A coroner cited a series of council failings as contributing factors in the 18-year-old’s death, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Council has defended a report that makes “no mention” of young people’s deaths after opposition councillors called for it to be withdrawn.

John Anthony, Barnet’s director of children’s services, said providing an addendum instead was the “right” approach given the “timing of the case in question”.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday (18th) councillors discussed the death of Nonita Grabovskyte, who died in December 2023. Nonita, along with two other young people, died having previously been in the care of the council.

However, their deaths were not discussed in the council’s latest corporate parent report and councillors only became aware of the cases this month when Sky News aired a documentary.

At the inquest for Nonita’s death, in May this year, the coroner cited a series of council failings as contributing factors.

Anne Clarke, cabinet member for culture and leisure, arts and sport, asked whether it was “normal practice” to include the details of such cases.

Anthony responded to say the council would not normally provide “that level of detail and specificity around a child’s death”.

He said: “First of all it [the annual corporate parent report] is a celebration of children’s achievement and attainment over that period of time.

“If you use the analogy of a child’s school report, you would definitely want to highlight the positives, the developmental points […] you’d have some generic objectives of how to improve practice and how to improve outcomes, but it’s unlikely you’d have that specificity around the details of a tragic death.”

Anthony added that “given the circumstances and timing of the case in question” releasing an addendum is the “right approach” and going into detail in the report would not have been “appropriate” as it wouldn’t have been based on “full knowledge”.

Anthony said: “The case was still on going, there was still learning to be had, so I think the decision to go ahead with the report in the format it was in makes sense.”

Pauline Coakley-Webb, cabinet member for family-friendly Barnet, explained how she learnt about Nonita’s case.

Cllr Coakley-Webb said: “In this particular case we didn’t know if this was an accident or intentional and it would have to go through the process of the coroner and an inquest, which has just happened, in the last two weeks [of October] just gone.

“It’s taken that length of time for everything to happen and to take place and it would have been myself and the leader that would have been informed at that time.”

In terms of improvements, Anthony explained the council needed to “strengthen” its transition process, start this as early as possible, and have plans to start this work with children in care as young as 14.

The council was also going to “make sure” practitioners had the “right skill and language to explain the transition pathways to a number of complex children using language that makes sense to those children”.

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else. £84 annual supporters get a print copy by post and a digital copy of each month's before anyone else.