Care system failed kids who died in care of families

Mar 15 2009 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

CHILDREN as young as four months died in the care of their families after being failed by the very system set up to protect them, the Sunday Sun has found.

In the week that Lord Laming called for changes in child protection laws, we reveal a harrowing picture of the Serious Case Reviews which have unfolded in the North since 2003.

Newcastle-born Lord Laming published a report last Thursday which calls for a complete overhaul of social services, saying senior managers who fail children should face disciplinary action and even be struck off.

His demands, however, come too late for the 13 North children, all under six, known to have died in the care of their families.

A Freedom of Information request has shown more than 60pc of the children who prompted Serious Case Reviews died before their first birthday.

Ongoing legal processes mean some reviews cannot yet be revealed, including the case of a two-month-old baby from South Tyneside, but other children who have been involved in case reviews include a three-month- old and a four-month-old in Newcastle, a four-month-old and a five-month-old in Durham, and a 10-month-old and a two-year- old in Cumbria.

The Serious Case Review published after the death of 92- day-old Aaron O’Neil, of Newcastle, said social services had been warned about his father, who murdered his young son in February 2005 and inflicted a horrifying catalogue of abuse upon the tot.

Five-year-old Jason Baillie, of Thornaby, Teesside, suffered massive burns and died from a brain injury in November 2004, after a blazing inferno in his family home while his family slept off a drugs binge.

Just six days before, Stockton Council agreed a “multi-agency strategy” to monitor Jason’s home situation.