A serious case review happens when a child dies or is injured, abused or neglected. Conducting a serious case review aids agencies to understand more on how they can work together and protect children from abuse.  Serious case review also promotes children welfare. Serious case review is conducted by Local Safeguarding Children Boards. This paper analyses a serious case review published in Bradford, Hamzah Khan, in respect to what prompted the review, what the review sought to find out, the main conclusions and recommendations of the review as well as how the review might affect policies and procedures in the selected setting.

What prompted the review?

The reason why professionals were interested in reviewing the death of Hamzah was because of the uncertainties surrounding his death. Though he died in December, 2009, his body was discovered in September, 2011 (Maddocks, 2013, p7).  The long time in which his body remained hidden was a shock to the wider community and, therefore, there was a need to establish the reasons behind the body hiding as well as how the little boy died. His death circumstances prompted the police to make parallel and separate inquiries(The Mirror, 2013, 1). Besides, Hamzah died from being neglected by his mother. Many children suffer from neglect, and there was aneed to let the society learn from the case of Hamzah, who was denied food, health services and also did not access early educational services. Conducting a serious case review on Hamzah’s case was a way to help children agencies and other agencies to be more vigilant in ensuring that children received the proper care and attendance from their parents.  There was also needto highlight how children suffer from, domesticabuse. Hamzah’s mother was the subject of domestic violence (Dave, 2013, 1). In addition, the case was reviewed in order to bring into light issues of religious and cultural complexities of families as well as lack of understanding of how family life should be. Furthermore, the fact that Hamzah’s death had not been reported indicated that he was neglected (Dave, 2013, 2).

What did the review seek to find out?

Hamzah’s body was discovered when police officers were searching the house during September, 2011(Chris, 2013, 1). The post mortem indicated that the child had died during December, 2009. Therefore, the review wanted to find out the reasons behind the little boy’s death. Also, his death was not reported, this provided a clue to child neglect and thus the professionals wanted to find out why and how the child was neglected.  Most importantly, the review wanted to find out the extent to which the little boy was not known and imperceptible to services during his life and why his mother increasingly withdrew from any contact with services. The review was also interested in knowing the degree of domestic abuse that Hamzah’s mother suffered as well as the social isolation she experienced. Since it was found that Amanda Hutton, Hamzah’s mother, was responsible for taking care of her older children and those from extended family, the case review wanted to find out why she was inadequate to take care of Hamzah, and why she subjected him to cruel treatment that caused his death. The investigators found out that Amanda’s neglect of his son was, as a result of her chronic dependency on alcohol(BBC News England, 2013, 1).

What were the major recommendations and conclusions of the review?

It was concluded that Hamzah died of chronic neglect by Amanda Hutton who was later convicted of child cruelty and manslaughter during October, 2013. Though it was not promising toinstitute the exact date when Hamzah died, information from statements, post mortem and court hearing, it was apparent that Hamzah had died on 15^th December, 2009(Malnick, 2013, 1).Hamzah had been denied of services throughout his life. This was due to the domestic violence that her mother suffered and also her indulgence in alcohol consumption. Hamzah’s parents did not provide Hamzah with health services on a regular basis and also he was not enrolled in educational programs. It was also established that Amanda Hutton, though he neglected Hamzah, she was not always an inadequate mother and that her neglect behavior was as anoutcome of being in anaggressive and abusive relationship(The Evening Standard, 2013, 1). This review recommends that children should be protected from suffering in the present or the future. Persons and the wider society are persuaded to understand a child’s daily experiences, welfare, feelings and wishes. In this review, it can be assumed that depression, isolation, domestic violence and substance misuse leads to child abuse and neglect. As such the review recommended that there should be an individual and collective effort to ensure that children, at all times are protected from any abuse either physical, mental or emotional abuse as in the case of Hamzah, who was subjected to such abuse by his parents(Maddocks, 2013, p7).  The review also recommended that Local Safeguarding Children Board should follow up and ascertain the welfare of children born at a particular time to aperiod when such children reach an age where they can take care of themselves. Agencies were encouraged to ensure that all children born in an area received all the services needed during their childhood. The review also recommends the national and local policy to be fully effective in ensuring that child cruelty is stopped completely.

How might this review affect policies and procedures in your setting?

Through the Bradford Hamzah Khan serious case review, the setting changed by initiating the use of video, mobile phones and image capturing devices in investigating the welfare of children in order to promote child protection. Besides, though many assumed that it was an invasion of privacy(Chris, Robinson& Levy, 2013, 1), agencies put up policies that allowed them to move from one house to another ensuring that children were well protected.  Agencies were also encouraged to provide serious case reviews of any degree of child abuse in order to prevent serious harm in children. They would also ensure that they worked together and were actively involved in children affairs. In Hamzah’s case, the agencies did not know of the whereabouts of missing children neither did they know of the death of a little boy until his body was discovered by the police. Agencies were encouraged to be more vigilant failure to which they would be answerable for some cases of child abuse. Issues of neglect, learning, social isolation and alcohol misuse were also raised and policies established to ensure that children were protected from such issues. Policies in the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board were amended to ensure that the board would be attentive to children’s education, health visiting, midwifery, social care, the GP service. The agency was also encouraged to ensure that all births were registered, children received routine immunizations and received standard physical care and attended school. This is because the board and other agencies were not previously aware whether Amanda had neglected her little boy(The Journal, 2013, 1).  Since this case review, the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board has ensured that little or no cases of child abuse occur.

Bibliography

BBC News England.November, 2013. Hamzah Khan serious case review: ‘Red flag’ plea over child safety

Chris, B. October 4, 2013. How Could Little Boy’s Mummified Body Lie Undiscovered in His Home for TWO Years? Daily Mail, London

Chris, B., Robinson, M. & Levy, A. November 13, 2013. Useless! Children’s Minister Slams inquiry into death of boy, 4, found mummified in family home. Mail Online

Dave, H. November 14, 2013. ‘Deep Concerns’ over Starved-Boy CaseReview. Western Mail; Cardiff, Wales

Dave, H.  October 5, 2013. Alcoholic Mum Who Starved Tot Is Given 15 Years; Mother-of-Eight Was Wicked, Says judge, She Threatened to Kill Other Children, Says Son. Manchester Evening News

Maddocks, K. 2013. A serious case review: Hamzah Khan: the executive summary. Bradford: Bradford Safeguarding Children Board. 1-89

Malnick, E. Nov 13, 2013. Hamzah Khan: ‘deep concerns’ over failure to explain death, The Telegraph

The Evening Standard. November 13, 2013. Call for New Probe on Starved Hamzah as Review Is Rubbished; Deputy Political Editor. England: London

The Journal. September 24, 2013. How Many More Children Will Have to Suffer Such Agony? London: Newcastle

The Mirror. October 4, 2013. THE HOUSE WHERE LITTLE HAMZAH DIED; Squalid Life of Mum Found Guilty of Starving Son

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