Troubled schoolgirl, 14, died of drugs overdose after Government agencies failed to share information about her
- Nyah James’s was found dead in her bed at her Blaenymaes home in 2017
- The West Glamorgan Safeguarding Children Board produced a concise report
- Several agencies were working with Nyah, but none were seeing the full picture
- For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details
Nyah James was found dead in her bed at her Blaenymaes home in 2017. She died of a drug overdose
A 14-year-old schoolgirl died of a drug overdose after Government agencies failed to share information about her, a report found.
Nyah James’s mother Dominique Williams found her daughter dead in bed at their Blaenymaes, Swansea, home when she tried to wake her up to go to school in February 2017.
The grieving mother displayed the last photo of the beaming ‘beautiful’ teenager in Nyah’s untouched room that she turned into a ‘shrine’ to help her grieve.
And now, a concise child practice review report, carried out by the West Glamorgan Safeguarding Children Board, found that the agencies working with Nyah and her family prior to her death were operating in isolation, without seeing the full picture.
It adds there was ‘some evidence’ of agencies sharing information and collaboration in respect to Nyah’s sister but not in respect to Nyah, a pupil at Bishop Gore School in Swansea.
The report, which refers to Nyah as ‘Y’, concludes: ‘The sharing of information sooner may have led to a greater insight into Y’s situation and better informed interventions.
‘Having the full picture in respect of Y, her family and her experiences at school and the community would neither have predicted or prevented Y’s death; however it may have, and should have, led to a more coordinated, joined up response early on to those difficulties experienced by Y.’
The report states Nyah started receiving pastoral support at school due to a difficult relationship with her peers at the beginning of 2016.
A concise child practice review report, carried out by the West Glamorgan Safeguarding Children Board, found that several agencies were working with Nyah and her family prior to her death but the agencies were working in isolation, with no one seeing the full picture
Nyah – the youngest of five children – was feeling upset and disrupted between May and July 2016, having difficulties with friends, nightmares, bed wetting and ongoing fears.
However, in January 2017, she was doing well, but needed to improve attendance.
Nyah was being given support through the Derbyshire programme, the report says, a pastoral support service delivered across schools.
Nyah’s mother Dominique Williams said: ‘I hope this report sheds light on certain things that need changing in the system’
The report continues: ‘The case of Y was complex in nature and too complex for a single agency.
‘Practitioners accepted during the learning event that Y’s emotional immaturity and relationship difficulties were deep-seated and too complex to unpick through such provisions as Derbyshire.
‘There was no evidence that those delivering the ‘Derbyshire’ programme were receiving regular supervision and they were seemingly left to it and although this point was challenged during the learning event no documentary records were provided to evidence supervision had taken place.’
The review states that Nyah’s family had intermittent intervention with services since 2008, but she was never Looked After (LAC) or on the Child Protection Register.
The report adds no evidence had been found that bullying was a contributory factor to her death.
It concludes there was a lack of significant information sharing between agencies at key points.
A photo – taken the morning before Nyah’s death – was printed on a flag and hung on her wardrobe
Some key decisions were made as a single agency but had ramifications for other agencies, it adds.
Ms Williams, said: ‘I hope this report sheds light on certain things that need changing in the system.’
The coroner ruled a narrative conclusion in June 2017 in relation to Nyah’s death, saying the schoolgirl ‘died as a consequence of self-administered overdose of drugs but her intent was unclear’.
At the time, her devastated family had accused bullies of driving Nyah to her death and criticised her school for not doing enough to stop it.
The teenager’s older brother Jordan Clements was convicted of abusing four girls he said were responsible for his sister’s death.
But Swansea Coroners Court was told there was no evidence Nyah was being bullied at school or online, and that she had a history of self-harming, threatening to kill herself, and claiming she heard voices in her head.
Police said Nyah had been ‘obsessed’ with her boyfriend, who was two years older, and the pair broke up after he chose to spend time with friends instead of her.
For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details.
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