This is the squalid home where malnourished children infested with headlice lived in squalor because their parents were able to 'play the authorities off against one another'.
Teachers,
doctors, health professionals and social workers in Gloucestershire
were all aware of the family but no formal action was taken until one of
the children was admitted to hospital with severe nappy rash.
Now
a serious case review has found there were five 'missed opportunities'
by the authorities to intervene with the family earlier because neglect
was not treated as seriously as other forms of abuse.
Squalor: Police have released this
picture where malnourished children lived in squalor and surrounded by
animal waste because their parents were able to play the authorities off
one another
The
family had been known to authorities for 16 years with teachers,
doctors, health professionals and social workers all in contact with
them.
During
that time there were numerous visits to GPs and complaints from
teachers and health workers to social services about the state of the
children, who like their parents can not be named for legal reasons.
They
were found to be suffering with tooth decay, head lice, poor growth and
weight gain, delayed development, anaemia, poor hygiene and severe
nappy rash.
Concerns
were also raised over missed health appointments, failures to immunise
the children, failures to use prescribed medication, poor school
attendance and non-compliance with health professionals.
The
review, which was commissioned by the county’s safeguarding children
board, said there were 127 recorded contacts made between the family and
primary health care professionals over a 27-month period.
Over
the years there were numerous notes made about the condition of their
home - with it being dirty, untidy and smelling of faeces.
Danger: An open plug socket that was
hanging from the wall of a house of the couple who were jailed for
neglecting five of their children
The
review found there was ongoing evidence that the parents often turned
away health professionals from their home and the mother prioritised her
own needs over the children.
Even
the children’s grandmother admitted her daughter was 'manipulative and
aggressive' and very controlling. GPs noted she was 'skilled at playing
off one agency against the other'.
The
serious case review said the parents successfully avoided health and
medical professionals, meaning the children were subjected to further
neglect and harm.
'One
of the most concerning issues in this case is the apparent lack of
understanding, at the time, of neglect and its impact by a number of the
key professionals working with this family,' the report said.
'All
of the signs were there, and had been for many years, that these
children were suffering or likely to suffer significant harm due to
neglect.
Overgrown: Ivy creeps into one of the
bedrooms of the house. A serious case review has found there were five
'missed opportunities' by the authorities to intervene with the family
earlier
'At
the time there were clear difficulties in ensuring that all of the
information on all of the children was available to be considered and
drawn together in order to ensure a complete picture.
'A
child protection conference would have allowed all the professionals
involved to share the history of the family and the current concerns in a
setting chaired by an independent person, where the parents could not
have decided who was involved and who was not.'
A police investigation was launched after one child was admitted to hospital in November last year with severe nappy rash.
The
children’s parents were jailed at Gloucester Crown Court after
neglecting five of their children between 2007 and 2012. They had
admitted five counts of neglect of the children.
The mother was jailed for two years and nine months, while her husband received a two-year prison term.
The
children were removed from the parents prior to their sentences being
imposed, with some placed with foster carers and others with family
members.
The serious case review made a series of recommendations to the authorities in the county.
David
McCallum, chair of Gloucestershire Safeguarding Children Board, said
the authorities involved had underestimated the impact of long-term
neglect.
'There was really long-term, chronic and serious neglect,' he said.
'For
most of the time when children’s social care and other agencies were
working with this family, they treated the neglect as a "child in need"
issue and that probably underestimated the extent of the harm those
children were suffering.
'One
of the real points of learning for all the organisations involved is
that neglect can be really, really harmful to children, especially when
it’s long-term.'
Mr
McCallum said this type of case could happen again 'because neglect is a
really challenging area of work', and cited the death of Victoria
Climbie, who was tortured and murdered by her guardians in 2000.
'Another
factor present in this case, to be frank, the parents were concealing
the neglect the children were suffering,' he said.
'I
have worked in safeguarding for many years and if you go back to
Victoria Climbie and before that, these are some of the most difficult
issues all the time and we need that constant, relentless focus on, if
we are going to avoid this happening in the future.'
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