Was poisoned plagued home of flat ‘unfit for human habitation’
claiming they were unaware Awaab lived at the flat. After seeing the family at their home, health visitor Caroline Ridley sent a letter to RBH about the damp and mould.
In the letter, she referred to Mr Abdullah and Ms Amin by name, as well as their ‘young child Awaab’.
The letter was filed to an IT system other than CRM at RBH by Lorna O’malley, who was an apprentice in the Homechoice team at the time, the inquest heard.
A number of workers who dealt with complaints and contacts from Mr Abdullah gave accounts of where they filed and checked information about the family - with some using CRM, and others using different systems.
Disrepair manager Mark Wrigley was made aware of Ms Ridley’s letter the day before his inspection, but told court he did not see it. He believed Mr Abdullah was living alone in the property at the time of the inspection.
Mr Wrigley was one of a number of workers at RBH who said they would have acted differently if they knew a young child was living at the property.
Managers at RBH told the court that more information is now being collected from tenants who report damp and mould issues, so workers will be aware of children at the property.
Meanwhile, all staff are being trained to use CRM, head of customer experience Phil Heron explained. Both RBH and Anthony Hodari solicitors drew up their own policies regarding disrepair claims in good faith.
But when the two policies clashed with each other, it led to a vacuum in communication which would have devastating consequences.
In 2020, RBH had a policy not to carry out remedial works on properties which were subject to legal claims, until they had secured agreement to the works from the tenant’s solicitor.
It meant that Mr Wrigley visited Awaab’s home on July 14, 2020, to draw up a list of repairs that needed carrying out, but the work could not take place until the green light had been given by Anthony Hodari.
Mr Wrigley told the inquest that mould treatment and plastering work needed to be carried out at the property.
Andrew Foster, a technical inspector at RBH who visited the property in November 2020 following reports of a leak in the flat below, also found the extraction fan in the bathroom was ‘not working properly’ and felt new ventilation units could be installed.
The housing association never carried that work out because it believed the property was still subject to a legal claim even after Awaab’s death - but Stephen Lund, director at
Anthony Hodari, told the inquest the firm had in fact dropped the case in September 2020, weeks before Awaab died.
Mr Lund explained the firm has its own policy not to inform housing associations when cases are dropped to avoid prejudicing other legal action involving the tenant.
Meanwhile, early years worker Lauren Hughes had also been in touch with RBH about the damp and mould in November and December 2020, but ultimately had no response.
In a series of admissions made by RBH last week, it accepted that it should have carried out the works as there was no legal requirement to wait for the go-ahead from solicitors. It’s not the only lack of communication that was cause for concern either. The coroner also raised concerns about information not being passed on between medical professionals and the family’s GP. The final failure affecting Awaab’s life would ultimately prove to have the gravest consequences.
The toddler was admitted to Rochdale Urgent Care Centre with breathing difficulties on December 19, 2020.
He was transferred to Royal Oldham Hospital for further observation, where he was treated for croup by Dr Phillipa Marshall. With lockdown restrictions in place at the time, only one parent was allowed to be with Awaab at the hospital and his mum stayed with him.
Dr Marshall told the court she used Google Translate to communicate with Ms Amin, whose English was more limited than Mr Abdullah’s.
As she discharged the toddler, Dr Marshall advised that Awaab should ‘go to hospital’ if he struggled with his breathing again, but she did not specify Royal Oldham Hospital.
Awaab’s family contacted community nurses on the morning of December 21 as Awaab’s breathing deteriorated, before Mr Abdullah took his son to Rochdale Urgent Care Centre on December 21.
Awaab was transferred to Royal Oldham Hospital and suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of respiratory failure.
Northern Care Alliance, the NHS trust which runs both sites, admits that Awaab ‘would not have died at the time he did on the balance of probabilities’ if he had been admitted to Royal Oldham Hospital sooner that day.
Dr Sri Nagesh Panasa, who carried out a review into the case, said Awaab would have benefitted from being seen by additional staff with specialist expertise at Oldham.
He added that community nurses are now told to advise families to call 999 in the circumstances Mr Abdullah had been in on the morning of December 21, 2020.