Isabella Wheildon
Cross-partnership statement:
This information has been provided on behalf of Central Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnerships.
In June 2023, Isabella Wheildon tragically died. Scott Jeff has been found guilty of Isabella’s murder, and Isabella’s Mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, pleaded guilty to allowing the cause of death and cruelty.
The death of any child carries with it significant trauma. The circumstances of Isabella’s death have had an enormous impact on her family, friends, those who knew her, and professionals who worked with the family. This has been a case that has touched many people across our counties, and all the Safeguarding Partnerships involved in this statement have been truly shocked. We all offer our sincere condolences to Isabella’s family and will continue to offer support to anyone who has been affected by her death.
Given the circumstances of Isabella’s death, it was agreed that a Local Children’s Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) should be commissioned. This independent review has examined multi-agency safeguarding practice prior to her death. It is important that the Partnerships and all people involved in safeguarding do all they can to learn from cases such as this. Only when we do this will we truly afford ourselves the best opportunity to reduce the risk of similar cases occurring in the future.
The purpose of the review is to identify learning and consolidate good practice. The report from the review includes recommendations for improvement. These recommendations relate to the individual agencies involved, multi-agency practice and national issues.
Alongside the various agencies and professionals, the voices and experiences of Isabella’s family are an important part of the review. However, the family could not be offered the opportunity to contribute until after the criminal trial concluded. This work is now being prioritised and will be completed as quickly as possible but at a pace the family are comfortable with.
When the report is finalised, it will be published. However, to avoid delay in implementing learning, the draft recommendations have been shared with all the agencies involved. We have also shared the draft report with the National Panel, the body that oversees all LCSPR's. The Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships will now work with agencies to ensure that recommendations are implemented.
Again, all the Safeguarding Partnerships send our condolences to Isabella's family and our thoughts are with all those who knew and loved her at this extremely difficult time.
If you have been impacted by the information shared about Isabella and would like to talk to someone then the Samaritans are available anytime, day or night and can be contacted on 116 123.
(If you have experienced a child death in your family and would like to speak to someone about the impact this case has had on you or about your previous loss you can also ring the Child Death Helpline on 0800 282 986 (Monday - Friday 10.00am - 1.00pm, Monday - Sunday 7pm - 10pm). Callers to the helpline might be parents, grandparents, siblings, family members, friends or involved professionals. They offer a confidential, safe environment within which a caller can talk openly. Callers are given the opportunity to freely express their worries and emotions.
