Ministers today demanded a new investigation into the death of a four-year-old boy starved to death by his mother — after a serious case review found the tragedy “could not have been predicted”.
Mother-of-eight Amanda Hutton, 43, was jailed for 15 years last month after she was found guilty of the manslaughter of her son Hamzah Khan, whose decomposed body was found in a cot at their home in Bradford.
Professor Nick Frost, who chairs the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board, said: “The SCR is very clear Hamzah’s death could not have been predicted but finds that systems, many of them national, let Hamzah down both before and following his death.”
The serious case review was immediately branded a “rubbish document” by a Department for Education source, who added it was “deeply worrying” that the Bradford authorities had not found the SCR to be inadequate.
Prof Frost said he was satisfied “each agency is responding adequately” to protect vulnerable children. He added: “No child should go through what
Hamzah experienced. I am satisfied systems are in place that minimise the chance of a situation such as this ever being repeated in Bradford.”
But children’s minister Edward Timpson wrote to him today listing “missed opportunities” to protect children in Hutton’s home. They included whether proper assessments were made when one of Hamzah’s siblings spoke to police about domestic violence — and was referred to social services then returned home.
One was hurt running away from his father and another was remanded by magistrates and placed with foster carers for two nights.
The family was known to all the main agencies and Hutton had a history of failing to co-operate with services that could have helped her.
