Research & Safeguarding
The evidence behind the safeguarding concern
Check My Child focuses on a specific safeguarding vulnerability: what happens when a parent or sole carer becomes unexpectedly unable to respond, and the child or dependent young person in their care cannot independently summon help.
There is currently no national dataset measuring how often this precise situation occurs. However, UK population statistics provide important context, while published safeguarding reviews and coronial findings document real cases in which children and dependent young people have been unable to seek help after the death or incapacity of their parent or carer.
This page brings together relevant UK statistics, documented cases and safeguarding learning to provide an evidence-led understanding of this vulnerability.
About these figures
ONS figures show the scale of lone-parent families with dependent children across the UK, providing important context for the safeguarding need Check My Child aims to address.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Families and households in the UK: 2025
View the ONS research
Safeguarding Case Studies
The following real cases demonstrate why the circumstances surrounding a parent or sole carer becoming unexpectedly incapacitated can have serious implications for a child who is unable to seek help independently. Safeguarding reviews exist to identify learning and improve future practice; these cases are included here respectfully for that purpose.
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In 2016, four-year-old Chadrack was at home when his mother died unexpectedly. Chadrack had additional needs and was unable to call for help or adequately care for himself. He remained alone and later died from dehydration and starvation.
Relevance: The case demonstrates how a parent's sudden incapacity can also create an emergency for a dependent child who cannot independently summon help.
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Anya was the subject of a published Child Safeguarding Practice Review by Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership. The review examined multi-agency involvement with Anya and her family and identified learning around understanding family circumstances, engagement with services and collaboration between children's and adult services.
Relevance: The review highlights the importance of considering children's safety within the wider circumstances and vulnerabilities of the adults caring for them.
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Two-year-old Bronson Battersby was found at home with his father Kenneth after Kenneth suffered a fatal heart attack. Bronson is believed to have died in the days following his father's death. Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership commissioned an independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review to examine the circumstances and identify potential improvements to safeguarding practice.
Relevance: Bronson's case starkly illustrates the safeguarding risk that can arise when a young child's sole available carer suddenly becomes unable to care for them or call for help.
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Loraine Choulla was an 18-year-old young woman with Down syndrome and learning difficulties who was entirely dependent on her mother, Alphonsine Djiako Leuga, for food and hydration.
In February 2024, her mother became seriously unwell and called 999 requesting an ambulance. No ambulance was sent. Alphonsine subsequently died from pneumonia, leaving Loraine unable to meet her own essential needs. Loraine survived her mother by three weeks or more before dying from dehydration and malnutrition.
Relevance: Loraine's case demonstrates that this safeguarding vulnerability is not limited to very young children. Some older children and dependent young people with additional needs may also be unable to independently obtain help when their parent or sole carer becomes incapacitated.
A Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review was subsequently commissioned into Loraine's circumstances.
National Safeguarding Learning
These cases have contributed to wider safeguarding learning about recognising when a child's circumstances may require someone to act.
Following the review into Chadrack Mbala-Mulo's death, Department for Education guidance was updated to state that, where reasonably possible, schools and colleges should hold more than one emergency contact number for each pupil or student, providing additional options to contact a responsible adult when absence also raises a welfare or safeguarding concern.
National safeguarding reviews have also highlighted the importance of communication and coordination between adult and children's services. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel specifically documented the case of a two-year-old child found alone after her mother died at home when examining learning around the adult-child services interface.
Why this matters
Safeguarding systems rely not only on people being available to help, but on concerns being recognised, communicated and acted upon.
Read the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report
An Important Note About These Cases
These case studies are shared respectfully to highlight documented safeguarding circumstances and the learning that has followed them.
Check My Child does not claim that its service would have prevented any of the deaths or outcomes described on this page. Every case involved individual circumstances, and it would be inappropriate to suggest that any single intervention could have changed what happened.
Their relevance lies in something more specific: they demonstrate that situations have occurred in which a child or dependent young person was unable to independently summon help when their parent or carer became unable to respond.
Check My Child was designed with this particular vulnerability in mind — to create an additional opportunity for a trusted person to become aware when an expected daily check-in has not taken place.
The cases do not prove the effectiveness of Check My Child. They demonstrate the safeguarding circumstance it seeks to address.
Sources & Further Reading
The information and case studies on this page are drawn from official UK statistics, published safeguarding reviews and coronial findings.
Office for National Statistics
Families and households in the UK: 2025
View ONS research
Chadrack Mbala-Mulo
Prevention of Future Deaths Report — Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
Read the Coroner's report
Anya
Safeguarding Practice Review — Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership
Read the safeguarding review
Bronson Battersby
Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review — Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership
Read about the official review
Loraine Choulla
Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review — Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership
Read the safeguarding review findings
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
Annual Report 2023–2024 — national safeguarding learning
Read the national report