Pubdate: Tue, 05 Oct 1999
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: Guardian Media Group 1999
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Author: David Brindle, Social Services Correspondent

DRUG DEATH GIRL SHUTTLED AMONG CARERS

A 13-year-old girl who died of methadone poisoning after drifting into
a sordid world of drugs and prostitution had been shuttled among
assorted carers 68 times in the course of her brief life, an inquiry
yesterday revealed.

Aliyah Ismail, who was found dead in a north London bedsit, had been
failed by 10 state agencies that were supposed to have been helping
her, the inquiry concluded.

More than 230 professionals had at one stage or another been working
with Aliyah and her family. Yet she was allowed to slip through the
net amid confusion even about what her name was.

There were undoubtedly "significant shortcomings in inter-agency
working and communication", according to Maddie Blackburn, a child
welfare lawyer who carried out the inquiry.

Aliyah, the child of a Jordanian father and Irish mother, was the
subject of child protection concerns before she was five. Her parents
had separated shortly after her birth and she spent periods living
with each, with other relatives and friends and - on five occasions,
each at the parents' request - in the care of Harrow council, north
London.

Several times she spent periods overseas with her father, making her
school attendance erratic and breaking the continuity of welfare
services being provided her.

In the final year of her life, Aliyah frequently went missing from her
parents' homes or from the children's and foster homes. She was
evasive about where she went, but from March last year she began to
tell various professionals that she had suffered abuse.

"There was growing evidence that she was being abused and exploited
through prostitution and was coming under the influence of drugs and
alcohol," the report said.

At the time of her death last October, Aliyah had been put into
Harrow's care and had for three weeks been staying at a specialist
residential unit for girls. It had been decided the previous month to
apply for an order to place her in secure accommodation, but no action
was taken until after she went missing for the last time.

Ms Blackburn said that "it is acknowledged that the local authority's
response was not sufficiently robust or timely, and there are lessons
to be learned".

The report accepted that dealing with troubled adolescents was rarely
easy. In particular, it said, there were difficult issues involved in
use of confidential information - Aliyah had been treated for sexually
transmitted diseases - and in detaining young people in secure units
when they were the victim of crime and abuse.

However, one of the report's key 18 recommendations was that better
ways must be found to collate and analyse information held by agencies
ranging from hospitals to the police.

Aliyah was known by three different surnames and her names were also
spelled in a variety of ways. As a result, the report said, not only
was exchange of information patchy but some agencies involved were
later found to have more than one file on the girl.

Other recommendations included agencies listening more when children
say they have been abused; more assertive joint action by agencies
when concerns have been raised; and a proposal that the government
consider use of "specialised contained placements" for certain teenage
girls.

A department of health spokeswoman said consideration was being given
to the report's findings "and whether action is required".

Harrow has suspended two staff members, pending a disciplinary
investigation. Mary Ney, the council's social services director,
admitted that procedures had not been followed in Aliyah's case.

"There was an option to fast-track the process of obtaining a secure
accommodation order, but this did not happen," Ms Ney said.

Aliyah's parents were each offered the opportunity of contributing to,
or commenting on, the inquiry. Neither took up the invitation.

- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek Rea