Police officers wanted to place Baby P in care but were dissuaded by social services to return him to his abusive mother, it has been revealed.
When the toddler was admitted to the North Middlesex Hospital in June last year with non-accidental injuries, the police at the scene wanted to place the child in care.
However, a BBC Panorama documentary obtained a confidential police report that described "a frank exchange of views" between police and Haringey social services, who preferred to return him to his mother.
The police eventually signed a care plan that allowed Baby P to be returned home, only to suffer further abuse. A later police briefing stated officers should be "more confident" in their role at case conferences and should not be overruled by another agency.
The documentary reveals that senior social worker Sylvia Henry, a team manager at the Tottenham social services office, wanted to place the child into care from as early as December 2006.
Ms Henry had even found a foster home for Baby P, where he was placed for a short period of time. However, the placement was terminated when a member of Haringey's social service team sent him back to his mother.
In a statement Haringey Council denied the programme's claims that Ms Henry's concerns about placing Baby P in the care of a family friend in December 2006 were over-ruled by her manager, Clive Preece.
It said: "This is not true. He did not over-rule concerns of social workers. No concerns were raised regarding placement with the friend at the time of the placement."
In addition the council said that the decision to return Baby P to his mother in January 2007 was not made by Mr Preece, as alleged in the documentary.
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Responding to the programme's allegation that the council failed to inform police about a large bruise to the side of the baby's head when he was admitted to hospital in April 2007. the council said that bruise was "thought at the time to be accidental".
