The local authority has rejected claims made in a Sky documentary about its role in 18-year-old Nonita Grabovskyte taking her own life in December 2023 reports David Floyd

Barnet Council has “strongly refuted” claims of a cover up after a documentary highlighted a series of failures which a coroner said contributed to the death of a young woman in its care.

Sky News’s Unseen: A girl called Nonita, which was made available on Youtube yesterday, tells the story of Nonita Grabovskyte, who took her own life on 28th December 2023 having turned 18 earlier that month.

Whilst the council has been slammed for its failures in supporting Nonita, both charity campaigners and opposition councillors have also strongly criticised what they see as the authority’s failure to be open about what went wrong and its response to it.

Councillors are particularly concerned that they were not made aware of the issue until an email was sent out shortly before the documentary became available yesterday, despite the council being the “corporate parent” of all children in care.

Unseen: A girl called Nonita describes the work of charity Article 39 to ensure Nonita’s interests were represented at the inquest into her death, after they were contacted by her independent visitor, Kathryn Bryson, a volunteer mentor who was supporting Nonita in the months before she died.

Nonita had become a looked after child in the care of the council in May 2022 at the age of 16 and was placed in supported accommodation at The Singhing Tree in Harrow in May 2023.

The documentary explains that Nonita was placed in the accommodation, which is located a short walk from a railway line, despite agencies being aware that she had expressed an intention to die on train tracks.

Having previously attempted to take her own life in 2022, as she approached the age of 18, Nonita was discharged from all the services in place to support her, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), with no replacements put in place.

Having left her accommodation on 28th December, Nonita died shortly afterwards having been struck by a train.

“Total state abandonment”

At the inquest into Nonita’s death, the coroner cited an “absence of coordinated transition” as “she approached a dangerous crossroads in her life” as a contributing factor.

In the documentary, Deborah Coles, executive director of Inquest, another charity involved in making the programme, accuses Barnet Council of a cover up and describes Nonita’s experience as “total state abandonment”.

Ciara Bartlam, a barrister who represented Nonita’s interests at the inquest said: “The London Borough of Barnet, as her corporate parent, they needed to have done better. They’re effectively in charge of co–ordinating all the care and support they did not do that; they did not deliver.”

While none of the local public sector agencies involved in caring for Nonita put up a spokesperson for an interview, towards the end of the documentary, reporter Nick Martin talked to the education secretary Bridget Phillipson who told him that “Nonita was seriously failed on so many levels by so many people”.

Claims of a cover up in the documentary relate primarily to charity leaders’ view that Barnet Council failed to engage with the coroner’s inquest until directly invited to do so, however Barnet opposition councillors have today raised significant concerns about the lack of information provided to councillors following Nonita’s death.

The council’s Conservative opposition leader Peter Zinkin and deputy leader Lucy Wakeley have accused the administration of being afraid to expose its failings to public review and pledged to seek answers.

Reviews “conducted in secret”

Cllr Zinkin and Cllr Wakeley told Barnet Post: “Nonita’s death is a tragedy and we are horrified by the systemic failures that lead to her death. As councillors we are corporate parents for children in care and it is clear that the council has failed in their care of Nonita.

“The council has claimed that a review has been conducted into what could have been done differently and have worked to implement learnings from that review. As this review had been conducted in secret and not gone to the scrutiny committees or to council, we cannot comment on how effective these reviews are as the cabinet members and officers decided to deal with it in complete secrecy. This is a completely unacceptable state of affairs.

“Over the coming weeks and months we will be working to get answers to why this was not brought to councillors attention.”

Leader “informed and briefed”

To clarify whether any elected members had previously known about the situation, Barnet Post asked Barnet’s Labour group when council leader Barry Rawlings and cabinet member for families Pauline Coakley-Webb had been made aware of Nonita’s death and what their response had been. We also asked why the rest of the borough’s councillors had apparently not been informed of the matter until yesterday.

A Barnet Labour group spokesperson said: “Cllrs Rawlings and Coakley-Webb were informed of the tragic death of a care experienced young person at the time of the incident, but few details were then available as the matter was under investigation. The Corporate Parenting Advisory Panel, which includes cross-party members, was also informed a short while later at their meeting on 10 January 2024.

“The then director of children’s services discussed the case with Cllr Coakley-Webb as the inquest progressed in May 2025. Both Cllrs Rawlings and Coakley-Webb were then briefed shortly after the outcome of the Inquest and the Coroners’ report, and in advance of the Sky News documentary.

“Both were informed and briefed in their statutory roles.

“Barnet Council has a ‘Good’ OFSTED rating and part of the learning following Nonita’s tragic death includes ensuring wider elected member awareness at the appropriate time.

“All councillors were written to following the Sky News documentary, and further briefings will take place to ensure councillors as corporate parents are aware of the lessons learned and the actions that have been implemented.

“Our sympathies continue to be with the family, friends and people who knew and loved Nonita.”

Council “worked in a spirit of openness and accountability”

Barnet Post asked Barnet Council a series of questions related to Nonita’s placement at The Singhing Tree and the lessons learnt following her death.

The council has requested more time to provide answers to the more detailed questions; however in response to the question about lessons learned, a spokesperson said: “Our sympathies are with Nonita’s family, friends, and all those who knew and loved her. Nonita came into the care of Barnet Council in May 2022, and colleagues are devastated by her tragic death.

“As her corporate parent, Barnet Council worked in a spirit of openness and accountability with our multi-agency partners to review what we could have done differently and implement any systemic learning. Barnet Council was engaged in the inquest and offered full and frank disclosure to the Coroner as part of that process.

“Alongside our partners, we have undertaken two multi-agency reviews of Nonita’s tragic death: once before the inquest to identify any gaps in our ways of working and to implement practice improvements, and a further one following the Coroner’s findings to address further learning that was identified during that detailed process.

“The initial learning review and subsequent actions were provided to the Coroner who has confirmed he is satisfied this captured all relevant areas of concern and that he does not consider it necessary for him to issue a report on prevention of future deaths.

“Barnet Council, along with all partner organisations involved in Nonita’s life, chose not to take part in the Sky News documentary. Nonita’s family also declined to participate.

“The suggestion that Barnet Council has been involved in a “cover up” is strongly refuted and at no point was any concern raised about Barnet Council not having been entirely transparent with all partners, including the Coroner, throughout this process.”

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