Child protection committee announces changes after mother`s conviction

Wiltshire’s area child protection committee has announced
measures implemented following the conviction of a mother for
killing her two baby sons, writes Clare
Jerrom.

Angela Cannings was given two life sentences yesterday at
Winchester crown court, for murdering her son Matthew, aged 18
weeks, in 1999, and another son, Jason, aged seven weeks, in
1991.

Wiltshire ACPC has undertaken a case review in accordance with
department of health guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard
Children’. The report identifies where systems and procedures
need to be improved to ensure all agencies work together to
safeguard children, and respond appropriately to deaths in early
infancy.

There is now a multi-agency protocol in place, developed by all
the relevant agencies, to respond to the unexplained death of a
child. Health organisations have improved record keeping where
there is a sudden or unexplained death of a child or children in a
family.

Admission and discharge procedures have been revised for
situations where there has been a previous sudden death of a child
in the family, and pathologists required to carry out post mortems
of children must have specialist paediatric training.

Annie Hudson, chairperson of Wiltshire ACPC, said: “The report
recognises that there was substantially more information on the
possible causes of early infant death at the time of Matthew’s
death.

“Although advice was sought from experts in the field of
‘multiple cot deaths’, this was not rigorously followed
up by a co-ordinated inter-agency approach,” she added.