The unfolding events of the months leading up to the death of 21-month-old toddler AJ Smith have been laid bare in today's serious case review report.

Children's charity Kidscape today refused to comment on individual cases, but previously, after Ayeeshia's death, the group's then chief executive Claude Knights, who has since retired, released a statement blasting Derbyshire Social Services for missing more than 20 opportunities to save the young girl.

She said at the time: "It is extremely depressing to discover that one more vulnerable infant well known to children's services suffered fatal non-accidental injuries while she was subject to a child protection order.

"This reminds us of the catastrophic death of Baby P and a number of similar cases which were followed by serious case reviews and the seminal Lord Laming report published in 2009.

"Ayeeshia's tragic and avoidable death leads us to ask if anything at all has been learned from the recommendations in these costly reports.

"Lord Laming made a please for more joined-up multi-agency approach, more robust questioning and monitoring of parents known to pose a threat to their children, as well as less hesitation to remove a child from a patently abusive and dangerous situation.

"Little Ayeeshia's horrific and tragic death is a stark reminder that despite robust knowledge of what needs to be done to protect children, consistent implementation of vital recommendations has not been acheived.

"There is certainly an urgent need to ensure that children's services, police and health organisations have protected budgets for the staffing and training of child protection units. Our society cannot stand by and allow such brutal destruction of innocent young lives."