Dick French and one of his paintings of Soho life

A DAMNING report into the death of a celebrated artist has found the council’s social services team missed numerous opportunities to help save his life.

Dick French, an award-winning painter who was famous for his images of Soho street life and whose works are owned by the Museum of London, was found dead in his Gospel Oak flat last Christmas.

His friend and neighbour Val Stevenson had repeatedly warned Camden that he was in danger and needed urgent care.

But despite her pleas, which were backed by Mr French’s GP, the Town Hall was too slow to act, according to a confiden­tial internal report.

The report into the care of the 78-year-old has now outlined eight recommendations for improvements after finding social services had “failed to meet the minimum required and expected internal standards” as required under the 2014 Care Act.

Mr French was found in his Queen’s Crescent flat on December 13, 2024 by an ambulance crew.

“There were multiple missed opportunities for our services to intervene with Mr French and work together with health services to develop a relationship with him to enable our collective services to provide the support he clearly needed,” the council’s own review said.

“There was a failure in meeting our expected standards in relation to practice, case recording, decision-making and managerial oversight.”

The report confirms that Ms Stevenson called Camden Council’s social services on October 1, more than two months before he died, and reported Mr French was in urgent need of care and attention, and that his living conditions constituted an emergency.

She had known Mr French for many years – their children were friends at school, and after Mr French’s son Tom moved to New York, Ms Stevenson took on an unofficial role of looking out for Mr French.

This week Ms Stevenson said she has been left disappointed with the council’s findings.

“If Camden’s adult social care department had fulfilled their legal safeguarding duties under the Care Act, Dick’s death might not have been so traumatic for his family and friends,” she said.

“Instead, despite Dick’s GP and I repeatedly informing them that he was ill and vulnerable, and urgently needed help, nothing was done. He was eventually found in his council flat, where he had lain dead for around a fortnight, and his son had to clear a flat that stank of death.

“A senior member of the social care department told me that there would be an independent report into the case. A very brief report, written by a Camden employee, emerged in mid-April, 18 weeks after Dick’s death, and 28 weeks after I had asked the council to take urgent action.

“No blame was attributed to anyone within the department apart from one inexperienced social worker – a case of what the American squaddies call ‘different spanks for different ranks’.”

The report recognises how Ms Stevenson had spent time making sure Mr French got to GP appointments and tried to help, but by the autumn, she knew he was in danger and wanted to make sure professional carers could help him.

Her numerous attempts, which became increasingly frantic as days went by, are all outlined in the inquiry but reveal the adult social care team did not act when they needed to.

Camden’s review found Ms Stevenson had warned social workers that Mr French was abusing alcohol, had stopped eating and needed urgent attention.

She explained how she had been helping all she could but her husband was unwell and she believed Mr French needed a proper care programme with professionals.

Her calls were logged and noted but no action was taken.

On October 21, a social worker did call Ms Stevenson and she explained the squalid conditions he was now living in.

This social worker asked for an assessment by a member of the team which covers Gospel Oak, but did not express its urgency, nor raise a safeguarding concern –  Camden’s review said these were two missed opportunities to help.

Camden Council launched its own review into the care Mr French had received in his final months

When he still had not been assessed by November 6, Mr French’s GP intervened by emailing the department to call on them to act.

Again, this email was logged – but no other action taken, which the inquiry says was the third missed opportunity to help.

The doctor sent further messages marked as urgent and they were read but not acted upon. One social worker interviewed added that their “main focus was to visit Mr French but they needed his consent to visit him”.

Notes made at the time added Mr French was not aware his GP or neigh­bour had contacted social services about his condition, but the report states consent should not have been an issue in an urgent safeguarding case like this.

The social worker overseeing the case was then called away for family reasons for three days early in December and no one took up their workload in their place.

A similar cycle continued until Mr French’s doctor eventually visited the flat on December 10 and raised the alarm further when she could not get access.

Then on December 13, a neighbour called an ambulance and medics found Mr French dead.

The report accepts that the east team, which looks after Gospel Oak, were “extremely busy” and “had too much work” at this time.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Our thoughts and condolences are with Richard’s family and friends following his death.

“We are deeply sorry that our response to Mr French was not good enough and that we let him down. We have apologised for this to his family and friends.

“Camden’s residents need to know that when they report concerns about someone’s wellbeing they will be acted on – and so we are urgently taking forward the recommendations of the report, including sharing its findings with the chair of the Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board, to ensure we learn from Mr French’s death.”