Coventry City Council has apologised after a Serious Case Review found it failed to adequately protect murdered four-year-old Daniel Pelka.
A report into the Daniel’s death published by the independent Coventry Safeguarding Children Board has found a number of opportunities to protect the child were ‘missed’ by professionals across various agencies.
Living in Coventry for most of his time in the UK, Daniel Pelka was murdered on 3 March 2012 by his mother and stepfather after being subjected to a lengthy period of starvation and neglect.
The Serious Case Review found opportunities to protect Daniel Pelka were ‘missed’. Photograph: Press Association.Responding to recommendations made in the Serious Case Review, Coventry has vowed to change the way social care and education staff work in the region.
Chief executive of Coventry City Council, Martin Reeves, said the region had ‘never had such a tragic case before’ and emphasised that ‘every organisation involved’ was ‘determined’ to make sure this could never happen again.
‘All organisations in Coventry involved in Daniel's short life now have to face up to their responsibilities and the part they played in the missed opportunities that could have protected Daniel,’ Reeves said.
‘We are sorry we did not do enough to protect Daniel. The report makes clear that the sharing of information and communications between all agencies was not robust enough and no-one fitted together the jigsaw of what was really happening to Daniel.
‘We all accept responsibility for failing to protect Daniel, and we began to address many of the issues that highlighted in the report shortly after his death last year, although there's more to do.’
Commenting on the review, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, Cllr David Simmonds, said: ‘The collective aim must be to create a culture of moral responsibility in which people know how to raise the alarm and feel confident that if they come forward with legitimate concerns those concerns will be dealt with in a swift, proportionate and effective way.’
Since Daniel’s death, Coventry has introduced a number of changes to improve child safeguarding measures, including increasing the number of council staff responsible for co-ordinating work across local agencies.
