School letters sent to bereaved parents

Parents have been upset by the correspondence

A council has sent letters to the families of 17 dead babies and toddlers reminding them their children were due to start school.

East Sussex education chiefs apologised on Friday for a clerical error which resulted in the letters being sent to families in Hastings.

East Sussex County Council and Hastings and St Leonard's Primary Care Trust said they were "deeply sorry" for the upset caused.

The mistake happened when the council contacted parents as part of the annual process to identify children requiring a primary school place for the following year.

I don't need it thrown in my face that my dead baby should be starting school now

Julia Mitchell
bereaved parent

One letter was sent to Julia Mitchell, 28, who nearly died when her baby was stillborn four years ago.

Mrs Mitchell, who has two daughters, told the Hastings Observer newspaper she thought at first it was a typing error, and the council was talking about her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

She said: "I've been putting on a brave face but the loss is always going to be there.

"I don't need it thrown in my face that my dead baby should be starting school now.

Human error

"She never even had a birth certificate, just a stillbirth and death certificate.

"She was never registered with a GP and never had a heath visitor so I can't see how the education department even got her details."

The error arose when the primary care trust was asked to give the council a list of children born between 1 September 1998 and 31 August 1999.

The request was passed to computer firm McKesson, the company which manages the primary care trust's child health computer system, where human error resulted in the names of the dead children being included.

McKesson has apologised for the "upset and distress" caused.

Toni Wilkinson, chief executive of the primary care trust, and Denise Stokoe, the county council's education director, have written a letter of apology to the families affected.

Procedures have now been reviewed to prevent the mistake recurring.