A review carried out into two attempted suicides by teenage girls found problems with “too many interventions” and “system” issues.
Care plans put in place as part of a service in Sefton were “detrimental” and caused “emotional distress”. There were also issues with joint working with social services not being “always as strong as it needs to be.”
The comments came from a review following suicide attempts by the girls, aged 13 and 15, earlier this year.
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They each ended up spending time in hospital as a result of overdose, according to a Youth Justice Service update to Sefton Council published last week. The service recently replaced the youth offending team and is part of an integrated approach with Sefton Council’s children’s services.
According to the report, the 13 year-old-girl had impending Youth Justice Service (YJS) matters at the time of her overdose. She had “adverse childhood experiences” with a background of people around her attempting suicide. In addition, other aspects of her situation affected her ability to engage with agencies.
In the case of the 15-year-old-girl, who was on a nine month referral order with the YSJ at the time of her overdose, the report states: “The girl and her family had an extensive history with different services due to a combination of issues including drug and alcohol misuse use within the family, the child’s sexual activity from a young age, poor education, self harm episodes and domestic abuse.”
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Care proceedings were also taking place for the child, which had not been resolved, meaning her home situation was left unsettled.
According to the review, information sharing and joint working between the Youth Justice Service and Children’s Social Care was “not always as strong as it needs to be.”
One of the girls was left with “adverse reactions and emotional distress” after “detrimental” plans were put in place for her care.
The review also identified “‘system’ issues” related to mental health support. One of the issues, according to the report was the accessibility of appointments for the child. For one of the children there was also a long standing history of education issues at play.
On occasion there were “too many interventions” after issues were left late to be dealt with, according to the report. Another cause of concern was the the number of different professionals dealing with each of the children.
The report recommended in future a “formal process” of information sharing following incidents of attempted suicide or serious self harm.
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