'Process was difficult and quick' - Social services boss gives evidence at inquest into death of Walsall youngster
A senior social worker at Walsall Council has admitted the process over fostering a five year old who later died in hospital was 'difficult'
But Anna Wright, group manager for Children's Social Care said since Joshua Lee- Allcock's death on January 3 2023 procedures had been put in place to better manage individual cases
Joshua was being looked after by foster carers provided by Bromsgrove based agency Five Rivers Child Care on behalf of Walsall Council when he became ill over the Christmas period of 2022 and was admitted to Walsall Manor Hospital. then transferred to Birmingham Children's Hospital where he later died.
Giving evidence on the opening day of the re-opened inquest into his death at Black Country Coroners in Oldbury, Mrs Wright said meetings were held at the end of September about Joshua after concern about him missing health appointments and being off school.
She said: "We set in place a period of increased monitoring and visits amidst concerns about these issues and that no information on them was being shared by the family.
"We were concerned about week gaps between appointments but we didn't want to separate Joshua from his family and tried to get his father who lived separately from his mother to help.
"Joshua was fully in touch with his father but we were told he couldn't do any more to help in terms of having him live there in parallel with his mother caring for him.
"We asked his mother about the possibility of care workers coming in but she wasn't keen on that."
She said the process of foster care was set in place just before Christmas which proved a difficult period with reduced staffing levels and that they also faced the problem of a national shortage of foster carers.
When asked by coroner Zafar Siddique about whether it would have been better to wait until after the Christmas period to place Josh with a family she said they had serious misgivings about whether he would be better cared for at his mothers.
She said: "The process was quite quick but we felt it needed to be and the agency we work with in vetting and recruiting foster carers we have every confidence in otherwise we would not use them."
"Regular reviews are held but Joshua was in care for such a short period of time, though were monitoring his progress before he was taken to hospital.
"Since Joshua's tragic death though we have put extra procedures in place to safeguard youngsters who, like him, have significant complex needs and hold MDT (Multi Discipline Team) meetings on a regular basis, these can be called daily if necessary as well as better procedures to make sure foster carers are aware."
