Shannon Matthews serious case review clears social workers
Safeguarding children board finds Kirklees council staff could not have foreseeen abduction by her mother, Karen Matthews
Social workers could not have foreseen the abduction of Shannon Matthews by her mother, a serious case review has concluded.
Shannon’s disappearance in February 2008 sparked a £3m police operation and a nationwide search that ended when the nine-year-old was found hidden in the base of a divan bed in a flat about a mile from her home in Dewsbury.
Her mother, Karen Matthews, was jailed for eight years for her part in what a judge described as a “truly despicable” plot with Michael Donovan, in whose flat the girl was found.
The Kirklees safeguarding children board review found today there was “little leeway” for social services and other agencies to intervene before Shannon was abducted in February 2008.
“The overview panel concluded that the third-born child’s abduction could not have been foreseen by professionals involved in this case on the basis of their historical and current knowledge about the family,” the report says.
Kirklees council announced a serious case review after Matthews and Donovan were convicted in December 2008.
The review concluded that the family’s history was characterised by “neglectful parenting interspersed with periods of adequate parental care”.
“This case starkly demonstrates the difficulty of responding effectively to families where parenting is characterised by low-level neglect which at times escalates into inadequate parenting with detrimental consequences for children’s wellbeing,” it says.
Reports had suggested the local Kirklees council placed Shannon on the child protection register five years earlier but removed her despite concerns about the Matthews household.
While the independent panel has largely absolved Kirklees council, the review said social services should have agreed to Matthews’s request for one of her children to be taken into care, as this might have been beneficial for the child.
