Tragic schoolboy Hakeem Hussain told teachers he was "1,000% scared" by life with his drug addict mother a year before he died alone and gasping for breath in the garden of their squalid home.
Hakeem, who had severe asthma, suffered horrifying neglect by Laura Heath, who was lying in a heroin-induced sleep as her son died aged just seven. She is serving a 20-year jail sentence for manslaughter and child cruelty.
Hakeem's desperate attempts to get help are one of the most harrowing aspects of a serious case review into his life and death, reported by the Birmingham Mail. At the age of just six, the boy, identified as "gifted and talented" when he first went to school, told teachers: "I am 5% happy, 100% angry and 1,000% scared."
The report of the review, ordered by Birmingham Safeguarding Children Panel, said: "The school did their level best to try and obtain help for Hakeem." But there was no effective intervention by the authorities to save him.
Hakeem also told his teachers:
- "I don't wash regularly as there is no money for gas and electric."
- "I have not had any dinner, I sometimes have breakfast, sometimes lunch, but not during Saturdays and Sundays."
- "My mum sleeps all day, and no one takes me to school."
- "I take care of myself while mum is asleep."
- One day he said his mother could not bring him to school as she was asleep in the dog basket.
He was a bright, loving boy who loved to dance. And the review reveals a shocking level of missed opportunities to save him from the curse of being born to a drug addicted, neglectful mother.
The review states: "It is clear from undertaking this Serious Case Review that very few people had any idea what Hakeem’s true daily lived experience was like, and that is a sad reflection considering the number of people who had contact with Hakeem and his family over the two-year time period of this review.
"If anyone was trying to tell what the reality of life was like for him, that was Hakeem. From the school records alone, he described vividly what was happening to him and how scared he was and what loss he had suffered."
It goes on: "In the last years of his life, his father had been sent to prison, his dog, of which he was very fond, and paternal grandmother had died, his mother was repeatedly not taking him to school, and he was observed, as discussed, to be tired, hungry and unkempt. The school did their level best to try and obtain help for Hakeem."
Penny Thompson, the independent chair of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership who ordered the review, said: "It is horrendous that Hakeem's unhappiness and fear of repeated asthma attacks, some of which required hospital admissions, and the marked reduction in his attendance and performance at school, did not trigger more effective intervention."
Laura Heath, 40, of no fixed address but formerly of Nechells, Birmingham, was jailed for 20 years at Coventry Crown Court in April after a jury found her guilty of gross negligence manslaughter. She had admitted four counts of child cruelty.
She had woefully mismanaged his serious asthma for months. She even converted his prescription inhalers into devices to smoke crack cocaine. On the night of his death he went alone into the garden, in the cold, gasping for air.
Jenny Myers, the independent investigator who conducted the inquiry, reviewed evidence and conducted interviews with a range of people, including Hakeem's mother inside prison. She also heard from the agencies involved with the family, including Birmingham Children’s Social Care (now provided by Birmingham Children’s Trust), Birmingham City Council Education, Birmingham South Central NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) (now called NHS Birmingham & Solihull), drugs support agency Change Grow Live (CGL), and West Midlands Police.
She said Hakeem's own words were set out by the school, who, in January 2017, submitted a Request for Support, a process which had replaced the previous Multi Agency Referral Forms. The form outlined very clearly details of neglect, stating that Hakeem had poor attendance but when in school was seen to be tired and unkempt, have sad sunken eyes, no breakfast or lunch, and was often late.
However, the request for support was escalated through the academy trust's national safeguarding advisor - "closer links to the Education Safeguarding provision within Birmingham would have brought about a more co-ordinated response to this case," the review report stated.
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