Herefordshire Council promises action after children 'utterly failed'

A judge has questioned whether a council's children's services are fit for purpose after it "utterly failed" three young people.

Mr Justice Keehan, based in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said Herefordshire Council did not have children's "best interests" at the heart of its decisions.

His criticisms were made in a ruling in the children's case, published online.

The council has promised "swift and decisive action".

Mr Justice Keehan said the young people at the centre of the case, who cannot be identified, are now 17, 13 and 11.

He said another child died nearly two years ago, at the age of 14, after becoming ill.

The four siblings had been placed with foster carers in 2012 and, the ruling said, the council had failed to use an earlier hearing in 2013 as a basis for challenging and changing the children's "distorted perceptions" of their family.

It also failed to promote contact between the children and their mother and failed to take any steps to preserve the children's connection to their family.

When the 14-year-old became ill with septicaemia, the ruling said, the authority "gave consent to medical procedures without any discussion with the mother or any application to the court for a best interest decision".

Mr Justice Keehan said there had been a "wholesale failure" to include their mother in their lives or in decision-making, which was "tragically but graphically" illustrated by events leading to the death of one of the children.

Mr Justice Keehan said the council's "actions, omissions and failures" had been spread over a period of more than eight years.

"The children have been utterly failed by this local authority," said the judge.

"In the whole of my professional life I have rarely encountered such egregious and long-standing failures by a local authority."

"The only matter which is clear to me is that it did not have the welfare [nor] best interests of the children at the heart of its decision-making," he added.

"This must call into question whether this local authority's children's services department is fit for purpose."

Three years ago Mr Justice Keehan complained of "dreadful failures" in the council's handling of children in its care, after considering two separate cases.

Council leader David Hitchiner apologised to the family on behalf of the council and said the ruling shows "previous steps" taken to improve children's services had "fallen short".

"I am deeply disturbed and saddened by this judgment," he said.

He said an extraordinary meeting of the council had been called to "agree swift and decisive action to improve these services".

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