Baby found dead in Manchester home was failed by authorities

Inquiry criticises care workers for failing to protect 13-month-old Alex Sutherland from his mother’s drinking and neglect

Health and social workers in Manchester have been criticised for failing to protect a baby who was found dead in his pushchair in front of a lit fire in a scene of “unimaginable horror”.

Alex Sutherland, who was 13 months old, was found dead at his home in Baguley, Wythenshawe, in November 2009, his body charred, covered in faeces and with unexplained injuries. His mother, Tracey Sutherland, who drank up to six bottles of wine a day, was jailed for 27 months in April after she admitted neglect.

A serious case review published today concluded that Alex had been the victim of failures by several agencies that should have protected him. They missed 17 opportunities to save him after they were repeatedly contacted over concerns that 39-year-old Sutherland was abandoning her son to go drinking.

When Sutherland contacted the police, she told the operator she had been alone with her baby for three days, as she could not let him go. Alex may have been dead for up to two days before the call. Today’s report by the Manchester safeguarding children’s board said Alex’s case was “poorly managed throughout” and his neglect was “both predictable and preventable”.

The report – which referred to Alex as Child T and his mother as Mrs E – said: “Child T was known to agencies because of Mrs E’s misuse of alcohol, yet 17 expressions of concern [four of which alleged she was drunk] failed to trigger a reconsideration of the initial assessments that the likelihood of future significant harm was low.

“No single agency was responsible for failing to protect Child T from the chronic neglect which he suffered at the hands of his mother, but rather he was the victim of the multiple failures of all those agencies with whom he was involved [with the exception of Greater Manchester police] to recognise the risks to which he was exposed and to take appropriate protective action.”

The report added that interventions had focused on helping the mother and did nothing for the child, and there was no evidence that at any time did any practitioner consider the situation from the child’s perspective.

Judge Clement Goldstone, who jailed Sutherland, criticised social services for their “lack of urgency”.

Sutherland drank throughout her pregnancy, and just three weeks after Alex was born in October 2008, police were called to the house to find him lying on the floor alongside combustible material in front of a gas fire. Sutherland was drunk and told them she had been on a three-day bender because of family problems.

A week before his death, an anonymous call was made to social workers, saying that Alex looked small and undernourished and that Sutherland’s mood and behaviour was erratic. But although a health visitor asked for an appointment with Sutherland, it was put off for another week.

On the day Alex’s death was discovered, police found Sutherland in a distressed state, wandering the streets in the rain, dressed in her pyjamas. She told officers she did not want to go home.

Ian Rush, the chair of the city’s safeguarding children board, said: “The report is clear in saying that the level of neglect this little boy was experiencing was preventable, had things been different at certain points and had people assessed the situation in a different kind of way. It is important to stress that it’s not as if agencies and organisations weren’t trying to do something to support this mother. They were. She was denying to them that she was drinking as much as she was and was playing down the impact that alcohol was having in her life.”

Laura Roberts, the chief executive of NHS Manchester, said: “The death of this little boy was a tragedy and we offer our sincere condolences to his family and friends. We are very sorry that NHS Manchester, as one of the agencies involved in his care, did not fully recognise the extent of his neglect.

“The serious case review clearly identifies a number of areas requiring improvement within our own organisation, and in the way we work with other agencies.”

Manchester city council also offered its condolences to Alex’s family.

Pauline Newman, the city council’s director of children’s services, also said it was clear there were areas where the service could have done better. “We have carried out an extensive programme of work with staff since this little boy died to ensure that staff fully understand the lessons that need to be taken on board from this tragedy, in particular the need to sharply focus on the experience of the child, and to understand and act upon the impact of parental alcohol abuse upon them.

“We have also further trained staff to be assertive and challenging to parents who abuse alcohol.”