Baby drowned in bath while parents on phone calls

Manchester City Council said it was learning lessons from the 'heart-breaking' case

An unsupervised baby drowned in the bath after social services failed to respond properly to "considerable evidence" of widespread child neglect, an investigation has concluded.

Theo Taylor-Maloney, who was 11 months old, died in Manchester in October 2020 after he was left in the bath for 12 minutes without adult supervision.

Manchester City Council said it was taking action to address concerns raised by the serious case review which followed Theo's death.

His parents, Jessica Taylor and Michael Maloney, were convicted of neglect and given suspended prison sentences in July 2023.

'Poor supervision'

Theo's inquest heard that he drowned two days before his first birthday.

His parents were both in another room on their phones when the tragedy happened.

The family, who lived in Wythenshawe, was known to Manchester Children's Services before and after Theo was born in 2019.

An independent review, carried out on behalf of the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership, said concerns for child welfare were raised 17 times in the three years before the little boy's death.

The report said 11 of those calls were specifically about child neglect, including "poor supervision" that had, on occasions, led to children being injured.

The review said while "valid" concerns had mainly come from friends or neighbours, some reports were made by professionals including a police officer, a GP and a children's centre worker.

'Desperately sad'

Social services and other authorities failed to sufficiently recognise the "persistent and pervasive" neglect concerns, according to the report.

The review found no additional support had been given to Theo's mother, who was often parenting alone and "struggling to cope".

In July 2023, Taylor and Maloney pleaded guilty to "allowing or causing the death of a child" and were both given two-year suspended prison terms.

Manchester City Council said it was committed to learning lessons from a "desperately sad case".

A spokesperson said: "It's always essential in such tragic circumstances that professionals from all agencies involved reflect deeply on their interactions to understand what could have been done better and where improvements can be made to help keep other children safe.

"We have done so in this complex case, engaging in this review and producing a detailed action plan to address areas where social work practice could be strengthened."