said the level of child killing in the UK was a "national outrage" and that the protection system was "at a turning point"

It criticised social workers and health professionals for failing Ainlee, who was starved and tortured by her parents, Dennis Henry and Leanne Labonte.

The charity's head of policy and public affairs, Liz Atkins, said: "This was yet another failure of professionals not communicating, being intimidated by the carers and not going in for their own safety."

Physical abuse

Mr Hinchcliffe, who was a child protection officer in the 1970s, said social workers had an "impossible job" and needed more support and better training.

Social workers were afraid of Ainlee's parents

The Labour MP said a national child commissioner was an essential step forward, as was the establishment of dedicated teams combining social workers, health professionals and police.

The teams would "draw together the different professions, who would work under one roof so that the problem you have time and time again of lack of communication would no longer happen".

Mr Hinchcliffe also called for an end to the defence of "reasonable chastisement" which, he said, allowed physical abuse of children which would never be tolerated against adults.

'Tragic lessons'

The NSPCC said there had been too many cases like Ainlee's and that the time had come to take decisive action.

Child abuse deaths

1973 - landmark case of Maria Colwell, seven 1984 - Tyra Henry, 22 months, dies with 50 bite marks 1984 - Jasmine Beckford, four, starved and beaten by stepfather 1987 - Kimberley Carlile, four, beaten and burned by stepfather 1992 - Sophie Merry, three, had a ruptured intestine and 170 bruises 1999 - Chelsea Pickering, 11 months, died after neglect 2000 - Victoria Climbie died from hypothermia, with 128 injuries 2002 - Ainlee Walker beaten and starved

Like Mr Hinchcliffe it also wants to see a national children's commissioner and dedicated protection teams.

"This must be the last death - child protection must be a much higher on the government's agenda and the tragic lessons of cases like this must be learned," Ms Atkins said.

Social workers who fear for their own safety because of aggressive parents - as in Ainlee's case - must go back with police if necessary and should never walk away from a case, Ms Atkins argued.

"Child protection is everybody's concern - we must not just ignore a child," she added.

'Ridiculous'

David Behan, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services, said his members supported the idea of a children's commissioner.

He said: "A champion for children at a national level who is promoting children's interests is something we would support.

"We would expect, among the many accountabilities that we have got - to our own local authorities, to the Department of Health - to be accountable to a children's champion."

Ms Atkins said the commissioner would act as a watchdog, highlighting failings, reviewing government legislation and ensuring that everything possible was done whenever a child dies.

She said it was "ridiculous" that no such body already existed in England.

Alan Levy QC, chairman of the 1990-91 "Pin-down" inquiry, said other countries clearly benefited from having a watchdog "with teeth".

He said over 200 UK organisations supported the idea and added: "It has worked in Scandinavia, it has worked in New Zealand, it has even - and one really shouldn't say even - worked in Costa Rica in Central America, so there are precedents."