COUNCIL’S TRAGIC BABY LETTER SHAME
MUM’S DISTRESS AT SCHOOL APPLICATION REMINDER 95 FAMILIES MAY BE AFFECTED BY BLUNDER
A BEREAVED mother has slammed council bosses after she was sent a school application reminder for her daughter - two years after her death.
Town hall bosses say the letter to Sarah Gormley and her husband could be one of 95 sent to grieving parents by mistake.
Mrs Gormley said she has been left ‘traumatised’ after opening the post on Monday.
Her daughter Violet Stephens died in September 2016, aged just 15 months.
An inquest at Manchester town hall in May concluded that Violet died as a result of ‘misadventure’ after suffering from respiratory failure.
Mrs Gormley, who lives in Chorlton with her husband Pat Stephens, pointed out that her daughter’s grave is also at Manchester council-owned Southern Cemetery.
The letter was addressed to Violet’s ‘parent’ or ‘carer’ to remind them to apply for a primary school place for 2019.
Manchester council bosses have admitted that 94 other letters may have been sent out to bereaved families.
Mrs Gormley - who lost another child, Arthur, a year after Violet died - took to Twitter to speak of her shock, saying the council should be ‘ashamed.’ She told the M.E.N.: “Manchester council conducted Violet’s inquest and we paid for her grave with the council. “To get a letter reminding us that we need to register for her primary school is just too much. It’s not what we need. “It’s just really traumatic, you don’t expect it. “We used to get reminder letters from the NHS for a good while, but even they have stopped making errors now. “It’s so upsetting. It reminds us of what we should have been doing with Violet.” Violet was born in June 2015. She was rushed to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool within days for life-saving heart surgery.
The youngster was healthy and happy until September 2016.
Medics then found that she had fluid on her lungs, which, combined with a rare form of pneumonia and a narrow heart valve, led to her death.
Mrs Gormley’s son, Arthur, was stillborn at 22 weeks, a year after Violet’s death.
Mrs Gormley recently gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Aurora, but still calls herself a mum-of-three.
Manchester council’s director of children’s services, Paul Marshall, said: “This letter clearly should not have been sent and we apologise unreservedly for the distress it has caused.
“Our initial investigation shows that a number of such letters may have been sent out in error to families and we’re reviewing all our systems to make sure this cannot happen again.
“I will be writing directly to the families who have received this letter to give them my personal apology and to tell them again how truly sorry we are about this mistake.”
In October 2016, Sarah and husband Pat set up a charity in Violet’s name, with the aim of raising funds for new equipment at Alder Hey hospital.
More than £20,000 has been donated.
On September 29, the ‘Violet Ball’ will be held at the Radission Blu Edwardian in Manchester to raise more money.
Details of the event, which is sponsored by Radisson Blu and Icelandair can be found at https://violet-skies.com/violetsball-in-aide-of-alder-hey-hospital/
It’s so upsetting. It reminds us of what we should have been doing with Violet Sarah Gormley