A two-year-old girl who drowned in a bin containing 9cm of water was a victim of ‘gross failure’ mostly by social workers, a coroner has said.
Mazeedat Adeoye died in a garden in Dagenham in January 2022 while under the care of an acquaintance of her mother, Balikis Adeoye, who was in hospital.
Adeoye had asked Newham Council if they could provide foster care for her daughter for 10 days during the hospital stay. However, because her visa had expired, she was not eligible for state support, a status referred to as ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF).
According to the Guardian, a member of the council’s NRPF team told Adeoye to find someone ‘in her community’ to look after Mazeedat.
The senior coroner for east London, Graeme Irvine, concluded there was a ‘missed opportunity’ to provide a temporary fostering placement which might have prevented Mazeedat’s death.
‘Balikis Adeoye was treated in a dehumanising way on account of her status in the UK,’ he said, adding that there was a ‘a culture of impunity’.
A Newham council spokesperson said: ‘After the terrible accident which led to her death in January 2022, we undertook an investigation into our role and since that time our social work practice and approach has been overhauled – a change which has since been recognised by Ofsted, who now rate our services as “good”.’
‘We will very carefully consider the inquest findings and will comply with the request from the coroner to provide further information within the next 56 days.’
