Thirteen children died after falling from windows in six years

According to a study of the deaths of very young and primary school age, thirteen children died of windows in the UK or temporary accommodation since 2019.

The authors of the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) financed by NHS say such deaths “completely prevented”. Hosts should give priority to correcting faulty windows and ensure that the appropriate locks are in place.

The findings come as a second report from the UK’s housing observer, and the window in social housing simulates the scale of safety defects. to damp and known problems with mold.

The BBC visited the families living in the apartments in Leeds and Western London, which said that they were “horrified” from small children coming out of the “insecure” windows.

A pediatric counselor in Manchester told us that he was acting “unusually high” children who had fallen through the windows in recent months.

Most say that he has participated in “important injuries” – from broken bones, including the skull and jaw to internal damage to organs such as liver.

The National Housing Federation, representing the UK’s housing associations, said that social hosts increase the number of checks they made to ensure that the buildings are suitable for current arrangements and security requirements.

All 13 children in the NCMD report died under 11 years of age and until the end of April 2019 and May 2025. In some cases, families reported broken windows.

There was no lock or restrictive in four cases (limiting how much a window could be opened), there was a lock or restrictive in four cases, but they were broken and were not used or disabled on four.

One of the deceased children was Exodus Eyb, one year old when he fell out of an open window from the seventh floor of a Leeds tower block in 2022. The restrictive in the window was separated because it was a warm day.

Lawyer Gareth Nylor, who represented his family in his investigation, says that the child who started to walk in the “divided seconds” of an adult who left the room to BBC climbed and fell.

When he heard an investigation, Exodus’ family complained how wide the windows could be opened, but Coroner decided that death was “accidentally” and the windows were not flawed.

Naylor says the family has lost their children in “terrible conditions”.

“What did they ignore in line [Exodus’s] The investigation is that these apartments are small and the bed can only be under the window. “If children are placed in the towers, he believes that” a network or protection “should be added for protection.

Other deaths include Aalim Ahmed, who fell from the kitchen window of a social housing on the 15th floor of an East London tower block in May 2024, and this year, one in Gloucestershire and the other in South London.

The number of deaths in NCMD work is “very sad” says social housing keeper, residential ombudsman service.

His report emphasizes 34 “violent incompatibility” in which complaints are handled badly. More than half included children with no windows. The report says that the cases are not “one -time” and that their landlords should urgently deal with security concerns.

Housing Ombudsman, Richard Blakeway, how some window complaints are handled by the landlords and how children with risk of falling are ignored.

Among the examples of the guard’s report include a mother who cannot close some of her windows properly for four years, and residents who use parcel tape to keep the windows and windows together to relax from a baby’s frame in her room.

The parcel band also told us that a council tenant in Western London tried to make our windows safer, because he was very worried about his nine -year -old daughter. The tenant, who lives in the Lancaster Court in Fulham, says at some point that the broken handles, whom the council says it is unresolved, means that a window has been opened for a week in winter.

In total, we talked with a dozen calmly in the property belonging to Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and we found that broken windows with handles were a common problem and mold around the window frames.

The windows say Tracey McGurk, who has been living in his apartment for five years and worried about the safety of his grandchildren.

The day after contacting the Council, he sent a team to examine the windows and found six emergency repairs.

“We invest more than £ 1 million every week to renew and repair our aging housing stock.”

“Not only does it meet the window safety standards of the residential ombudsman, we are overcoming them,” the Council added.

According to Ombudsman’s report, some hosts delay temporary repairs for years because waiting for great jobs is “the most cost -effective”.

“Change the windows may be complex and costly, Ric says Richard Blakeway,” But there’s no reason for the conditions that some inhabitants endure. “

In Manchester Royal Infirmary, the number of children who participated in a big trauma from a window decline between April and June this year has been said to have more than a similar period since 2020.

Dr. Nollie Mottershead says in this spring, “almost one a week.”

“This is the highest number that worries us,” he says, the majority of patients are preschool age.

The doctor says he can’t explain a large number of events, but England recorded the hottest broadcast.

Dr Mottershead said that many families knew that the window was broken or not locked, and that there was no action despite notifying a landlord.

Preschool children, because of lack of danger awareness – and because their bodies are the most severe – are particularly sensitive to decreases – he says.

Advice to parents, don’t wear window locks And to ensure that the furniture is away from the windows.

Hospitals, schools and care homes, such as “risk -risk buildings need to comply with window restrictives, but such rules do not apply to the currently rented accommodation.

A state consultancy on how to improve standards in both private and socially rented houses is currently taking place – and in any window that risks all rented houses in the UK, it looks at how to have child resistant restrictives.

The current offers will make it possible for adults to invalidate restrictions to ensure fire safety, but lawyer Gareth Nylor says this is not enough. He wants to install restrictions that cannot be opened.

“If you fall from one of these tower block windows, you will die, or he says. “It is so simple. As long as this window restrictives are disabled in place, deaths will continue to occur because it’s easy.”

We went to the property in Leeds, where Exodus died, and others with child deaths, and we saw that many windows were completely open.

A father told us that he was open because he lives “very hot” in a tower. Another mother of two little children living on the top floor of a block said that “continuous” should be careful on hot days.

The National Housing Federation said that the examination needs window restrictives on the upper floors of the apartment blocks.

“Housing associations have been dedicated to ensuring that all inhabitants are safe in their homes,” Policy and Research Director Alistair Smyth said. He said.

The government also plans to change the current UK social housing regulations, so that a window needs to be replaced if it has fallen into abandonment, regardless of its age.

In accordance with the existing rules, if the windows in the apartments have fallen into a state of abandonment and are over 30 years of age, they should only be replaced instead of being repaired.

According to the Local Government Association speaking for local councils, Councils need sufficient and continuous financing to ensure the quality of the housing that tenants are rightly waiting and deserved. A spokesman added that any new requirement should be fully financed by the government.

“We are determined to prevent the life of any child because of the poor quality housing and to prevent future tragedies,” he said.