Dead-child inquiry calls for changes

A report into the role of health and social work services in the case of murdered toddler Declan Hainey has made 16 recommendations for improvements.

A significant case review by Renfrewshire Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) outlined the recommendations in a 63-page report yesterday, leading to calls for a Scotland-wide review of child protection services.

Kimberley Hainey, 37, was found guilty by a majority verdict in December and jailed for life for murdering her son at a flat in Bruce Road, Paisley, Renfrewshire.

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She was also convicted of failing to report Declan’s death to police or other authorities and of concealing his body at the flat.

His body was discovered on March 30 2010 when he would have been 23 months old. Experts said he had been dead for several months and the trial heard how his body had “mummified”.

The report made 16 recommendations, some of which Renfrewshire Council said had already been implemented.

The most significant was to ensure excuses for missed appointments were not allowed to develop into a pattern of concealment preventing professionals from seeing a vulnerable child.

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It also called for GP records to be made available as they were likely to be the most accurate source of the medical history of a substance misusing parent and clearer language used to ensure clarity when staff from one agency asked staff from another agency to carry out a specific task.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said: “This report is an admission that we have systematic failures in child protection.”

He went on: “I am calling for Alex Salmond (leader of the Scottish National Party) to order an independent, wide-ranging inquiry into how Scotland’s most vulnerable children are protected.”

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