Ofsted criticises social workers over death of Charlotte Avenall

Social workers tasked with caring for a severely disabled girl who hanged herself in her bedroom were poorly trained and overworked, a report found today.

Charlotte Avenall, 8, who had a mental age of 3, died in her “revolting and squalid” room despite being known to social services for all of her life.

The child was forced to use her chest of drawers as a toilet and smeared her excrement on the walls and ceiling of her bedroom.

Her body was found in a kneeling position, supported by a cord she had tied to a window frame. The child’s pink bunny soft toy was at the other end of the cord.

Police found that the family’s tanks of spiders and lizards were regularly cleaned out but when Charlotte died she was dehydrated, had overgrown fingernails and hair riddled with lice.

Staff at Nottinghamshire County Council knew that she was locked in her bedroom at night but were not aware that she would sometimes be confined for up to 14 hours a day in the weeks before her death on September 12 last year.

Today, a report by Ofsted, the education watchdog, criticised the care provided by social workers at Nottinghamshire County Council, calling it “inadequate”.

The report said: “There is a significant shortage of frontline social work staff and the demand for the service, particularly referrals and re-referrals, has increased by 43 per cent, resulting in children not being effectively safeguarded.

“The level of skill, knowledge of and experience of social work staff is significantly impairing the quality of service provided and in some offices there are too many newly qualified staff carrying heavy caseloads.”

The report added that the number of children deemed at risk had increased from 430 to about 600 in the last year.

The report also found a backlog of 140 children, who were waiting to be assessed, had built up while social workers argued which cases should take priority.

Many children at risk of “serious harm” had to wait too long to see a social worker, Ofsted found after conducting an unannounced inspection of the council’s services in October last year — the month after Charlotte’s death.

There were “significant weaknesses” in the council’s ability to protect children, while the quality of assessments of youngsters were mostly “poor”, it added.

In its serious case review into the death of Charlotte, which was also published today, the council said that the staff who dealt with the case had been retrained.

Last month, Charlotte’s mother, Susan Moody, 24, and stepfather Simon Moody. 33. were each jailed for a year after admitting one count of child cruelty.

A social worker visited the family’s house in Moor Street the month before she died but failed to make a follow-up appointment after there was no one at home.

Social services also failed to pick up on warnings from the child’s school, which raised concerns when she arrived with faeces on her hands and wearing unsuitable clothes for the weather.

Anthony May, director of children and young people’s services, refused to say whether anyone had been disciplined over the handling of the case.

He said that he “accepted” the report’s findings and would work to improve the council’s service.

“It will not happen overnight. I have said in the past that there are no quick fixes. It is going to take hard work and going to take time.”