The children failed by social services

Trae-Bleu Layne's death was not an isolated tragedy. It was just one case where social services were too slow to act.

By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:44AM GMT 11 Jan 2009



Trae-Bleu Layne, one of three children who died after errors by social workers


Case study 1

Trae-Bleu Layne had just turned three when she died from an overdose of methadone, the heroin substitute, supplied to her mother.

Time and time again the authorities had been warned about her mother's drug addiction, criminal activity and violence in the home.

Just three weeks before she died, social workers had been close to saving the little girl when they held a meeting about taking her into care – but the decision was made to give her mother "another chance".

The neglect was so all pervasive that Trae-Bleu's grandmother said she never saw the young girl smile.

A serious case review into the care of the child identified dozens of failings by the authorities.

Even before she was born, in 2004, alarm bells should have been ringing. Trae-Bleu's three half siblings had already been taken from her mother, Donna Gill's care.

When Gill arrived in Reading, from Ireland, heavily pregnant with Trae-Bleu, the Irish health services warned the council's children's services department about her history of drugtaking, and her previous involvement with social services in London, which had taken the other children from her care.

Reading Council did not pass that information on to the health workers dealing with Gill's pregnancy. It was six months before the council obtained written reports detailing the risks to which previous children had been exposed.

When Trae-Bleu was just 19 months old, her parents took her on a shoplifting raid during which they threatened a security guard with a knife.

At the end of a high-speed chase by police, the toddler was found in the back of her parents' car, unrestrained. Her changing bag was filled with drugs paraphernalia.

Despite Gill's history of drug and alcohol abuse, and police reports of serious domestic violence in the home, Reading Social Services returned the infant to her mother after just five days, overruling "major concerns" expressed by foster carers.

Instead, the toddler was placed on the child protection register, where she remained – despite her mother's refusal to co-operate with social services – until her death 19 months later, in October 2006. During the period, just 25 of 84 attempts by social workers to visit the family were successful.

Despite continued reports of domestic violence, and warnings from neighbours, no action was taken to remove the toddler from her parents, according to an official case review by Reading Safeguarding Children Board, which represents all the agencies which came into contact with the family.

Three weeks before Trae-Bleu's death, a meeting of social services managers decided to take her into care, but changed their minds when a team of social workers and health visitors argued that her addict mother "should be given another chance," a summary of the report says.

Instead they promised to offer the family "intensive support" – but no extra interventions had been made by the time the three-year-old was found dead, in October 2006. In the inquest into Trae-Bleu's death, the coroner said he was unable to conclude how the toddler came into contact with the methadone, but said her mother might have given her the drug intending to make her sleep, not to kill her. In May 2007, Gill, 40, pleaded not guilty to charges of doing an act of cruelty to a child, but she too died of a drug overdose, soon after the case reached court. Trae-Bleu's father was not charged with any offences relating to the death.

Donna's mother Dee, from South London, said she was left "absolutely devastated" and angered by the failures of social services to protect her youngest granddaughter.

The grandmother said: "Social services had so many warning signs, and they ignored them all. I tried to do what I could to help my daughter and granddaughter but I don't think Trae-Bleu had a moment's happiness in her life. I never even heard her speak, or saw her smile."

Reading Borough Council said it recognised that it failed to intervene decisively enough to protect Trae-Bleu and that it was addressing systems to improve the way cases were managed and reduce caseloads for social workers.

A spokesman said no one error by any of the agencies caused her death, and no disciplinary action was taken against any member of staff. During the period examined by the case review, four directors of the council held responsibility for children's services.

Case study 2

In Doncaster, a seven-month old baby died in a bed shared with her mother, who was known by social workers to have a drink problem.

A coroner's verdict said alcohol was a contributory factor in the death, which occurred in May 2006.

A case review by Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board lists 9 significant errors made by social workers, police and health workers who came into contact with the mother and child.

The woman, who was then 24, had been known to health, probation and social services since she was a teenager. She had consulted her GP and alcohol advisory services over her drink problem, which had fuelled a crime, and after her child was born she was prescribed medication for post-natal depression.

In the last three months of her baby's life, other agencies warned social workers three times that they were concerned about the woman's drink problem, but social workers failed to carry out an adequate assessment, the report found.

On 2 May 2006, senior social workers and police visited her home and found her drunk in bed with the baby.

After securing the child's safety for that night only, they returned the child to her mother.

Social workers only returned two weeks later, to ask the woman to sign an agreement that she would address her drink problem.

The woman later admitted that by the time she signed the forms, at 2.30pm, she had already drunk eight cans of lager.

The next day police were called to the house by the mother, who had made allegations against the child's father. They found the woman drinking, but were not aware of social workers' concerns about the family. The next day the mother found the baby dead in the bed they shared. An inquest recorded a verdict of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, where alcohol was a contributory factor.

Doncaster council said no disciplinary action had been taken against any staff as a result of the case. Mark Hodson, the council's director of children's services from May 2005, left Doncaster council to take a job in the private sector in July 2007.

Case study 3

Rio Ross was found dead clutching a Winnie the Pooh toy in July 2007.

An inquest found the 14-month-old baby from Bristol died from an overdose of heroin, cocaine and methadone.

He died two months after social workers were warned that his mother Sabrina, a former prostitute, was using crack and heroin on top of her methadone, and a month after drug workers agreed to let the pregnant woman take the drug substitute without supervision.

A case review by Bristol Safeguarding Children Board, which represents all the agencies supposed to protect children, details a series of failings by social services, drugs agencies, and police, who did not alert their child abuse team when they found the mother and baby at the scene of a drugs raid.

Despite listing four critical decisions which left Rio in danger, a summary of the report concluded that no one agency was to blame.

But in November, Government watchdog Ofsted ruled that the review itself was inadequate, and ordered a fresh probe, which will report next month.

Sabrina Ross, 30, was jailed for five years in June after admitting manslaughter of her son. Her second child, born in December, was placed into foster care.

Bristol City Council said no staff had been disciplined in connection with the failure to protect the child. A spokesman said a reconsideration of its review of the case would be submitted to Ofsted next month. On Friday, the council's director of children's services, Heather Tomlinson, announced plans to take early retirement, which a spokesman said was entirely unconnected to the review.

Bloody hell....there must be hundreds of cases like this going on!! Those poor children should be taken away if the mother is a drunk or on drugs!

News like this makes me

How can they even consider leaving kids with parents like these. There are so many families out there willing to give a loving home to children and can't. But parents who neglect their children are left with them. Where is the justice for these kids.They did not ask to be born into families like this but they are left to suffer.

Antoinette wrote:How can they even consider leaving kids with parents like these. There are so many families out there willing to give a loving home to children and can't. But parents who neglect their children are left with them. Where is the justice for these kids.They did not ask to be born into families like this but they are left to suffer.

I really dont understand this...

You need all these qualifications to get a job nowadays and to be a parent you need nothing at all....ok fine to most mothers, love care and attention for their child comes naturally but when the social services see trouble within a household....at least take steps to make sure the child isnt in danger and dont let her have another one to endanger until she knows how to be a mother!!

people like these mothers who have hadchildren taken off them for any type of neglect should be sterilized so they can't have any more.

Antoinette wrote:people like these mothers who have hadchildren taken off them for any type of neglect should be sterilized so they can't have any more.

I agree 100%.

And some of my dearest friends can't have children and would so love to give a child a loving home, I'm sure we all know people like that.

Its sad beyond words .....

Antoinette wrote:people like these mothers who have hadchildren taken off them for any type of neglect should be sterilized so they can't have any more.

Too right and that would resolve alot of the unwanted children situation.

these cases are awful

these people don´t have a chief, somoone that control their work?
they don´t have to show reports of thier visits and work to someone else?
they don´t have to work with the children court?

they work alone?

i am asking this because here social workers always work in groups at least 2!
and they work for and with children court!

but, must say that sometimes mistakes also happened!

It is getting too much of a regular thing now all these children dying. I dont have a degree but i know when a child is been neglected.

Too many people not doing their jobs properly.

edit and too many bad parents