Grieving mum slams government's response to coroner's report of her autistic son's death

A mum has slammed the government's response to a coroner's report - claiming it fails her autistic son who died after falling from a cliff.

Patricia Alban's son Sammy Alban-Stanley, 13, fell from cliffs at Ramsgate, Kent in April 2020 after climbing over the railings.

Emergency services were called and he was flown to King’s College Hospital, London, but he died of his injuries four days later.

His autism and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) meant he lacked a sense of danger and would put himself in harmful scenarios which ultimately resulted in his death.

Patricia, 56, says she had inadequate support with looking after him when he was alive.

After his inquest, the coroner published a Prevention of Future Deaths report to avoid similar tragedies occurring.

But in response, the government has instead blamed the pandemic for the lack of care he received.

Kelly Tolhurst, Minister of State for Schools and Childhood, said: "The situation was unprecedented and presented new and unfamiliar demands on local authorities, schools and other services.

"The department and local authorities developed and improved processes throughout the response to the pandemic."

But Patricia said this ignores the suggestion made by the coroner that more practical and social support care should be available to families dealing with rare diseases of the brain.

Patricia, from Kent, said: “Losing Sammy is the most excruciating, unrelenting pain, impossible to put into words.

“To think that the coroner’s thoughtful and forensically researched Prevention of Future Deaths Report would mean other parents and children avoid going through the same agony gave me hope. Instead the coroner’s suggestions have not only been ignored but refuted."

Sammy was autistic and lived with PWS, a rare genetic condition that causes physical symptoms, learning difficulties and behavioural problems.

For Sammy this included high-risk behaviour that would result in self-harm and life risking incidents.

Patricia said neither Kent County Council (KCC) nor the mental health service, North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), were willing to offer any effective ongoing support with Sammy.

The only option left to Patricia for help with Sammy’s behavioural episodes was to call the police.

There were over 29 police contacts and at least 13 referrals made by the police to KCC.

On two occasions Sammy was twice detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act due to the high risk he posed to himself.

And yet Patricia could not gain practical support at home to manage the episodes.

At Sammy’s inquest assistant coroner Catherine Wood said there was a clear failure in what was provided by Kent County Council to Sammy’s family to help with his care.

Patricia said: "Ministers and authorities blamed the pandemic, they dared to cite children’s and human rights legislation when Sammy’s rights had been so flagrantly breached.

“The Minister for Children’s Social Care and Special Educational Needs erroneously congratulated Kent County Council on an outstanding Ofsted Report when the county was found to have failed disabled children twice by that organisation.

“To me this lack of responsibility and inaction felt like my beautiful boy, who had given so much joy to the world, has died again.

“Nothing has changed because the coroner cannot force ministers to take the action she strongly advises.

"The money spent on Sammy’s inquest could have kept him safe and well into adulthood.

"Knowing Sammy’s life means nothing to them even after his death and that other children’s lives are still at risk is truly unbearable.”

Leigh Day solicitor Anna Moore who represents Patricia, added: “Despite the coroner finding significant failings in Sammy’s care at the hands of both Kent County Council and the Trust, the responses to her Prevention of Future death reports will provide little comfort to Patricia and others living in Kent that things are changing for the better.

“The responses fail to consider the key issues Sammy was facing and simply point to difficulties caused by the pandemic, when the failings started long before then.

"Sadly instead of getting to grips with the clear issues of concern and setting out clear plans to remedy the failings, the responses read more like a list of accomplishments, many of which were simply irrelevant to the issues in this case.

“Recipients of Prevention of Future Death reports have a duty to respond to them but there is no mechanism to oversee the adequacy of responses or monitor whether change is actually happening.

"Urgent reform to the system is needed.”