Two weeks ago I reported on the conclusion of Nonita’s inquest, you can read that post here. Nonita has stuck with me since. We’re told, repeatedly, to ask for help if you’re struggling with your mental health – Nonita did that. She raised her concerns with pretty much any adult who’d pay attention to her long enough to hear them. Some of those adults took action, but then the systems that should have kicked in to act on their concerns were too slow, too apathetic, too poorly structured and nothing happened.

So what of Nonita’s parents? Well Nonita was a looked after child, so her parent was a corporate one, the London Borough of Barnet. When I first wrote about Nonita’s inquest conclusion I approached their press office for a public statement, that I’d assumed was the bare minimum they’d have issued. You’ve heard the sort of thing a gazillion times, we’re sorry for failing Nonita, we’re doing all we can to learn from what happened and ensure it doesn’t happen again etc. This is how the conversation went:

27 May: Me to LBB Press Officer with responsibility for Adult Social Care

I’m a freelance journalist and I’m writing about Nonita Grabovskyte’s inquest last week. As Nonita’s corporate parent, have Barnet made a press statement please? 

I’ve tried to access your web pages about support for care leavers and they’re unavailable too. 

3 and a bit hours later the London Borough of Barnet Deputy Head of Communications – Strategy, Communications & Engagement responded saying:

We haven’t issued a press release but please do let me know if you have a question and we can provide a statement in response.

I did a bit of thinking, reflected on what was bothering me about what I’d heard and sent the following questions in a reply two days later:

29 May: Me to LBB Deputy Head of Communications

Thanks so much. My questions are as follows: 

1) What learning has LBB identified as a result of what happened to Nonita, and what changes have been made to protect other (autistic) young people and care leavers? 

2) As corporate parent have you reflected on whether an unregulated placement, which clearly was unable to provide the care Nonita required, was appropriate for her, given her extensive vulnerabilities, her autism and the agreed need for care and support into adulthood? 

3) Do your governance and commissioning processes check whether care providers, in this instance The Singhing Tree, are registered with Ofsted? Were they registered by the October 2023 deadline for all supported accommodation providers? In other words were the provider legally operating, and were LBB commissioning support, from a legally provided and regulated service at the time of Nonita’s death in December 2023?

4) Do LBB still place looked after children at The Singhing Tree? Are they aged 14-16? 16-18? Over 18? Any combination of the above [I appreciate due to small numbers you will not be able to give the precise number, I am interested in the range of ages provided for, commissioned by LBB]

I look forward to hearing from you in due course, 

The next day some pleasantries, I was thanked for my questions and told they’d respond in due course. I thanked them. Then I waited. Had a trip away to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and was surprised to see no response when I checked my email on 5 June. I chased, asking for a response to my questions sent a week earlier, as they had invited me to do.

Later that day they responded:

Apologies for the delay in replying.

We politely decline to respond to the questions, at this time. If we decide to issue a statement then I will, of course, be in touch.

Best regards

I responded acknowledging it felt very unusual that they would offer to answer questions and then politely decline to do so, but I would report that. Which is this post.

How can there be so little ownership? And so little scrutiny?

If it wasn’t for Katharine Bryson, Nonita’s Independent Visitor, who raised her concerns with Article 39 following Nonita’s death, would there have been any real scrutiny into what happened at all?

I didn’t see any national press coverage about Nonita’s inquest, in fact I couldn’t find any local coverage either. Why aren’t the citizens of Barnet, and all of us, up in arms at how failed this young person was?

I contacted The Singhing Tree, the supported accommodation that Barnet had placed Nonita in, 7 months before her death.

I’m a freelance journalist and I’m writing about Nonita Grabovskyte’s inquest last week. Have the Singhing Tree made a press statement please? 

I’d be grateful if you would provide answers to the following questions please:

1) What learning have you identified as a result of what happened to Nonita and what changes have been made to protect other autistic young people and care leavers in your care? 

2) Is the Singhing Tree registered with Ofsted as a supported accommodation provider?

3) What was the date of your registration? Were you registered by the 28 October 2023 deadline?

4) What category of supported accommodation are you registered to provide?

5) At the time of Nonita’s death (December 2023) were you registered to provide support for care leavers aged 18 and above?

I look forward to hearing from you. 

My request was met with silence.

For background for anyone not up to speed with the situation. At the time Nonita was placed at The Singhing Tree (May 2023) there was no requirement for supported accommodation to be registered. There was a deadline of 28 October 2023 when all supported accommodation providers should have registered with Ofsted, this was 2 months before Nonita’s death. Nonita died 2 weeks after her 18th birthday, at Christmas 2023.

So given Barnet were not answering the questions they invited me to ask, and Singhing Tree were also silent, I contacted Ofsted.

Could I please ask you to answer the following three questions for me please:

1) Is the Singhing Tree Harrow a registered supported accommodation provider?

2) What was the date of its registration?

3) What category of supported accommodation is it registered to provide?

The response was swift, and indicated that they are unregistered.

The Singhing Tree Harrow is not a registered supported accommodation provider but has submitted an application to register. We are currently in the process of completing all the relevant checks for registration.

Ofsted confirmed that they are *still* not a registered provider, over a year and a half past the deadline set by government to be registered. A lot of this delay is likely to sit with Ofsted though, as delays with the process are well documented. Ofsted offered further explanation:

The amount of time to register a provider can depend on a number of factors such as the scale or complexity of the provision, the volume of applications being processed by Ofsted at that time and how accurately and fully the application form has been completed. We are experiencing an exceptionally high rate of supported accommodation applications but will always endeavour to register them as quickly as possible as we are mindful of the need to ensure there are the right number and range of providers available to provide care and support for the young people who need it.

I went back seeking further clarification of what month the application to register was accepted by Ofsted.

We received a completed application on 31^st January 2024.

So this little teeny tiny bit of scrutiny confirms that The Singhing Tree had not applied to register before Nonita’s death. They were not registered by the October 2023 deadline, and that was not because of delays at Ofsted’s end. They had not submitted an application.

Which in turn suggests that maybe the reason London Borough of Barnet have been reluctant to answer the questions they invited me to ask is because that would require them to acknowledge that they were commissioning care for looked after children and vulnerable care leavers, from a provider who was operating illegally at the time of Nonita’s death.

The coroner is yet to issue his Prevention of Future Death report following the conclusion of Nonita’s inquest, but he has stated he will be making one. I hope that it covers how a (corporate) parent could have failed to detect the risks to their children, of being placed in wholly inappropriate and unregulated care, and how logically that indicates any systems they do have in place to audit and monitor the care provided are clearly also inadequate, and failing to safeguard the children in their care.

I’ll end by again acknowledging that without Katharine, Article 39 and Inquest, none of us might have heard of Nonita at all. Ciara Bartlam of Garden Court North Chambers and Serena Fasso and Blodina Rakovica of Wilsons Solicitors LLP represented Article 39 and Inquest pro bono at Nonita’s inquest.