In the South Yorkshire (West) Coroner’s Court
Before HM Assistant Coroner Marilyn Whittle
Heard on 2-6 June, 27 June, 1-2 July 2025

The inquest into the death of Marcia Grant, who was killed by a foster child in her care, concluded on 2 July 2025.

Marcia, aged 60, was a loving wife, mother and grandmother. Marcia was also a committed and long-standing foster carer, who devoted her life to helping others.

Marcia died on 5 April 2023, from catastrophic chest injuries after trying to stop the child stealing her car from outside her home.

After hearing evidence across 8 days at South Yorkshire (West) Coroner’s Court, HM Assistant Coroner Marilyn Whittle returned a narrative conclusion in which she found that a range of failures by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (‘RMBC’) contributed to Marcia’s death, including inaccurate and incomplete placement documentation, the failure to appropriately communicate risks and concerns, the failure to document appropriate risk assessments, and failing to safeguard those in their care.

Marcia had been involved in caring for 30 years, including as a foster carer for the last 7 years alongside her husband, Delroy.

At the time of these events, Marcia and Delroy were only approved to foster one child, following two previous placement breakdowns concerning children who had presented with challenging behaviours, including concerns over weapons and gang links. The decision was made to reduce their category approval from two children to one in order to safeguard both the Grants and the other long-standing child in their care.

On 30 March 2023, Marcia received a text message from the Council, sent out to all in-house carers, to ask if she could accommodate 12-year-old Child X in an emergency out of category placement. This communication was sent despite fostering records identifying that Marcia had by then been ruled out as being an unsuitable match, due to the Grants already having a vulnerable child in their care and any further placement being out of category.

Child X had already been placed in three successive emergency foster placements in the week before being placed with the Grants. Evidence at the inquest confirmed that a range of multi-agency concerns had been raised about Child X’s risk profile in this period, including over knife association, absconding, potential criminality and violence.

The inquest heard evidence that various local authority professionals raised their concerns about the suitability of Child X’s placement with the Grants from the outset. This included the family’s supervising social worker, who voiced his disagreement with the placement being outside of the Grant’s category of approval. He was not made aware of the full extent of the risk-relevant information about Child X at the time, including a youth caution for knife possession, self-reported gang and violence affiliations, and a history of missing episodes. In his evidence to the inquest, he was clear that, had he been apprised of this information, he would have “categorically” objected to the placement as there were “too many risks”. Concerns were also raised by other RMBC professionals involved, including the social worker and Independent Reviewing Officers (‘IRO’) for the other child in the Grants’ care.

Despite these concerns, Child X was placed in the Grants’ care on 30 March 2023, as an out of category placement for six days maximum. The inquest heard evidence that, on 4 April 2023, an IRO visited Marcia, who raised concerns about Child X, stating that she was keeping the knives locked away and maintaining eyes on supervision on him in view of his risky behaviours. The IRO reportedly observed that Marcia was “shattered” and struggling. She made clear that she would not recommend the placement being extended beyond the 6-day limit.

On the morning of 5 April 2023, Child X was removed from the Grants’ care. However, later that day, Mrs Grant was asked to have Child X back for an extended placement, despite various RMBC professionals raising concerns about the appropriateness of the continued placement, including the Fostering Team Manager and the IRO.

Child X was returned to the Grants’ care that evening. Approximately 30 minutes following his return, Child X attempted to take the family’s car. Marcia ran out to try and stop Child X, who reversed the car, knocking Marcia down, before driving over her. Marcia’s husband ran out and was banging on the car window shouting for Child X to stop. Child X then ran away from the scene and was later caught by the Police.

Child X pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, after a murder charge was dropped. He was sentenced to two years in youth custody and made subject to a six-year driving ban. He also plead guilty to the offence of having possession of a knife, which he had stolen from the Grants’ home.

Inquest Conclusions

In her findings of fact, at the conclusion of the inquest, the Coroner identified a score of failures in in respect of the Council’s decision-making and placement processes, including:

  • Failures by RMBC to have in place appropriate systems and processes to ensure full details concerning a child’s risk profile and concerns were included and updated in the placement referral forms. These forms were relied on for sourcing fostering placements and passing over relevant information to prospective carers about a child’s risks, concerns and support needs. The Coroner found that the initial placement form completed on 23 March 2023, prior to the Grants’ placement, failed to contain the necessary risk-relevant information about Child X, including concerns over his knife association and absconding, and was accordingly “deficient” for the purposes of finding a suitable placement. The omission of such information “poses risks to all parties in unsuitable matches being identified and taken forward”. The Coroner found it was this first version of the form, rather than an updated iteration, which was relied on by the fostering team for identifying an in-house foster placement.

  • Failure to accurately complete the placement plan, a key social care document, with numerous sections including relating to safety concerns being left blank by the social worker. This should have been completed and updated at a 72-hour placement review meeting, which should have taken place between the Grant family and relevant RMBC professionals to review the placement plan and any relevant concerns.

  • In view of the above failures, the Coroner found that Marcia was not made aware of all relevant risks and concerns about Child X prior to her agreeing to the placement. In turn, that Marcia’s decision to accept the placement was “not an informed decision”, being made without her full knowledge of Child X’s risk profile.

  • In respect of the placement decision on 30 March 2023, the Coroner found that “had the proper process been undertaken, Child X would not have been placed with the Grant family”. Namely, if all relevant information been provided to the Head of Service, the decision to place Child X with the Grants would not have been made, or even a request for approval likely made.

  • The Coroner criticised the “worrying” fact that RMBC had not made any attempts to identify possible residential homes, finding that the failure of RMBC to do so, as of 30 March 2023, despite the fruitless searches to date and upcoming Easter holidays, “does not stand up to logic”.

  • The absence of any formal risk assessment conducted in respect of Child X or any specific documentation around safety planning work concerning his relevant risks. The Coroner found that the only way of ascertaining a child’s risk profile was by reviewing the entire social care file, which was “a risk in itself”.

  • The decision to ask Marcia to have Child X back on the morning of 5 April 2023 was made without any risk assessment being undertaken of the actual placement.

HMAC Whittle duly concluded that the circumstances of Marcia’s death had been contributed to by the failures “to have appropriate systems and processes in place when placing foster children”, including in respect of documentation, information-sharing, risk assessment and safeguarding.

The Coroner also indicated she would be issuing a Prevention of Future Deaths Report in respect of ongoing concerns as to the local authority’s placement documentation and risks assessments, in addition to the national shortage of suitable foster placements.

Following conclusion of the inquest, Marcia’s family said:

“These past two years have been deeply distressing for us as a family. We have been on an agonising journey to uncover the truth behind the events — and systemic failings — that led to the death of our beloved mum, Marcia Grant.

What has become evident over the last few weeks, leaves us with no doubt that our mum was failed; our family was failed, and so too the other foster child who was in our care. It remains a source of deep sorrow and frustration that senior leadership within the council has consistently refused to acknowledge their own accountability, despite being fully aware of the risk history of Child X, and our mum’s own needs as a foster carer.

They chose to look away, to take no responsibility, and to make no meaningful change for carers after her our mum’s death.

We wholly welcome the Coroner’s findings that our mum was failed on numerous fronts and that these failures directly contributed to her death. However, whilst this leaves us with a sense of vindication, it also serves to reinforce to us how badly she was failed. If not for these failures, our mum would still be here today.

Our mum was dedicated to protecting vulnerable people. She did so with strength, compassion, and an unwavering sense of duty. Yet when it mattered most, the same system she gave so much for did not protect her in return. She deserved better. We all did.”

Alice Wood of Farleys Solicitors said:

Marcia’s death is a tragedy. Marcia was a dedicated foster carer and worked tirelessly to help the children in her care. The Local Authority owed a duty of care to Marcia to ensure her safety and wellbeing as a foster carer. It is shameful that the systems in place were unable to keep her safe.

The scale and severity of the failures which this inquest has revealed is deeply concerning. The inadequacies of the information-sharing, risk assessment, and safeguarding processes for carers, as well as the absence of sufficient scrutiny and oversight over placement decision-making, have had a devastating consequence.

Marcia’s family are represented by Alice Wood of Farleys Solicitors, and Laura Profumo of Doughty Street Chambers.