Tragedy of toddler let down by state snoopers
They’re damned by report
A TODDLER who died after being neglected by his mother was failed by his state-appointed Named Person, according to a damning report.
Clyde Campbell, two, was left without parental care while his mother, Amanda Hardie, worked as a barmaid in a nightclub.
It also emerged Hardie had a violent partner who was jailed for assaulting her.
A report yesterday found Named Persons, police and social workers all missed ‘several’ opportunities to prevent the neglect of the toddler before he died in ‘filthy and chaotic’ conditions in 2014.
The inquiry detailed a litany of failures in the lead-up to Clyde’s death, stating ‘more direct intervention could have been taken’ by all agencies.
The review also revealed that the boy’s Named Person had ‘significant concerns’ about his welfare but the process for highlighting their fears ‘was not clear’.
Childcare Minister Maree Todd said the case ‘highlights the need for agencies to share information’.
The report comes days after it emerged SNP ministers are facing a further grilling over claims that they ‘nobbled’ witnesses who were due to give evidence on the state snooper plan.
A DAMNING report yesterday exposed the failure of the Named Person scheme to protect a toddler victim of cot death who was neglected by his barmaid mother.
Clyde Campbell, two, was left without parental care while Amanda Hardie worked in a nightclub.
Hardie, who was jailed after admitting neglect, also had a violent partner who was himself jailed for beating her with a chain.
The family lived in Inverness, where Highboy’s land Council has been piloting the Named Person scheme since 2010. Its aim is to boost child protection by assigning state guardians to all children under 18.
Hardie, 32, repeatedly left Clyde without parental care for hours, and after her bar job would often spend the night with her boyfriend, returning the next day. The toddler was left in the care of an older child on the day he died.
A report has found that named persons, police and social workers missed ‘several’ opportunities to step in to prevent the neglect of the child before he died in ‘filthy and chaotic’ conditions.
The inquiry exposed a catalogue of failures in the lead-up to Clyde’s death, concluding ‘more direct and timely intervention could have been taken’ by all agencies.
The review indicated that the Named Person had ‘significant concerns’ about his welfare but that the mechanism for highlighting their fears ‘was not clear to the practitioners involved’.
Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘This goes right to the heart of the concerns expressed by many professionals who have been left worried and confused by the SNP’s mishandling of policies about how best to look after vulnerable children.’
The Highland Child Protection Committee began a Significant Case Review (SCR) into the case in July 2016 after it emerged that Clyde, known as Child R, had no contact with his Named Person in the 18 months before his death.
Weeks before he died, social workers were told an anonymous call had been received stating his home was ‘smelling badly, with animal excrement and rubbish lying about’, and Clyde was being left without adult supervision while his mother worked.
After a welfare check, the matter ‘was not discussed as a child protection concern’ during police feedback to social workers. A raft of changes to policies and procedures has been implemented in the wake of the investigation.
Clyde’s death on February 23, 2014, followed months of neglect at the hands of Hardie, who stayed with a boyfriend the night before he died. A post-mortem found no link between his death and the neglect he suffered. But in May 2016 Hardie was jailed for ten months after admitting wilfully neglecting her son.
The SCR concluded there ‘were several occasions over the years before and the birth of Child R that more direct and timely intervention could have been taken to protect’ the youngster, and that ‘this is true of all agencies’.
While Hardie was pregnant with Clyde, she had ‘ongoing contact with adult mental health services and continued to be a patient of adult mental health services’. Despite this there were ‘no concerns’ raised by Clyde’s midwife during a handover to the next Named Person, a health visitor.
In 2013 a housing officer raised concerns over ‘the dirty state of the home’ to Clyde’s health visitors.
But police did not raise any doubts when completing a welfare check, described as ‘a missed opportunity to actively assess the child’s living environment’.
Bill Alexander, Highland Council director of care and learning, said: ‘The findings of this SCR have been the foundation for positive developments implemented across Highland child protection practice since this case.’
Childcare Minister Maree Todd said: ‘The review findings show how important it is for agencies and professionals to be consistent in sharing information.’
Simon Calvert of campaign group No To Named Persons said: ‘This is a damning dossier painting a picture of sustained multiagency failures.’
‘Multi-agency failures’