News

An independent serious case review into the serious scalding of a two-year-old boy has criticised Haringey Council, the London borough slammed for its failures in the Victoria Climbie case, writes Natalie Valios.

The boy, who cannot be identified, pulled a kettle of boiling water over himself in February 2003, burning 28 per cent of his body.

Despite an earlier council child protection investigation concluding that the incident was an accident, the serious case review finds poor record-keeping and a lack of communication between GPs, health visitors, social workers and mental health service workers at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Mental Health Trust.

Just two months before the incident, the boy’s mother was diagnosed with a depressive disorder with psychotic features, including fabricated induced illness syndrome. She discharged herself from hospital against medical advice and was referred to community psychiatric services. There had also been earlier child protection concerns.

Ron Aitken, Liberal Democrat social services spokesperson for Haringey, said the case showed a lack of thinking outside individual workers’ narrow professional remits.


Anne Bristow, Haringey’s social services director, insisted that, although there might have been better working together, “that was not likely to stop the accident happening”.

However, she added that, as a result of the review, risk assessments of parents with mental health problems would now also include their children.