Daniel Pelka Case Summary

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In March 2012 four-year-old Daniel Pelka was brutally murdered by his mother and her partner. As the shocking news hit the headlines it quickly became apparent that his death resulted from months of abuse and neglect. And the saddest part is, that his death could have been prevented. Failure in social care led to Daniel becoming “invisible” in a system that was in place to protect him. A serious case review found Daniel Pelka, was simply "not heard" at times and "no professional tried sufficiently hard enough" to talk to him. He was starved and beaten for months before he died in March 2012, at his Coventry home. The court heard Daniel saw a doctor in hospital for a broken arm, arrived at school with bruises and facial injuries, and was seen scavenging for food. A teaching assistant described him as a "bag of bones" and the trial…show more content…
3. A report or discharge summary should be written contemporaneously after an admittion of a child with an injury which is initially suspected to be non-accidental in nature, if the admission leads to discussions with Social Care or the Police 4. When there is an injury requiring joint paediatric and orthopaedic care, the paediatrician and orthopaedic surgeon should jointly review the child and discuss the injury, looking at the X Rays and digital photographs together. This review should be documented in the medical records. 5. Emergency department processes for routine questioning around domestic violence and abuse and the recording of this data should be embedded. The safeguarding adult lead intends to undertake an audit within the emergency department during June 2012 to test whether standard domestic violence and abuse identifying questions are being consistently asked. The report from this audit should be presented at safeguarding vulnerable adult and children committee and should inform the work plan of this

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