Revealed: How social services failed three neglected children

Jul 26 2009 by Jeanette Oldham

FOUR children who were allegedly abused or neglected died in Birmingham within just eight weeks – three of them well-known to social services.

In one case West Midlands Police urged social services to take a four year-old child into care after a fire at his home. But the department failed to act and three months later the youngster was killed.

An alarming 15 children have died of abuse or neglect in the city in the past four years, with at least eight known to social workers.

The shock revelations come just months after Birmingham’s children’s services department was given until January to improve or face direct Government intervention.

The three children who died between March and May last year known to Birmingham social services were two year-old Brandon Davies, four year-old Abdul Hakkam Fahad, and seven year-old Khyra Ishaq.

A fourth youngster, five month-old Kasey Hand, was not known to social services at the time of her death – although the previous death of another of her father’s children was recently re-investigated by West Midlands Police.

Serious case reviews have been carried out into all four deaths.

Among the most contentious is that of Abdul Hakkam Fahad.

Senior police sources have confirmed that West Midlands Police urged social services to take him into care following a fire at his parents’ home in Tyseley.

Although a relatively minor blaze, it had produced toxic smoke at a time when Abdul had been upstairs in the locked property.

Social services did not take the youngster into care and his parents were later convicted of child cruelty in relation to the fire.

Dad Dhanial Fahad was on police bail when he accidentally reversed his van into Abdul’s Bob the Builder tricycle on April 26 last year, killing him instantly.