Council silent over shortcomings of care in lead up to murder of a 11-year-old Derbyshire boy at the hands of his father

Michael Harrison, who murdered his 11-year-old son Mikey in 2022. Image from Derbyshire Police.Michael Harrison, who murdered his 11-year-old son Mikey in 2022. Image from Derbyshire Police.
Michael Harrison, who murdered his 11-year-old son Mikey in 2022. Image from Derbyshire Police.
A Derbyshire council has refused to answer for avoidable shortcomings and missed opportunities in the lead-up to the murder of an 11-year-old boy at the hands of his father.

Michael Harrison, 41, murdered his son, Mikey, in June 2022, in Heanor, leading to the father’s imprisonment for 21 and a half years.

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A Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review from the Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership detailed many red flags and missed opportunities and highlighted numerous areas of required learning and improvement to avoid further incidents.

This review comes five months after another report into the murder of 10-month-old Finley Boden, at the hands of his parents, Stephen Boden and Shannon Marsden, in Chesterfield in December 2020, leading to their imprisonment for 29 years and 27 years respectively.

It found that the county council’s social services and specifically safeguarding were “inadequate” in their care of Finley.

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The review into Mikey’s care found shortcomings from Derbyshire County Council’s early help service, which is now in the midst of significant budget cuts and planned job losses, cutting staff from 221.5 full-time roles to 132.5.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted the council for comment on the highlighted required improvements and lessons to learn, and what impact the authority expects budget cuts in early help to have on its ability to avoid further tragedies.

It has refused to provide a comment.

At an April council scrutiny meeting, two weeks after the Finley report, Alison Noble, the authority’s service director for early help and safeguarding, said the proposed early help cutbacks were “not without risk”.

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She had said the council was not solely responsible for the welfare of children and that it would have a key focus on those most in need, with continued close partnership with other organisations who also bear responsibility.

In response to a question from Cllr Nigel Gourlay about the ability to prevent “rare, tragic events” to be retained, Ms Noble said: “We are never going to be in a position to rescue and make sure that all adults and children in our communities are kept safe”.

She said the authority would work to “meet expectations”.

Later that month, Cllr Ruth George said: “Even the council’s own public health officers stated there’s an identified risk that ‘the upward trend of numbers of children requiring statutory intervention will continue due to lack of capacity in the system to address issues as they occur.

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“Our children’s social workers who deal with children at higher risk are already working flat out, and will struggle to deal with any higher workload from families who would previously have been supported by early help staff.”

The Mikey report found an early help assessor, visiting the Harrison home, was intimidated and manipulated to file a report showing them in a positive light, finding this visit should have been adjourned to retain independence from the parents.

It found that Mikey was not spoken to during the visit and that an opportunity to hear his voice was missed.

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The report found there were lessons to be learned about “hidden men”, like Harrison, staying off the radar and off records and then taking over and becoming “confrontational, challenging and using verbal threats” once people started to ask about Mikey’s wellbeing.

It said: “Professionals need to remain alert to the personality traits of coercive and controlling individuals, the secretive behaviours of their victims and the possibility of domestic abuse at home.”

It found that Mikey had been out of school and not contacted by council professionals for 21 months up to his murder.

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A spokesperson for NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, responding to our request for comment, said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of [Mikey].

“The NHS has worked with its partners in the Derby and Derbyshire Children Safeguarding Partnership on a progress review following the death of [Mikey]. It sets out a number of recommendations which we will work together to implement.”

They indicated improvements and progress since the incident had been compiled in a separate report.

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A briefing on the issues raised during the review has been shared with staff to “produce robust and effective early help assessments and plans”.

It details that a November 2023 Ofsted inspection of the county council’s children’s services rated the department “good” and found “threshold of risk, need and harm to children are understood and applied by experienced and knowledgeable workers from across the partnership”.

The progress report says elective home education processes, with Mikey taught from home from Covid lockdowns onwards, had been “strengthened” to ensure better support and monitoring of vulnerable children not in a usual school setting.

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It says health, council and police officials across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire – with Mikey moving between Derbyshire and Nottingham in the years up to his death – are reviewing plans to strengthen cross-border working.

It is following up on an aim, from the review, to “promote effective cross border working in situations specific to [Mikey’s] case when a child has died following an unwitnessed injury”.