'Miles' of progress made after baby died at home of crack and heroin addict father

A child safeguarding practice review named the Kingfisher report exposed the death of baby Mia, whose name has been changed, when she was less than a month old. It also revealed how a two-year-old, referred to as Lucy, was seriously injured when she fell from a 20ft-high window. Both of the children were living in Middlesbrough at the time.

Mia was on a child protection plan when she died and her cause of death is not known. Toxicology tests, which would have checked for drugs or other chemicals, were negative.

Prior to the tragedy, Mia’s mother had been struggling with depression and her dad, who was receiving support, continued to abuse crack cocaine and heroin. The covid pandemic posed huge difficulties for social workers and in this case they were only able to make checks through the window.

The review describes the conditions in her home as “extremely poor” and her siblings were often “dirty and dishevelled”.

Lucy sustained serious injuries when she fell out of the bedroom window at her aunt’s house in July 2020. The report stated that she suffered from “lower level neglect” throughout her life.

The covid pandemic also exacerbated Lucy’s situation as she was not seen inside her home by a health visitor or social worker between March 2020 and her accident. The toddler’s mum was a care leaver and was eighteen when she gave birth – the review said she was often hard to “pin down”.

Following her accident, she was returned to her mother’s care but within days care proceedings were started after the health visitor and social worker found her needs were not being met. When the report was released Lucy was living with her dad.

The town’s children’s services were rated inadequate following an Ofsted inspection in December 2019, however, improvements have been noted in a number of monitoring visits by the watchdog since. A full inspection is expected within the first six months of this year.

Now, speaking at Middlesbrough Council’s corporate parenting board, Detective Chief Inspector Deb Fenny said progress had been made since the 2021 report. Cleveland Police’s DCI Fenny, who is the chair of the South Tees safeguarding children partnership learning and development group, said: “From this review, we have absolutely come miles from then to now. It’s a negative report and it’s sad to read but we have come a long way to enhance the quality of service to young people.”

Coun Mick Saunders, who is the leader of the Middlesbrough Independent Councillors Association, said he was very shocked by the 2021 review, however, he “welcomed the thoroughness of this report and the willingness to ensure that lessons are learnt.”

Coun Hobson, who leads the Middlesbrough Independent Group, was keen to see another report which outlined the progress that’s been made. She added: “If we have come a long way I would like to see the next report and see what we have done to get there and see some positives that have come out of this. It’s an awful report but if we can get some positives out of it, at least we move forward.”

DCI Fenny said work was undertaken following the publication of the child safeguarding practice reviews to highlight the positive steps taken.

Independent Coun Joan McTigue said she was horrified by the report. She wants the local authority to look into whether councillors could take children in care on holiday providing they had received the appropriate checks.

In response, Coun Hobson said she was keen to see more involvement from politicians once they had been trained and vetted, which could include having children at their homes to sleep overnight.

One of the recommendations as part of the report was for the board to consider how they can develop the concept of being a positive ‘corporate grandparent’ to the children of care leavers given that Lucy’s mum had been in the care system.

This means there would be a collective responsibility from the local authority, politicians, employees and partner agencies to make sure these youngsters were receiving the best possible care. The councillors voted to endorse the proposal and will explore the idea of becoming corporate grandparents.