Murdered tot ‘invisible’ to city’s social services Report slams professionals who placed baby with her killer
TRAGIC toddler Shi-Anne Downer, who was beaten to death after social services handed her to a distant relative, became ‘almost invisible to professionals’, an inquiry has found.
A serious case review death of 18-month-old concluded that :
A superficial assessment outside agency led to her placed in the care of her killer;
She was visited only once by social services between her placement and death;
Social workers focused instead on the demands of Kandyce Downer, the single mum-of-four who murdered the child.
Shi-Anne died in September 2015, beaten to death by Kandyce at her Beckbury Road, Weoley Castle home. The mother was sentenced to life in prison for the murder.
The review stated that Shi-Anne was barely considered after the deci- into the Shi-Anne by an being sion to issue the special guardianship order was taken.
“The voice of Shi-Anne was regularly missed”, it states.
It finds that although no one could have predicted that Kandyce, who appeared to be a caring mother to her own children, would turn into a child killer, but that risk factors were evident, and more visits and regular checks might have set alarm bells ringing.
Chairman of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board, Penny Thompson, who led the serious case review, said: “On behalf of all the agencies that sit on the Safeguarding Board I would like to express our deepest sympathies to Shi-Anne’s birth family, the foster family who cared so well for her before she was placed with the Special Guardian, and all those who knew and loved her.
“Unfortunately this case reflected ‘group think’ where the general consensus seemed to be that a special guardianship order was the right thing to do.
“There was a superficial assessment by an external agency commissioned by the city council; little challenge on behalf of Shi-Anne and her lifelong interests; poor information exchange; insufficient discussion between involved agencies, and too much focus on Kandyce Downer’s wants rather than the child’s needs.
“As a result of this and other cases, national guidance on the use of special guardianship orders has been altered to be more robust, and in Birmingham practice and management has fundamentally changed.”
The city council took the decision last year to transfer its child protection and social work service out to a new Children’s Trust following years of failure.
Cabinet member for children’s services Brigid Jones said: “My thoughts are with everyone who knew and loved Shi-Anne.
“While nothing we do will bring her back it is important that changes are made where there were flaws in the system. We have made such changes and we now have far more robust procedures in place.
“While Shi-Anne’s terrible death could not have been predicted we know that she should not have been placed with Kandyce Downer. I full expect that the lessons from this case will inform better assessments and practice around SGOs not just in Birmingham but nationally.”
The voice of Shi-Anne was regularly missed Serious case review