Toddler drowned in garden bin after ‘gross failure’ from council and carer

A mum has is searching for answers after her two-year-old daughter drowned in a garden bin while being looked after by a carer.

Balikis Adeoye, 37, had asked social services at Newham Council to help find a foster placement for her daughter, Mazeedat, so she could help her son as he went through heart surgery.

The mum of two says she had no family or support network, so foster care was her only hope – but an inquest has heard that social workers didn’t arrange a placement and instead advised Balikis to ‘find support’.

Balikis found a carer, who she did not know, as a last resort to help watch Mazeedat while she was in hospital.

But on January 29, 2022, the day Balikis was set to return home with her son, Mazeedat went missing from the home in Dagenham where she had been staying with the carer.

Her body was found at the bottom of a bin in the garden. Mazeedat had drowned in just nine centimetres of water.

Mazeedat was found to have died due to ‘inadequate supervision’ in the garden, as well as ‘gross failure’ from the council and her carer.

Balikis moved to the UK from Nigeria in March 2021, and had been referred to Newham Council four months before her daughter’s death because she and Mazeedat had no place to live.

Balikis was unable to access public funds because she was an ‘overstayer’ after she separated from her British partner, but the council still had a duty to provide her family with support, the inquest heard.

In September 2021, after her son, who is British, was diagnosed with a hole in his heart, Balikis had asked social services at Newham Council to help find a foster placement for her daughter so she could stay with her son when he had surgery.

East London Coroner’s Court heard the council did not help find a foster placement, with one social worker telling Balikis she had two children and needed to ‘provide an equal level of support’.

Left without options, Balikis left her daughter with an acquaintance while she accompanied her son for four days in the hospital.

Mazeedat was pronounced dead shortly after she went missing.

Balikis said: ‘At the time she died, Mazeedat was staying with people I didn’t know or trust well enough. However, I felt that I had no choice but to leave her in their care.

‘Faced with the alternative of leaving my other child, a three-month-old baby alone in hospital to recover from heart surgery, this was no choice at all. I consistently asked for help from social services, but none was arranged.’

Coroner Graeme Irvine said Balikis took ‘significant efforts’ to secure state help for childcare, but local child services ‘failed’ to support Mazeedat.

If a placement had been arranged her death would probably have been avoided, the coroner found.

The coroner also found a ‘culture of hostility’ towards families existed in the council’s No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) team.

Management had allowed a ‘culture of impunity’ where staff felt capable of ‘bullying’ clients and Balikis was treated in a ‘dehumanising’ way.

Balikis said she’s struggled to ‘find the words’ to describe the heartbreak after Mazeedat’s death.

She added: ‘I’ll always keep Mazeedat close to my heart and will forever cherish the short but precious years we had together.

‘I just hope that by speaking out other families facing the same situation don’t have to experience the same pain I will always live with.”‘

Newham Council said: ‘We were devastated by Mazeedat’s tragic death. Our thoughts remain with her family and loved ones. After the terrible accident which led to her death in January 2022 we undertook an investigation into our role and since that time our social work practice and approach has been overhauled – a change, which has since been recognised by Ofsted who now rate our services as ‘Good’.

‘We will very carefully consider the inquest findings, and will comply with the request from the coroner to provide further information within the next 56 days.’

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