"Health and care services overlooked the impact of `inter and multi-generational abuse` in a family where a toddler suddenly died, a serious case review has found."
"Poppi Worthington was 13-months-old when she died in December 2012. A judge found she was likely to have been sexually assaulted by her father. Her father has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing."
"The Cumbria Local Safeguarding Children Board review found Poppi’s family had a `complex history`. Her grandmother and mother had both been in care. Her mother was taken into care as a child due to fears of sexual exploitation. She was 27 when she became pregnant with Poppi and her twin, and had had four other children taken into care."
"The review found Poppi’s mother received no support for the trauma of her own experiences or the trauma of having her first child taken into care. Social care professionals worked with the mother immediately after a care order for her second child was discharged but they, as well as midwives and health visitors who worked with the mother, failed to properly consider the impact of her past, the review found."
"The report said: `There were no plans put in place for any long term support or intervention to ensure that MCN [the mother] and her children were safe and thriving despite the fact that there were several significant indicators that her capacity to parent may have been compromised by her own childhood experiences of trauma and abuse`."
"It added: `MCN had experienced significant historical traumas and loss which were, in themselves, clear indicators that her parenting may have been compromised and that her children could be at risk`."
"`There is no evidence that practitioners considered that MCN repeat pregnancies would compromise her ability to care for her children or that the repeat pregnancies were symptomatic of unresolved loss`."
