Brandon reports dismissed as whitewash

The reports claim the killing of the 23-month-old boy by his prostitute mother's drug-addict boyfriend could not have been predicted by anyone involved from social work, health and police services.

They conclude that, despite concerns raised by the boy's grandparents about the man who was to kill him, there was "little opportunity" to prevent the toddler's violent death.

Brandon was 17 days short of his third birthday when he died from a ruptured intestine after being assaulted by Robert Cunningham, 23, at the Dundee flat he shared with the toddler's mother, Heather Boyd.

He was killed only two days before a child protection conference was due to decide on his future care and only three weeks after an "initial referral discussion" about his case, after Cunningham moved in to the flat.

The reports – by social work consultant Jimmy Hawthorn and Peter Wilson, the former chief constable of Fife – reveal that Brandon was first identified as a "cause for concern" when he was only three months old.

And they point to a series of meetings involving social work and health service staff, where information was not shared or passed on to the appropriate authorities and "weaknesses" in inter-agency work and practice.

Mr Hawthorn, who conducted the "significant case review" into Brandon's death, said: "I genuinely believe there was little opportunity for the agencies to make a difference. Cunningham did not have any convictions for violence and/or violence against children. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But nobody gets trained in it in health, social work or police training."

But Allan Petrie, a former Dundee councillor and a spokesman for the RealJustice 4 Brandon campaign, claimed the two reports were a "whitewash".

Mr Petrie, who said he was speaking on behalf of Brandon's father, John Muir, said it was clear from the report that systemic failures in the city's social work department were to blame and that the "buck stopped" with social work director Alan Baird.

He said: "No-one can predict any death. But what this shows is that this child was in danger and that these concerns were passed up the line and then it stopped.

"There was a lack of leadership. Alan Baird was the leader who was lacking leadership qualities throughout. I think he should consider his position.

"Frontline social service and health workers did their jobs and passed their concerns on up the ladder but it seems to have hit a bottleneck.

"And the only way there could have been bottleneck was if there was a lack of resources to deal with the amount of cases coming forward.

He added: "An 'urgent case' conference was pencilled in for three weeks' time. But surely urgent means 48 hours at the most. You shouldn't have to wait three weeks for urgent meetings."

But Mr Baird ruled out resigning. He said: "I agree it (Brandon's death] could not have been predicted. I think any talk about whether it could have been prevented is entirely speculation.

"I don't think with the information we had available that we could have made any other decision. The staff responded very quickly at the point when Heather Boyd and Robert Cunningham moved in together.

"And I think the report makes it very clear that there were a number of actions taken to try and move towards a position that dealt more formally with the arrangements in which they were living."

Mr Baird claimed his staff had been "exonerated" by the reports.

He said: "Robert Cunningham is responsible for Brandon Muir's death. He was convicted of culpable homicide. What we need to do is to continue working very, very hard to ensure that there are not other vulnerable children at risk in the city."

In his report, Mr Hawthorn said the significant case review had concluded that there was little opportunity to prevent the fatal assault on Brandon

He went on: "From my examination of all the relevant records in this tragic case, and through interviews of almost 50 members of staff, I have concluded that, while the assault which we now know took place on Brandon and which proved to be fatal could not have been anticipated, there were weaknesses in both inter-agency working and in practice at that time."

Adam Ingram, the Scottish children's minister, pledged that the two reports would be sent to all of Scotland's child protection committees to ensure that the recommendations and lessons learned were shared with all child protection agencies. He said all national recommendations from the reports would be taken forward as part of a major review of child protection guidance due next year.

He added: "I am, meanwhile, aware that there have been some calls for the Scottish Government to legislate to ensure that more children are taken into care, and sooner, to prevent them being put at risk.

"More children are going into care. However, given the complex nature of family relationships and circumstances, legislating for every eventuality would be an impossible task.

"That's why we believe that such decisions must be made by front-line professionals, based on all the circumstances of an individual case and with the overriding factor being to ensure the best interests and welfare of the child."

But Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, described yesterday's reports as a "damning indictment" of the current system.

He said: "It's clear from the report that children's services in Dundee acted within their powers and resources, but that the chaotic lives of Brandon Muir and those around him were not deemed serious enough by the system to take more formal action before it was too late."

What the report calls for to improve protection

THE reports make a total of 29 recommendations to help tighten up procedures in dealing with child protection cases and call for action to be taken by both social work and health services and the police.

Their recommendations include calls for:

Improvements in the recording and sharing of information between agencies. Where any agency becomes aware of an adult causing concern who moves to a household with children, such information must be shared across all relevant agencies involved with the children.

Social work must ensure that adults who cause concern are cross-referenced with any known contacts and recorded on the social work database.

Full background checks should be carried out on all household members in child protection cases.

An Initial Referral Discussion (IRD) should be considered where there is a "cluster of concerns" in relation to child care and domestic violence.

Where internal social work checks indicate that other colleagues have relevant information to share, they should be invited to the IRD, or if unavailable their views sought.

NHS Tayside should satisfy themselves about the effectiveness of health visiting teams in delivering a quality of service in child protection.

The Scottish Government has also announced that a new national child protection co-ordinator is to be appointed to work with the country's 30 child protection committees to drive up standards of care and support for vulnerable children.

The expert will be tasked with working with local authorities to implement and embed best practice on child protection, building stronger local professional networks and improving joint working between areas.

Toddler was three months old when first flagged as 'cause for concern'

BRANDON Muir was only three months old when he was first identified as a "cause for concern" and referred to the social work department at Dundee City Council, the reports revealed.

And in the 20 months leading up to his brutal death at the hands of Robert Cunningham, his mother Heather Boyd, a drug-addicted prostitute, was seen by social work staff and health visitors on an almost regular basis. But at no time were there "red lights or alarms" about the toddler's care. They were unaware of her drug abuse or involvement in the sex trade.

According to the report the initial "cause for concern" was passed to the social worker already allocated to carry out an assessment report on Brandon's older sister.

At the time, the Children's Reporter also requested a health visitor's report and a report was sent to the Scottish Children's Reporters Administration on 14 June, 2006, detailing concerns about "poor clinic attendance, poor interaction" and the low intelligence of Brandon's mother and a history of two falls involving his sister in infancy.

Social work staff involvement with the family ended for a brief period but the family continued to be seen by health visiting staff.

And in February 2008, Brandon's grandparents raised concerns with social workers about Boyd's relationship with Cunningham. He had moved in to the family home. Cunningham was known to the authorities through his alleged involvement in violence towards a previous partner.

Boyd and Cunningham were seen by social workers who were concerned about Boyd's change in attitude and a meeting was held which also involved the police and a health visitor.

While those at the meeting had "serious concerns" about the situation, "there were no red lights or alarms around this case", according to the report. The meeting concluded that there should be an urgent case conference. The conference was scheduled for 18 March – two days after Brandon was killed.

Dental role

DENTISTS could play a front-line role in spotting child abuse cases, according to experts.

Evidence shows that children who suffer abuse have more untreated problems with their teeth than other youngsters.

And researchers urged dentists to be on red alert for any tell-tale signs of abuse or neglect when they carry out checks on youngsters' teeth.

They should then refer any suspected cases to child protection experts.

Although they are given training in the area, some are still struggling to put what they learn into practice when they come across a child they suspect has been abused, according to Dr Peter Sidebotham from the University of Warwick.

He said a number of dentists "lack confidence" in dealing with child abuse and neglect cases.

Dr Sidebotham wrote a policy document – the first of its kind in Europe – on dental neglect in children for the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry.