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Panorama's week that was - May 3 - May 8

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Eamonn Walsh | 13:52 UK time, Wednesday, 13 May 2009

The tragic life and death of Baby P dominated Panorama's week as we broadcast our second film of further revelations.

The programme team uncovered news that which could have potentially saved Baby P - now known of course as Peter - were revealed by his own mother on videotape in the presence of a social worker - but never passed to police.

Baby Peter's mother told a social worker about a new man in her life just a few months before the child died. That man, her 32-year-old boyfriend, was found guilty of causing or allowing the toddler's death.

The appalling circumstances of Peter's death - he had more than 50 separate injuries and had been seen on at least 60 occasions by professionals during the eight months he spent on the child protection register - have led to a huge fall-out.

Last Wednesday, the Children's Secretary, Ed Balls announced a series of an extra £58m to be put into the recruitment and retention of social workers and allowing members of the public to sit on child protection boards. These changes follow Lord Laming's report into child protection in England.

The announcements were not without criticism. Though welcoming the extra money, the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said it was disappointing that there was not more money for immediate frontline services.

Perhaps not surprisingly at this time of heightened sensitivity, Friday also saw news of a in England. Figures for March were the highest ever recorded with some experts saying that this may be related to the Baby P case.

Panorama's NHS whistleblower Margaret Haywood was backed by Health minister Ben Bradshaw who condemned the decision by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to strike her off.

Ms Haywood secretly filmed problems with the care of the elderly at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton in July 2005 for Panorama Undercover Nurse and was found guilty of misconduct following a fitness to practise hearing in April.

Mr Bradshaw echoed the Royal College of Nursing's statement that the decision was "unduly harsh".

Ms Haywood is currently considering an appeal.

The move towards a came a step closer on Wednesday with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's announcement that Manchester will start a pilot scheme this autumn where anyone over 16 in the city will be able to sign up for a card.

Elements of the controversial scheme were addressed in Panorama's film You Can Run... broadcast in September last year. Reporter Simon Boazman investigated how much information was held on him and how secure it was. The results of the investigation surprised even him:

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One of the played out this week with news that the last surviving member of the board which oversaw the bank's ill-fated expansion is set to retire.

Deputy chief executive Gordon Pell will retire early next year with a pension pot worth £9.8m.

Panorama looked at the RBS story in March with the film What Happens After Sorry? asking what went wrong and who was to blame?

The RBS needed a £20bn bailout from the government and thousands of shareholders lost life-savings leaving the bank's then chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin to apologise to a select committee - an apology which did little to dampen public anger.

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