Northamptonshire reviews show parents were drunk when babies died

Children's services in Northamptonshire has been placed in the hands of an independent trust, but the deaths of both babies happened before it was formed

Extreme poverty and excessive alcohol intake by parents were at the centre of the deaths of two babies, separate reports have revealed.

One boy, aged six months, died in April 2020 and a girl, aged six weeks, died in October 2019.

Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership's published reviews into both cases.

The partnership said there were "learnings" to be taken from each child's death.

Six-week-old Child Ay died of suffocation after her parents fell asleep following a night of heavy drinking.

Northamptonshire Police's Simon Blatchly said both cases showed the dangers of caring for children while under the influence of drink and drugs

Six-month-old Child Az's death followed a string of failures from authorities including Northamptonshire Police and children's services at what is now West Northamptonshire Council.

Both his parents were drunk on the night he died.

The Covid pandemic was found to have compounded matters, although Child Az's death in April 2020 came just three weeks after the first lockdown was imposed on 26 March..

The report said the "necessary, emergency measures introduced by the government in response to the Covid pandemic did impact on the welfare of the children in this family".

Both families were in extreme financial difficulty.

Child Az: A life of poverty

The review into Child Az's death said his family had been using food banks and their flat was sparsely furnished

Child Az died in April 2020 at his parents' flat.

Both parents, who had moved to the UK "for a better life" from Eastern Europe in 2008, were initially arrested for neglect, but no criminal charges were brought.

An inquest recorded an open verdict.

The report into his death said Child Az had lived in extreme poverty, along with his parents and two siblings.

Despite both parents saying they did not drink excessively, Child Az's father had "previous convictions for alcohol-related offences".

Police had twice been called to incidents of alcohol-related domestic abuse.

On another occasion police attended after being called out by the father because the mother was "pregnant [with Child Az], drunk and they had argued".

The review said police had taken eight hours to arrive due to a lack of resources and a call-handler misspelling the names.

It also said Children's Social Care had no involvement with the family due to a failure in information-sharing by the police's safeguarding team.

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On 11 September 2019, when the mother was 34 weeks' pregnant and the family had been evicted for non-payment of rent, the father called a support worker for help, saying they were sitting in a local park with "no money [and] nobody to help us".

The family then visited A&E, where staff found they had no possessions "apart from the clothes they were wearing, and the children had no socks or shoes".

They were found private accommodation and Child Az was born in October 2019.

The review said he was not seen by a health visitor from mid-December 2019 onwards, partly due to the Covid pandemic.

It said it was clear "that father's employment ceased at the point of lockdown, which added to the financial pressures on the parents" and that the family "was not visited by children's social care or the health visiting service" as a result of coronavirus.

However, the report added "the lack of involvement by children's social care had occurred before pandemic emergency measures were instigated".

A pre-birth assessment was not carried out, and there were failures in information sharing and a "lack of professional curiosity" by health workers.

On 15 April 2020, his father called emergency services as Child Az had not been breathing.

The report said: "Both parents were said to have been drinking, with Father appearing to be drunk."

It added: "It is questionable whether because of this they did not realise their baby was in distress."

The report talks about the parents' "significantly limited financial means".

Child Az's father was unemployed and the family used food banks. Their home was described as sparsely furnished "and the ability of the parents to provide for the children's clothes and toys was impacted by poverty".

The parents were arrested after his death but police decided they should not face charges for neglect.

The couple's other children have since been placed in foster care.

A spokesman for the safeguarding partnership said the case was "desperately sad" and had led to "significant learning".

Child Ay: Parents' drug and alcohol misuse

In both cases, the parents had been drunk on the night their babies died

The review into Child Ay's death said her parents had returned home after a night of heavy drinking and fallen asleep.

She had been found lifeless the next morning. Both parents were later found guilty of neglect.

The report said Child Ay would have "required feeding, changing, and settling attention during the night" but her parents' ability to do so would have been "compromised by their level of intoxication".

Police found plastic bags full of rubbish scattered around the apartment and said the family had shown "signs of living in poverty".

The review also raised the question of Child Ay's father's drug use.

It said drugs were concealed around the house and he had taken drugs when he had gone out the night before the child's death.

The report also raised concerns about safe sleeping between parents and infants, but added the family had been warned about the danger.

The safeguarding partnership said while "professionals could not have been expected to have predicted the death of this baby" there had been learning from the case.

What the authorities said

Dr Joanne Watt said Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group was continuing to promote safe sleeping, adding it was never safe to co-sleep if a baby was premature or alcohol or drugs had been consumed

Northamptonshire Police released separate statements for both cases.

Talking about the death of Child Ay, Assistant Chief Constable Simon Blatchly said the "tragic" case highlighted "the dangers of caring for children while under the influence of drink or drugs and, in particular, co-sleeping with babies".

On the death of Child Az, ACC Blatchly said the review "highlights how the simple misspelling of a name led to an unacceptable delay in our response time".

He also acknowledged information should have been shared among partners, but he said "huge strides" have been taken to improve officers' understanding of vulnerability.

Cathi Hadley, director of children's services for West and North Northamptonshire councils, said since children's services was placed under the control of the Northamptonshire Children's Trust, "Ofsted findings show a continuing trend of improvement".

NHS Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group's chairwoman Dr Joanne Watt said recommendations from the reports were being taken forward.

Both deaths took place before the formation of a new children's trust within Northamptonshire in November 2020, but it will be responsible for implementing recommendations from the reviews.

Chairman Julian Wooster said the trust was in a unique position to "concentrate solely on delivering services for children, young people and families".

He highlighted the recent Ofsted improvement, but added: "There is no room for any complacency.

"We are just at the start - we know that there are still areas to work on."