Baby drowned in bath 2 days before first birthday while parents made phone calls

A baby left alone in the bath tragically drowned after repeated warnings of serious were not properly acted upon by , a damning investigation has found. Theo Taylor-Maloney was just 11 months old when he died in October 2020 in after being left unsupervised in the bath for 12 minutes.

His death came only two days before his first birthday. An independent review into the circumstances surrounding Theo's death found social services failed to respond properly to "considerable evidence" of widespread . has said it is now taking the steps to address concerns raised by the serious case review which followed the tot's death.

Theo's parents, Jessica Taylor and Michael Maloney, were sentenced in July 2023 after being convicted of neglect. Both received suspended terms.

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The family, who lived in Wythenshawe, were known to Manchester Children's Services before and after Theo's birth in 2019. Fears around child welfare were raised on 17 separate occasions over the course of three years before the boy's death, an independent review carried out on behalf of the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership said. 

It added that 11 of those calls were specifically about child neglect, including "poor supervision" that had sometimes led to children becoming injured.

The review said while the majority of "valid" concerns had come from friends or neighbours, others were made by professionals, including a police officer, GP and a children's centre worker. Social services and other authorities failed to flag these as "persistent and pervasive" neglect concerns, according to the report.

Theo's mother, who was often left to look after the tot alone and had struggled to cope, was also not offered support, the report found. 

In July 2023, Taylor and Maloney pleaded guilty to "allowing or causing the death of a child" and were both given two-year suspended prison terms. Manchester City Council said it was committed to learning lessons from a "desperately sad case".

A spokesperson said: "It's always essential in such tragic circumstances that professionals from all agencies involved reflect deeply on their interactions to understand what could have been done better and where improvements can be made to help keep other children safe.

"We have done so in this complex case, engaging in this review and producing a detailed action plan to address areas where social work practice could be strengthened."