"Children's suffering could have been prevented," report

A FOUR-month-old baby who lived in a chaotic family life needed hospital treatment after being “violently shaken” by his father, a case review has revealed.

There were times when safeguarding professionals could have stepped in to help the boy—identified only as Child W.

His violent dad was jailed for three years and nine months for assault and the case review notes that the mum failed to engage with social and health services.

This made it more difficult for Rotherham’s Safeguarding Children’s Board to provide support, but changes in personnel also hindered the help given.

Child W’s parents had themselves experienced poor parenting and were already recognised as vulnerable parents when they moved to Rotherham in 2004. Information about their history also included allegations that Child W’s mum has been sexually abused by a friend’s grandfather.

The youngster’s dad—excluded from school as a child—was taken into care after assaulting the baby’s mother and grandmother, the document shows.

More recently, there were concerns about depression after the dad’s own father died. But the review said: “Professional fears about potential violence to staff from Child W’s father were not linked to the potential risk of violence to the children.”

The board made recommendations, including better training and improved communication between agencies, fafter the 2007 incident. In a second review into a separate case, a newborn baby died when her mum found her “pale, floppy and not breathing” in bed beside her.

A postmortem showed that the cause of death was sudden unexpected infant death, and 25 board recommendations followed.

The young girl’s mum had a history of alcohol abuse and there was domestic violence in the family. While the death was accidental, the review reminded parents that sleeping with an infant can pose risks by laying on a child or through changes in body temperature.

Safeguarding board chairman Alan Hazell said: “These were difficult cases for professionals to work with, but at the same time there were opportunities for action to be taken which may have helped both these children.”

“All agencies have responded to the recommendations in these reviews and implemented positive changes.

“There has also been a local re-launch of the Common Assessment Framework which helps improve the way professionals can review a family’s circumstances and take action more efficiently.

“In addition the council and NHS Rotherham have taken action to improve staffing levels, meaning there is a better consistency of care for families in need.”

He added: “While we can never say that these types of cases will not happen again in Rotherham, by agencies working together more efficiently, supported by families and parents, we can all help ensure our children are as safe and well as they possibly can be.”

Child W is now making good progress and has since been adopted, with his two older siblings.

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