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14
Mar 2023
Family ‘deprived of answers’ into Harrogate boy’s homeless hostel death
Kate Roux pictured with her son Ben.
The family of a 16-year-old Harrogate schoolboy who died in a homeless hostel say they have been “deprived of answers” after an inquest into his death concluded.
Benjamin Nelson-Roux, a former student at St Aidan’s Church of England High School, died in Harrogate on April 8, 2020.
He was found dead at a Harrogate Borough Council-run homeless hostel on Robert Street where he had been living since February that year.
A coroner concluded yesterday that the 16-year-old’s death was “unascertained”. A full post-mortem was not carried out due to the covid pandemic.
In a statement outside the coroner’s office in Northallerton, Kate Roux, Ben’s mother, said it had deprived the family of answers.
She said:
“We will never know the medical cause of Ben’s death, because no invasive post-mortem was carried out.
“The coroner’s service has deprived us of the opportunity for answers.
“We do know that he lived in fear, pain and self-loathing for the last year of his life. Although we begged for help, no meaningful support or even basic safeguarding was put in place.
“We know that this is still happening to children and families in the UK and at the time of giving evidence no significant changes have been made to practices or provision by the agencies involved.”
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Ben was placed in the hostel on Robert Street in February 2020 until alternative accommodation was found.
However, the inquest heard concerns from social workers and other agencies that the hostel was not suitable for him due to him being at risk of exploitation.
Following his conclusion at a hearing in Northallerton, Jon Heath, senior coroner for North Yorkshire, issued a prevention of future deaths report.
Mr Heath said he would to write to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to raise concern over the lack of under-18s facilities for drug misuse.
He also intended to write to North Yorkshire County Council to raise concern over why alternative accommodation was not sought outside of the county.
In response to the outcome of the inquest, Stuart Parsons, the county council’s corporate director of children and young people’s services, said:
“Our heartfelt sympathies remain with Ben’s family, and his loss has been extremely distressing for everyone involved in this tragic case.
“Ben received coordinated support involving children’s services, police, housing, a youth justice drug and substance misuse worker, and health and mental health professionals, involving a psychologist and a professor in forensic psychiatry.
“Ben received support with his drug use prior to and during his time in the hostel. The coroner noted that social workers highlighted drugs misuse support as a priority need for Ben and that he developed a strong, open relationship with the substance misuse officer.
“The coroner found that the accommodation did not contribute to Ben’s death. It was recognised that the hostel was a temporary last resort after a county wide search failed to find anything more suitable. By that point, Covid restrictions meant that the potential for other accommodation was removed. Alternative accommodation had been provided to Ben, but this was not successful.
“Ben was never in the care of North Yorkshire County Council. The coroner found that his social worker correctly decided through regular contact with Ben that he had capacity and at 16 years old was able to refuse to come into local authority care. The coroner concluded that the county council was not avoiding him being in their care and, in fact, would have welcomed it.
“Social workers had involved the correct parties in supporting Ben, all of whom voluntarily attended meetings along with Ben’s parents. His social worker was seeing Ben much more often than would have been the case under statutory child protection and many other agencies were involved.
“The social worker’s aim was to try to restore relationships so that Ben could return home, as it was accepted this was the best place for him to be.
“In this type of inquest, the court can reflect on instances where there may have been missed opportunities to act that may have prevented a death. The coroner did not find that any instances in this case on the part of any of the agencies involved.
“The North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership undertook a ‘learning review’ and recommendations were made to services, considering the views of Ben’s family.
“Once received, we will respond to the coroner’s report in accordance with Regulations 29.”
Trevor Watson, Harrogate Borough Council’s director of economy, environment and housing, said:
"Although only knowing and working with Ben Nelson-Roux for a short time, we were deeply saddened by his untimely death and would once again like to offer our most sincere condolences to his family.
"Hostel accommodation was provided to Ben as a last resort to prevent him from street homelessness. During this time Ben received extensive support from multiple agencies.
"In his conclusion, the coroner found that, on the balance of probabilities, it could not be concluded that the accommodation had contributed to Ben’s death. This was only intended to be a short term, interim placement whilst a room in specialist young person supported accommodation became available. Unfortunately, this was subject to delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.
"In the next few days, we expect to receive a report from the coroner which we will carefully consider and respond to."
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