A LONG-awaited serious case review into the death of a Thurrock toddler and the care offered by Thurrock Council Children's Social Services to her, her brother and family has revealed a series of significant failings by the authority.

Though the report stops short of allocating responsibility for her death – the report damns much of what happened leading up to it and clearly says the council could – and should have – done much better.

However, in a statement released today the council papers over the cracks that were proven to be in the system and makes no mention of an apology or details any allocation of responsibility.

Katie Eden's death has been much reported by Thurrock Nub News and its predecessor the Thurrock Independent.

We campaigned relentlessly for a serious case review into her death – and it was only as a result of media pressure and criticism sparked by our reports that the council eventually agreed to submit the matter for independent review.

Now the review has been published – almost a year after it should have been – it is clear that there were many failures by Thurrock Council – and other social services – in dealing with the family.

Despite this – Thurrock Council has today seized on the fact that the cause of Katie's death remains unknown as a sort of absolution for their responsibility.

Indeed Cllr Gledhill says: "The serious case review, based on the Coroner's report, concluded that the death was from 'unrelated and unknown causes', therefore no organisation or individual is responsible for the tragic death."

Under the protocol of the case review system the report refers to the children concerned as Sam and Kyle. We make no apology for linking the report with the death of Katie.

Undoubtedly this will cause further some further distress to some of the people concerned but given the circumstances and the findings of the report, this matter cannot be brushed under the carpet.

Thurrock Nub News will not comment other than this statement by editor Neil Speight: "Thurrock Council has acted appallingly in this matter from day one.

"They have denied responsibility, they have denied fault and they have sought to condemn myself, colleagues including the late Andy Lever and the media.

"The council's own staff felt so disgusted and upset by the way the council tried to cover up this matter they sent us documentation and leaked information apportioning blame.

"I believe their actions have been vindicated.

"Without the intervention of the Thurrock Independent, myself and Andy Lever I have no doubt that this matter – which shows serious failings in Thurrock Council's system, would have been brushed under the carpet.

"The council's chief executive Lyn Carpenter made it a personal mission to discredit myself and Andy Lever as we condemned the council. Twice she ordered her officers to take us to the Independent Press Standards Organisation – twice she was made to look foolish.

"Now this report condemns the actions of departments for which she has to take personal responsibility but instead of doing that, the council and in particular its leader, Cllr Rob Gledhill, yet again seek to deflect the truth, deny accountability and responsibility and plot their own arrogant and self-centred course.

"There have been many shameful days in Thurrock Council's recent history – sadly Thursday, 30 July now goes down as one of them again."

The link to the full investigation is here.

Thurrock Council's full statement today is published below:

Commenting on the report, Leader of Thurrock Council, Cllr Rob Gledhill said "Any child death is a tragedy and a deep loss for the family to which we continue to offer our condolences. The SCR, based on the Coroner's report, concluded that the death was from 'unrelated and unknown causes', therefore no organisation or individual is responsible for the tragic death. Post-mortem investigations did not establish a cause of death, which was recorded as unascertained at inquest - this can also be known as unexplained death such as 'cot death' or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

"It was right to commission a SCR to review and identify any learning for the agencies working with the family. The report makes a number of recommendations and raises areas for improvement which includes better partnership working to support this family from when they became known to Children's Services in Thurrock in 2012.

"The issue of learning in safeguarding is important for all partners and this has been identified to have improved in the recent Ofsted inspection of the council's Children's Services in November 2019. The Cabinet Member for Social Care has asked that this SCR report be referred to our Children's Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with a proposed action plan developed to ensure that the Thurrock Safeguarding Children's Partnership is held to account and the recommendations in this report fully addressed.

"All SCRs progress at different speeds due to the individual circumstances of each one, this report took time due to the pressures nationally in the Coroner's service as well as ensuring the family affected was given appropriate time to consider the drafts of the report."

Looking to the future, Cllr James Halden, Cabinet Member for Social Care, said "An independent review of the Thurrock Safeguarding Children's Partnership has already been commissioned and in my mind it is vital - we need to ensure the partnership has enough capacity, independent challenge and that it actions SCRs, or Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews as they are now known, quickly and robustly. This review of the partnership had already been agreed and is not a direct response to this or any other SCR.

Related stories: