Minister criticises Hamzah Khan review findings

Four-year-old Hamzah died from starvation in December 2009, although his partially mummified body was not discovered until September 2011.

A serious case review (SCR) into his death, published by Bradford’s Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) today, concluded that agencies in the city missed signs that Hamzah and his seven siblings were at risk, but the death was “not predictable”.

The SCR reveals that the family received help from a range of local agencies including children’s social services, early years services, health services, police, probation, and a domestic violence charity. It makes 50 recommendations for improvements, but concludes that no single agency was to blame for the death.

However, children’s minister Edward Timpson, in a letter to the chair of Bradford’s LSCB Nick Frost, said he has “deep concerns” about the review.

“In particular I am concerned that it fails to explain sufficiently clearly the actions taken, or not taken, by children’s social care when problems in the Khan family were brought to their attention on a number of occasions,” Timpson states in the letter.

He goes on to highlights seven occasions between December 2006 and March 2011 when problems in the Khan household were brought to the attention of children’s social services – and calls for more information to be provided on each.

This includes December 2006, when one of Hamzah's siblings spoke to police about domestic violence at home and police referred him to children's social care.

"Was the child assessed?" Timpson said. "If not, why not?"

He said the questions he posed represented the "most glaring absences" from the review.

“All of these were missed opportunities to protect children in the house,” Timpson said.

“It is tragic beyond words that by the time a health visitor did trigger concerns about the whereabouts of the younger children in the household, who were missing from health and education services altogether, Hamzah Khan was already dead.”

It is the second time in less than two months that Timpson has questioned the findings of a serious case review.

In September he said that the review into the death of Daniel Pelka in Coventry failed to give sufficient detail on why failings among the various agencies that had contact with him and his carers had occurred.

Bridget Robb, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) said there is often confusion and lack of agreement on the purpose and format of serious case reviews.

"This has to be resolved before more time and effort is put into the creation of documents that may ultimately be meaningless," she added.

“Equally, unless the recommendations made in all serious case reviews are acted upon, they will not be worth the paper they are written on."

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said the case of Hamzah Khan highlights how small but timely interventions at crucial points from professionals, and the public, could have prevented his death.

“Tragically Hamzah became invisible, slipping off the radar of our entire society the moment he left hospital after birth,” he said.

“We have to ask how this could happen in 21st century Britain.

“A red flag must be raised when key appointments are missed so that children cannot disappear.

“It cannot be right that the first time someone took serious steps to track him down was six years after his birth by which time he was already dead.”

Action for Children has called for a web portal to be created, so members of the public can seek help for children they are worried about.

The charity has also called on government to support professionals to make timely decisions so neglected children receive effective help.

Dame Clare Tickell, chief executive at Action for Children, said: “Children at risk of dying at the hands of their parents are crying out for help but they aren’t being heard.

“More support for professionals who work with neglected children is vital; they must be allowed to trust their instincts and escalate their concerns."

Last month, Hamzah's mother, 44-year-old Amanda Hutton, was found guilty of his manslaughter, as well as neglecting six of her eight children.