A child failed

THE short and unhappy life of Alex Barker, and the circumstances of his appalling death, are deeply distressing. They are all the more sad for the fact that several similar cases have been recorded across the UK over the last three years, but this should not lessen the sense of shock at such a tragedy.

Alex was let down repeatedly. Social workers, according to an inquest, twice failed to intervene and save his life. Meanwhile, his father, Andrew Barker, neglected him and harmed him. Barker admitted a charge of wilful neglect but a two-year community order with supervision, and a ban from further contact with children, seems like scant punishment.

How, then, was Sheffield Council apparently satisfied that nothing was amiss? Rather than getting the care and attention he so desperately needed, Alex spent the last few weeks of his life with severe injuries and in squalor.

A serious case review, which will surely follow, will look at this sorry situation. This was not just a dysfunctional family, it was a mother and father who could not even feed their baby and keep him clean and who then gave conflicting stories to Sheffield Children's Hospital staff as to how this had happened.

Sheffield City Council has said its social services department has been overhauled but this alone is not enough to restore public confidence in such a vital area of care. The authority must be more open about what went wrong.

Before the election, Michael Gove, now the Education Secretary, showed that his party was willing to intervene when at-risk children were dying. Clearly, the case of Alex Barker warrants attention from Government and the coalition must consider whether Sheffield has made enough changes to the way it protects vulnerable people.