VCF calls for full disclosure of serious case reviews to be extended to other families

The Victoria Climbié Foundation (VCF) today welcomes the full publication of the serious case review into the death of Khyra Ishaq in Birmingham.

Full disclosure of this report gives the authorities and all agencies concerned, a true opportunity to understand what went wrong and ensure that such mistakes are not repeated.

The release of this report comes after years of campaigning by VCF for families, social workers and staff across all agencies, to be able to see the full report into how children such as Khyra came to die.

At the same time as we welcome full disclosure in this case, we repeat our call for full disclosure of the serious case review into the deaths of Antoine and Keniece Ogunkoya. It was their tragic deaths at the hands of their mentally ill mother in 2007 in Hackney that highlighted the need for full disclosure to take place.

To this day, the Ogunkoya family is not freely able to access the serious case report, nor to divulge the failings detailed in that report. Their grief, and the opportunity for the authorities to learn from their mistakes, remains hidden because the timing of the deaths of their children did not fit within the government’s considerations of which cases should be fully disclosed.

Mor Dioum, Director of VCF said:

“Khyra’s death is another tragic example of how agencies responsible for protecting children can be misdirected when considering the welfare of a child. It is clear that there were numerous occasions where social workers and the agencies involved could and should have spotted and intervened to help Khyra much, much earlier.

We hope that the release of the serious case review will ensure that agencies can now truly learn the lessons in this tragic case and ensure that preventable deaths do not occur. We need to learn lessons from SCRs so that children do not die in vain.

The release of this report will be a cathartic experience for all who have been involved and following this case. We hope that the opportunity for the family to achieve closure in this case will be extended to other families such as the Ogunkoya’s who are still seeking full disclosure of the report into their children’s deaths.”