Birmingham City Council failed to act on warnings over tragic Khyra Ishaq

Mar 4 2010 By Paul Dale & Nick McCarthy

A catalogue of errors and missed opportunities by Birmingham City Council contributed to the death of Khyra Ishaq, a High Court judge has ruled.

A 43-page Family Court Judgment, which has only now been made fully public, is a harrowing account of the events leading up to the seven-year-old’s death from starvation.

It was issued as part of care proceedings into Khyra’s five brothers and sisters made by the city council and heard at Birmingham County Court in March last year.

During the month-long hearing, expert witnesses along with teachers and the council’s staff were called to give evidence.

In a section entitled ‘slipping through the net’, Mrs Justice King demolishes the claim by city children’s director Tony Howell that nothing more could have been done to save Khyra.

Evidence given during the hearing revealed that social workers and education officials repeatedly failed to take adequate action over Khyra or her siblings, even though teachers from two schools warned social services that the children were malnourished, thin and cold.

So hungry were the youngsters that they were reduced to stealing food and scavenging in bins at school for apple cores, the hearing heard.

The children’s weight plummeted, alarming teaching staff while the attitude of the mother, Angela Gordon, became increasingly hostile and fixated on food. She eventually withdrew firstly Khyra from school, then the other young children.

Khyra’s deputy head teacher was to make the first of several phone calls to social services to outline concerns for the children’s health. She asked social services to investigate, but they refused, suggesting that intervention by social services might “antagonise the situation”.

It was to be the start of systematic failure by council staff to follow through the concerns. Five months later Khyra was dead. She weighed just 2st 9lb. Two of her siblings, referred to as Child Z and Child L in the report, were also on the verge of death and were described as looking like Ethiopian famine victims.

Hospital staff were shocked and unsure how to treat the starving children – it simply wasn’t something they had come across.

In her findings Mrs Justice King said teaching staff had voiced concerns for the children, in particular relating to them not being fed properly. “The schools did all they could to bring their concerns to the attention of the relevant authorities. These concerns were not taken sufficiently seriously and were not adequately investigated.”

Despite the findings – which were known to the council last March – Mr Howell made a statement last week on Khyra’s death pointing the finger of blame at legislation on home education which he claimed made it impossible for his staff to act.

He also suggested that the public should have done more.

His statement read: “Many people in the local community were aware, or had suspicions, that all was not right in the home where Khyra died, yet no-one felt able to alert any of the authorities.”

He continued: “We need the public to help us protect children. We need them to be our eyes and ears. If anyone suspects children are at risk we would urge them to either contact us or the police.”

But the hearing was told that this is exactly what teaching staff did. They contacted social services immediately and they were rebuffed.

Mrs Justice King heard that social services staff, when pressed again by teachers, advised the school to contact police.

Also the special education needs of three of the children – including Khyra – had triggered referrals to education officials, who in turn grew concerned at Angela Gordon’s aggressive attitude and contacted social services.

As Mrs Gordon claimed she would be home schooling her children, she was legally required to provide education plans for them. An education official, named in court as Mr H, and an education social worker visited her home where they were shown a basic “classroom” but did not get to see the children, who it was said were asleep after a late night.