By political editor Paul Francis

The death of a 25-day-old baby at the hands of her violent father could have been averted, an independent report has concluded.

An inquiry into the death of baby Tiffany Sellman Burdge, who was killed by her father Christopher Sellman, 25, of Tonbridge, has found two chances to act on warnings and recognise the risk were missed.

Both opportunities to act followed concerns raised about Sellman by Tiffany's grandparents before she was born, first with a health visitor and later when they raised the same concerns with a social worker.

On both occasions, the warnings were not heeded and in the case of the health visitor, not passed on to children's social services. In the case of the social worker, the information was not acted upon.

Sellman, 25, was found guilty of manslaughter this week. The court heard he had a previous conviction for violence and had been cautioned for child cruelty.

A 20-page executive summary detailing the findings of the independent Serious Case Review into Tiffany's death published today states that the likelihood of Tiffany's suffering physical abuse and neglect was "highly predictable", but her dying as a consequence was not.

It finds that had the agencies involved identified Christopher Sellman as the father and known about the childhood problems of Tiffany's mother, Pamela, child protection measures would have been triggered before she was born and arrangements made to take her into care when she was.

The inquiry found: "had these connections been made, [Tiffany's] death might well have been averted. A number of opportunities to do this were missed within children's social services and health agencies and it is a sad conclusion of this review that her death was preventable."

The report says the concerns expressed about Sellman by Tiffany's grandparents represented "optimum opportunities to recognise the risk and act upon it."

It also says potential risks to the baby might have been identified by community midwives before Tiffany was bornThe review calls for a review of how information about adults who pose a risk to children is stored and shared across all statutory agencies.

It makes a total of 14 different recommendations for the different agencies involved in Tiffany's case, including KCC, Kent and Medway NHS, Kent Police and the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

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In a statement, David Warlock,the chairman of the Kent Safeguarding Children Board, said:

"This is a very distressing case and I would like to express my sadness at Tiffany's death. The death of any child is deeply upsetting and when a child dies in these circumstances it is only right for all of the agencies involved to look at their practices and seek to learn lessons wherever possible.

"The findings have been accepted and several recommendations made, all of which are being acted on."