Council sends letter to grieving families inviting them to apply for school place for dead children

‘It felt like someone was twisting the knife into an already broken heart,’ says bereaved mother

Stock image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A council has apologised to grieving families after mistakenly asking them to register their dead children for school.

The error by Norfolk County Council resulted in school admissions letters being sent out concerning 42 children who had died, including two from the same family.

It felt “like someone was twisting the knife into an already broken heart” when she read it," Susie Thorndyke, whose son James died from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, told the Eastern Daily Press.

Another added: “It was awful. I just fell down and couldn’t stop crying.”

One of the letters said that a child who had died was “due to start school in a Reception class from September 2020 and it is now time for you to apply for a school place”.

Councillor Andrew Proctor, leader of Norfolk County Council, said: “We are truly sorry for the pain and distress caused to the families who were mistakenly sent a schools admissions letter about their child who had sadly passed away.

“At the moment, our priority is contacting the families concerned so we can apologise to them directly. In terms of what happened, as soon as we found out the letters had been sent we launched an investigation through our internal audit department to ensure that such a mistake does not happen again.

“This should never have happened in the first place and we offer our most sincere apologies to all the families involved.”

The incident echoes a similar blunder by Manchester City Council last year.

The authority apologised after 95 school admissions letters were reportedly sent to grieving families.