Southport killer was known to services that failed – as former social worker warns over ‘holes in the system’
When the police arrived at the scene of horror in Southport last summer, the teenager holding the knife was someone they had been called about many times before.
From the age of 13, Axel Rudakubana had been on the radar of police, safeguarding services, mental health teams and Prevent, the counterterrorism programme.
Axel Rudakubana pictured several years ago
His obsession with mass murder was known about. The risk he posed was clear.
Yet there was nothing to stop him going to a dance class, murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and attempting to murder many more.
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‘Our lives went with them – he took us too’
The timeline of contact with the authorities reveals Rudakubana had not slipped through the net – he was in the system. It failed.
The public inquiry that will now take place needs to examine why.
‘Limited options for social workers’
Dr Ciaran Murphy, a former social worker and member of the Association of Child Protection Professionals, believes services designed to protect children are now facing more cases where children are themselves the risk.
“That’s an area where we need to evolve,” he said. “There’s an increasing occurrence of referrals being made in which parents are afraid of their children in terms of violence and mental health.”
Dr Ciaran Murphy
He said options for social workers are limited. “You’d still be thinking about the child protection plan, you’d still be thinking about a strategy meeting,” he said. “But ultimately, social workers cannot detain children.
“The obvious answers are multi-agency communication, multi-agency work, particularly with the police and programmes like Prevent. But then when you do that, you start to see some of the holes in the system.”
“In extreme cases, they can apply for a secure order for a child in which a child is placed in secure accommodation,” Dr Murphy explained, but he said they are “very difficult to obtain, partly because it’s so costly, partly because it’s so draconian”.
The orders have to be granted by the family courts and only apply to children under the age of 16.
Rudakubana’s multiple contact with police
The police were first alerted to Rudakubana when he took a knife into school in 2019. It led to his exclusion, and referrals to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
But he returned to the school months later with a knife in his bag and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick. He pleaded guilty to assault and a youth referral order was imposed.
Between 2019 and 2021 he was referred three times to Prevent. The first referral was for researching school shootings during an IT class. Another referral was made when a teacher found he’d been reading about the London Bridge terror attack. However, he was not deemed a terrorism risk.
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Southport attack: ‘Investigation not yet over’
Between 2019 and 2023 he received mental health care at Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust but “stopped engaging” in February of that year.
In 2021, Rudabukana was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Later that year, following reports of incidents at home, he stopped attending school.
In 2022, his mother reported him missing and police found him on a bus carrying a knife. Officers were called by the driver because he was refusing to pay. He was returned home and his mother was given advice on how to secure knives.
Four of the calls to the police about him in the years before the attack were made by his own parents.
Read more:
Rudakubana received second longest sentence in history – No 10
Attorney general to review ‘unduly lenient’ sentence
‘They often don’t fit into any particular box’
Dr Duncan Harding
Dr Duncan Harding, a consultant adolescent forensic psychiatrist, said “a case like this just highlights how systems have to be made as robust as possible, to try and pick up people who perhaps are acting in a lone way with extreme ideologies. Perhaps ideologies don’t fit into any particular box”.
“Working with young people, who present with perhaps mental health difficulties, perhaps neurodiversity, criminal behaviours. I’ve worked with many young people who fit into that category, and they often don’t fit into any particular box. What that can mean is that they might fall under the threshold of any one particular service.”
He added: “I think that when something dreadful happens, when something absolutely dreadful happens that shakes society in this way, we have to look at the systems, we have to look at things like thresholds.”
There is consensus that more should have been done to stop Rudakubana.
Finding the cracks in a system that failed will be the task of the public inquiry.
The Scottish government is scrapping its plans to create a National Care Service.
It is an embarrassing but perhaps predictable end to years of ambitious talk about finally coming up with a solution to the social care crisis.
In a statement at Holyrood, the government tore up parts of the bill that would require major structural changes to the Scottish social care system.
The downfall of the plan wasn’t money or lack of ambition necessarily.
And there was cross-party agreement on what needed to be done. The problem was a frustrating lack of consensus on how to get there.
It is also the end of the process that has been costly too.
More than £30m has already been spent on planning the policy cover the last three years.
It was one of the boldest public service reforms of the SNP’s 17 years in power, with the scheme forming a key policy of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s administration.
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In 2021, Ms Sturgeon branded the National Care Service the “most ambitious reform since devolution”.
Now, the plan is in tatters, and it tells us a lot about how difficult social care reform is and what might lie in store for the Westminster government.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has unveiled plans to reform the social care system with his own version of a National Care Service, designed to bring it closer to the National Health Service.
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Streeting challenged on social care cuts
Mr Streeting announced the formation of an independent commission, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, to develop comprehensive proposals for organising and funding social care.
But the past is littered with broken promises when it comes to social care reform.
Successive governments from Tony Blair right through to Boris Johnson have failed to grasp the nettle and implement plans.
It is in part due to the billions of pounds that would be needed to pay for it – likely raised through taxes – but it has also failed because political parties haven’t been able to work together to make reform a reality.
The failure of the Scottish plan does not bode well for future social care reforms across the rest of the UK.
Angela Carson struggles to pull the damp laundry out of her washing machine. Her hands are so weak she can barely stop them from shaking.
The 65-year-old places the wet clothes onto her lap and slowly moves herself in a wheelchair through the small kitchen to another room, so they can dry.
Angela suffers from the lingering after-effects of a rare condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome, that attacks her nerves. It means she struggles to walk without two sticks by her side. Her husband Graham, who is in a motorised wheelchair, can only look on.
The 67-year-old was born with the muscle-wasting disease muscular dystrophy and now has limited movements – just in his hands – to operate the chair.
Angela struggles to walk without two sticks by her side
Angela suffers from the after-effects of Guillain-Barre syndrome, while Graham has muscular dystrophy
For the last seven years, the pair have relied on carers to come into their home several times a day to help with their everyday needs, including getting Graham in and out of bed using a hoist, personal hygiene, and preparing meals.
It was a week before Christmas when they received the devastating news: their local council was cancelling all of Angela’s care, and reducing Graham’s support. The decision was non-negotiable and came as a big shock to them both.
“They just said it was being stopped,” says Angela tearfully. “They said it was to promote independence. But I don’t see how, when I can’t do the things they say I can do.”
The council says Angela can prepare meals, walk, and shop – tasks she says are a struggle.
West Lothian Council took the decision to stop their care
‘Urgent action needed’
A few weeks earlier, their local authority, West Lothian Council, issued a downbeat but honest public statement about its finances, saying that the crisis facing councils was of a “magnitude never experienced” and that “urgent action” was needed.
Graham and Angela’s care is paid for by the council. It posted on Facebook about having an £8.1m overspend, fuelled in part by rising social care costs. It said it needs to make savings.
Not long after, social workers knocked on the door of Graham and Angela’s bungalow in Livingston to review their care package. The council said these reviews are done annually and are based on need, not cost.
A spokesperson for the West Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership said: “This process is critical to monitor the progress and effectiveness of the care being provided to individuals and ensures that assessed and essential care needs are met.”
Angela and Graham on their wedding day
They added: “A consistent and fair approach is applied when reviewing or assessing an individual’s care, with any changes to a care plan being made on the basis of assessed need and not to address financial pressures. “
‘Social care is broken’
But Angela and Graham aren’t so sure.
“The social care system is broken”, says Graham.
“The council has overspent by millions of pounds. They’re cutting back and it’s hard to see it any other way.”
Graham Carson says the social care system ‘is broken’
Graham is right – councils are struggling to pay for social care. This financial pressure means the demand for care has outstripped the ability to provide it.
In England, 2.6 million people over 50 cannot currently access the care they need, according to the charity Age UK. Social care is devolved – the governments of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all spend more per capita on social care than the Westminster government spends in England.
The council just said her care ‘was being stopped’, Angela Carson says
In response to Graham and Angela’s situation, the Scottish government said it “understands the importance of social care support for those who need help living independently and we know the concerns changes to these services cause”.
It acknowledged that while it has overall control of social care, it is up to local authorities to ensure people have the right support.
A Sky News survey of homecare providers across England, Scotland and Wales indicates a worrying trend of cuts to these vital services in the last two years.
Of the care providers who responded, 83% told Sky News their local council had cut the number of care packages. And 81% of care providers in the survey said councils had cut the number of hours they’re willing to fund, suggesting carers spend less time in people’s homes.
‘We’ve really got to crack on’
The UK government has published plans to reform the social care system, aiming to establish a National Care Service designed to bring it closer to the National Health Service.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting announced the formation of an independent commission, chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, to develop comprehensive proposals for organising and funding social care. Her full recommendations are expected in 2028.
When Sky News asked Mr Streeting about why the survey of care providers indicates such worrying cuts when plans for reforms are years away, the minister said in Labour’s first six months in power “we’ve delivered the biggest expansion of carers allowance since the 1970s”.
“We’ve made sure that we’re delivering real improvements through the disabled facilities grants, people’s homes,” he added.
He also pointed to additional funding from the chancellor and said the first findings of the Casey Commission will come next year.
When pressed on what action is being taken to help people without care in their homes right now, Mr Streeting said: “I know we’ve really got to crack on.”
In response to the survey, Councillor David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said councils are acutely aware of the challenges facing social care providers.
“As of March 2024, over 400,000 older and disabled people were waiting for care to start, their care needs assessed, or direct payments. Without immediate government funding, vital services face significant risks, impacting those who rely on care and their families,” he said.
Dr Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, says around half of care providers are operating at a loss, with many withdrawing from council contracts due to inadequate funding.
“The consequences are stark,” she said.
“Unlike other businesses in the economy, homecare providers cannot simply raise their prices. This is because almost 80% of homecare services are purchased by councils and the NHS, who fix fee rates.
“Ethical homecare providers want to reward care workers fairly and provide safe, good quality care. The government is making it more difficult to do so.
“This means older and disabled people face having their care reduced or stopped.”
Read more from Sky News:
How a vulnerable man was failed by his carer
Starmer vows to ‘take on NIMBYs’
Reeves indicates she will overrule objections to Heathrow expansion
Graham and Angela’s care is paid for by the council
Scotland’s National Care Service plan scrapped
Plans for a National Care Service in Scotland were well under way until last Thursday, when the government there said it would be scrapped.
More than £30m has already been spent on the policy over the last three years. It was one of the boldest public service reforms of the SNP’s 17 years in power.
Following the announcement, Conservative MSP Dr Sandesh Gulhane accused the government of being a “shower of charlatans”. He wrote on social media: “Let’s call this what it is: £30million of taxpayers’ money flushed down the drain by a government with a proven track record of failure.”
The reality for Angela is that no one is coming to care for her right now. She has to do everything herself.
“It is terrible. I go to bed and that’s all I can think about. I feel I don’t exist – that if I wasn’t here anymore it wouldn’t matter.”
The exclusive data in this article was collected via an online survey between 14-17 January sent to domiciliary care providers that are members of the Homecare Association, Scottish Care and Care Forum Wales. The survey went out to 2,650 home care providers in England, Scotland and Wales. There were 336 responses.
Have you been affected by cuts to social care? We’d like to hear from you. Email nick.martin@sky.uk
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