Bungling officials closed case 3 times

POPPY Widdison was regularly under the supervision of agencies during her short life.

Yet social workers officially ‘closed’ their files three times in the naive belief that the four-year-old was safe. A local authority serious case review has now revealed a string of failings, including:

Three weeks before Poppy’s birth in 2009 a meeting involving a midwife, health visitor and social worker discussed her future care due to her parents’ history of drug abuse and domestic violence.

The child suffered drug withdrawal symptoms after birth, and at 24 days she was discharged from hospital into the care of her paternal grandmother – but with her mother Michala Pyke and addict father under the same roof.

When Poppy returned to the family home social services ‘closed’ the case after nine months, unaware her parents were continuing to abuse drugs.

The child was 21 months old in 2011 when a ‘serious incident’ was reported to police by a relative. Her father Brendan Widdison waved a chainsaw in front of Pyke and Poppy after the mother said she planned to leave him. He was later jailed.

The case was closed again within three months as the ‘risk had been eliminated’, with Widdison no longer around.

Poppy was three when a relative referred the family to social services again in December 2012 because Pyke was smoking cannabis.

An NHS drug addict clinic reported Pyke’s failure to attend sessions and a social worker spoke to Poppy following concerns by a nursery. But after eight weeks social services closed the file.

Poppy failed to return to nursery after the school holidays, a week before her death in June 2013. A meeting was planned with Pyke at the school to deal with the issue but it never went ahead ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’.