Safeguarding report finds four authorities failed toddler murdered in Ipswich
Isabella Jonas-Wheildon died in June 2023
Last updated 13th Feb 2025
A review has found a toddler who died at the hands of her mother's new boyfriend was 'invisible' to authorities in four counties.
Two-year-old Isabella Jonas-Wheildon died in June 2023, with her body pushed around in a pram for days, before being discovered by Police in a locked bathroom at a property in Ipswich.
The report suggests authorities across Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Norfolk all had contact with Isabella, her mother and her mother's boyfriend, but missed opportunities to protect the toddler because they didn't share information between themselves - instead operating in 'silos'.
Her mother, Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell, also 24 and from Bedfordshire, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for admitting, causing or allowing the death of a child.
Now, a report released by Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (CBSCP) has found four agencies failed Isabella, highlighting a need for improvements.
Child Safeguarding Practice Review
Concerns were raised about Isabella's safety, following a call from a friend of her mother's to Bedfordshire Police.
On June 30th, the force contacted Suffolk Police when they were informed that the friend had "grave concerns" for Isabella, after speaking with her mother.
Suffolk Police then attended the hostel where the family were staying and found Isabella's lifeless body in her buggy.
Criminal investigations estimated she had been dead for around three days "and had suffered a number of significant non-accidental injuries."
The report noted Chelsea Gleason-Mitchell's struggles with her mental health, citing Self harm, suicide ideation, ADHD, depression and anxiety, which were all not taken into account when considering her parenting capacity and risks to Isabella, dating back to when she was pregnant.
Hertfordshire Constabulary received a call on June 6th, from Isabella's maternal grandmother, who was seeking advice on how to report her daughter as a missing person. She expressed concern regarding how her daughter had been taken to Great Yarmouth by new new boyfriend.
It was recommended she found out more details surrounding Scott Jeff, to file a Clare's Law request.
The family were unable to find Isabella and Chelsea when they went to search in Norfolk. While in the county, the trio stayed in five different locations, before moving to Suffolk.
In Suffolk, the council found the family in temporary accommodation for Isabella and her mother.
Abuse and neglect were identified during Isabella's time in Norfolk, though no action was taken. At one point, the family were found living in a tent on the breach by members of the public.
Neglect of toddler unidentified
The findings also highlighted how the neglect of Isabella - living in the tent with her basic needs not being met and her mother prioritising her boyfriend over her toddler - didn't increase concerns.
Bruising and non-accidental injuries seen by witnesses were also not referred to Children's Services.
The report also notes how too much weight was put on Gleason-Mitchell fleeing the alleged domestic abuse, which diverted professionals from understanding the risk the 24-year-olds posed to Isabella.
Isabella's case was also not considered to have met the threshold for a multi-agency strategy discussion, "meaning the opportunity to coordinate a safeguarding response was lost when it shouldn't have been".
The CBSCP report found there was information available in agency records relating to the risks Jeff would have posed to others and if this was shared, concerns would have been raised for him to be in the relationship with a child present too.
Safeguarding Partnerships implementing recommendations
In response to the report, Central Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnerships have released a joint statement, reflecting how the death "of any child carried with it significant trauma."
The statement says: "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 have 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.
"All of the agencies involved accept the review findings and work is already underway to implement the recommendations. To avoid delay in implementing learning, the draft recommendations were shared with all the agencies involved and the draft report was also shared with the National Panel, the body that oversees all LCSPR's.
"The Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships will 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. "
NSPCC Response
An NSPCC spokesperson said: “The cruelty and brutality that Isabella suffered at the hands of Scott Jeff was shocking and heartbreaking, and it is devastating to read that opportunities to protect this little girl were missed by professionals on a number of occasions.
“This review found that in the final weeks of Isabella's life, her voice went unheard and she was invisible to authorities, and information that was gathered was not shared between agencies. These are issues we hear time and again after children have died or been seriously harmed through abuse or neglect. It is unacceptable that this continues to happen, and we owe it to all children – not least our youngest like Isabella, who are particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect – to do everything possible to protect them.
"At a local level, those agencies that have a particular responsibility for child protection need to respond to this review, scrutinise their practices and implement change. Nationally, the Government needs to follow through on their promises to give every child the opportunity of the best start in life by ensuring that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill not only legislates for new, multi-agency child protection teams but also ensures children’s voices and experiences are reflected at every stage of decision making about their care and protection.”