Newcastle City Council: Serious Case Review into the death of Tequiilah Burke
16 week old Tequiilah's mother and partner were jailed for 8 years.
A serious case review into the death of 16 week old Tequiilah Burke is published today by the Newcastle Children’s Safeguarding Board. Tequillah died on 14th December 2013. Her mother Victoria Burke and her partner Paul Nicholson were both jailed for eight years for causing or allowing the death of a child in December 2015. The Board commissioned an independent Serious Case Review in May 2014 – the review could only be completed at the end of the criminal investigation. The report makes 11 recommendations for improvement in practice which could help reduce the risk of similar tragedies happening in the future. The review identifies that ‘cases involving child neglect require extra vigilance from agencies that are highly attuned to make immediate response to serious incidents, because the warning signs may not be so obvious. That said, even if practice had been better or different at certain times the outcome in this case may well have been the same.’ Chair of the Newcastle Safeguarding Board, Colin Morris, said:
“The people responsible for the tragic death of Tequiilah have been convicted by the courts and are now serving long prison sentences. It is important that we do look very closely at how the case was handled to see if there are lessons that should be learned that could reduce the risk of similar tragedies happening in the future. But the purpose of a serious case review is not to point blame at the professionals who were doing what they could to keep Tequiilah safe. In this case the review has identified some issues with the way procedures were applied and the way that agencies work together. It is important that lessons are learned from these recommendations and action is taken.” The Serious Case Review is published today on the Newcastle Safeguarding Board website http://www.nscb.org.uk/Learning%20from%20Practice Statement from NCC on the publication of the Serious Case Review Director of Children’s Services Ewen Weir, said:
“The death of sixteen week old Tequiilah Burke at the hands of those responsible for her care was a tragedy. The two individuals responsible for her death are now rightly serving long sentences behind bars. Social workers had a long involvement with Tequiilah’s family and had real concerns for her welfare. All the agencies involved did all they could to keep her safe within the resources available to them. The purpose of any serious case review is not to blame social workers for the despicable violent acts of others, but to identify things that could have been done better to reduce the risk of similar tragedies happening in the future. The review into Tequiilah’s death has shown that all the agencies were working together to try to keep her safe. But there were a number procedural issues which, taken together, could be seen as ‘missed opportunities’ to identify the risks facing Tequiilah, and to act on them. This is a matter of huge regret to everyone involved in this case. “We accept all the findings in the report. The important thing to do now is to make sure that we act on them to make sure that we reduce the risks of such tragedies happening again in the future.”