Repeated failures that let Amber down

AMBER Peat was the victim of repeated failures by the authorities to intervene in her home life, the coroner found.

She moved 11 times, changed schools and was registered with six GPs.

Amber told her teachers about problems with her home life at four separate schools.

The inquest heard that a ‘multi-agency team’ of health, children’s and education workers became involved in January 2014 after a referral from Amber’s GP.

It led to one-to-one meetings between Amber and a youth worker – but not a full social services investigation, with social workers preferring to work with the family. Amber was never interviewed about why she had run away repeatedly – even though this is a statutory requirement.

Derbyshire County Council said concerns ‘didn’t meet the required threshold’ for intervention and information wasn’t passed to a multi-agency team in Nottinghamshire when the family moved to Mansfield.

Staff at Queen Elizabeth Academy in Mansfield twice contacted Nottinghamshire safeguarding officials. But the Nottinghamshire multi-agency team felt there was ‘not enough for a full referral’.