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Video: Babies died as Doncaster 'agencies ignored spate pf warnings'
TWO babies were murdered by their fathers after a Yorkshire social services team ignored a series of warnings about risks to their safety, two independent inquiries found yesterday.
Doncaster child death inquiry: Full report
Doncaster Council's children's services department has already been taken over by central government because of its failure to prevent previous deaths of five infants in its care.
Yesterday two further Serious Case Reviews were published into 11-week-old Alfie Goddard and 16-month-old Amy Howson, who died in May 2008 and December 2007 respectively.
Alfie was thrown down the stairs by his drug-addict father, and died from head injuries, but had also suffered injuries from violent shaking.
Amy died from brain damage after enduring a four-week reign of terror at the hands of her violent and abusive father.
Both reviews catalogued a series of problems in the beleaguered Doncaster Council department, which ignored referrals from other agencies worried about both sets of parents.
Other agencies also criticised in the reports include Rotherham General Hospital Trust, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospital NHS Trust, Doncaster Primary Care Trust, the Doncaster Youth Inclusion Support Service and an unnamed school.
But it was Doncaster children's services department's responsibility to liaise with all the other agencies and build up a picture of the problems within the two households – and its failure to do so is held partly responsible for the two babies' deaths.
In a damning conclusion the report into the death of Alfie states: "Although there were several occasions when agencies failed to contact Children's Social Care there were also a number of occasions when they were contacted and did not provide an appropriate or adequate response.
"It is clear that significant work is required as a matter of urgency to bring the service up to an acceptable standard".
In the case of Amy, Doncaster Council ignored warnings from South Yorkshire Police that her parents had a history of domestic violence – which the inspector said should have spurred an assessment into abuse that could have seen the baby taken into care.
It concluded: "Some agencies failed to follow basic safeguarding procedures and did not take proper and effective action to
safeguard and promote the welfare of (Amy).
"Inter-agency working and communications were deficient ... (there was a) lack of effective assessments that included the identification of any risks of harm from (the father) and a failure to obtain full information on the family histories and backgrounds of both parents."
Last night Garth Oxby, a Doncaster councillor who has fought to reform children's services for four years, said that the latest reports lifted the lid on "total disarray, chaos and crisis".
He said: "The current problems are the direct result of a restructuring that saw social workers have to take on their own administrative work, taking them away from the front line. A lot of them quit and left the department in chaos.
"If the management had been in place, and the funding, and things had been done differently then some of these children would not have died, of that I am certain."
He added: "I am fed up of hearing from the council ... the old cliche that 'this may never be allowed to happen again' – as soon as I hear that I know it will."
In the Yorkshire Post yesterday, Roger Thompson, the new independent chairman of Doncaster's Safeguarding Children Board, called on everyone involved in child protection to present a united front and said elected members should work together.
He said he thought the political situation in Doncaster had had a negative effect and added: "I have worked in local government for many, many years and I know that political machinations can get in the way of services. I am determined that the Safeguarding Board will not be affected by that."
MAIN POINTS
Failure to heed warnings led to the death of two babies in Doncaster
Comes six months after department placed in special measures by Ministers
Lack of discussion between child protection agencies strongly criticised
Children's services department said to be in "total disarray, chaos and crisis"
Call for agencies to "present a united front" in wake of reports
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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