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‘What baby cruelty case criticism?’
Head of children’s services not informed of tragic death until mother’s court appearance
THE head of Camden Council’s children’s services last night (Wednesday) defended her department after admitting she was unaware that it had been criticised over the death of a two-month-old baby.
Councillor Janet Grauberg said she had not known that various Camden agencies had been the subject of concerns over the death of baby Rhys Biggs in March 2006 until the child’s mother went on trial for cruelty three weeks ago.
Nor had she been briefed on whether, or how many, other deaths of children had led to concerns about the standards of care in Camden.
And when Cllr Grauberg assured the council in December that her department was responding to the death in Haringey of Baby P, she had not been briefed that it had spent over two years withholding a “special case review” into the case of baby Rhys.
But after apologising on behalf of her department she said: “I feel that I am comfortable with the information that I have been given. There are a number of different cases that Camden is involved in and as they come up I am informed. That is not to say that I might not ask for more information in the future.”
Earlier Cllr Grauberg, who had no connection with the council when the death occurred in 2006, said: “Everybody who has been involved in this tragic case feels very sorry that this innocent child has died. We continue to learn from every case and implement changes and reviews to our procedures. While an independent review found that this child’s death could not have been anticipated by any of the agencies involved, the case showed some gaps in our services which needed to be addressed and those recommendations have since been implemented.”
The child’s mother, Claire Biggs, 24, and her partner Paul Husband, 33, were found guilty at Inner London Crown Court on Tuesday of cruelty offences. Rhys was found dead in Husband’s Newham flat after the couple called an ambulance in March 2006.
Although a post mortem examination failed to find the cause of Rhys’s death, it did establish that he had suffered 12 broken ribs and a broken arm. In cases of a child dying in ways that raise concerns about the levels of care from one or more agencies, the local authority concerned must produce a Serious Case Review.
Camden and Newham co-operated in commissioning a review into Rhys’s death, which occurred when his mother was living between a Camden women’s refuge and the Newham flat.
The review’s findings, released after New Journal requests late last night, said that no agencies could have anticipated the child’s death.
However, Camden’s children’s services department received a number of recommendations, including the need to make assessments of at-risk children before birth so that care is continuous.
The review, by Kevin Harrington JP, said: “It was... particularly unfortunate that no single named officer was dealing with the case when Child A [Rhys] was born, the time when there was the greatest need for co-ordination of services.”
It also made recommedations to the Royal Free Hospital and Camden Women’s Aid, the refuge where Claire Biggs stayed.
Camden Council has conducted six serious case reviews into the deaths of children since 2000. |
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