Friends and family of a retired engineer who died in his sheltered accommodation bungalow raised concerns for his welfare five times before he was checked on by the site's wellbeing team.

The body of Kenneth Mullins, 65, was found at his property in Mendham Close, off Mendham Lane in Harleston, south Norfolk, by staff from Saffron Housing, which manages the housing scheme.

An inquest into his death, held at Norfolk Coroner’s Court this week, heard a statement from his daughter, Katherine Mullins, in which she raised concerns about the response she had received from the Saffron team.
Eastern Daily Press:

The university student kept in contact with her dad by text messaging, and she became worried after he had not been heard from for around a week. 

She said: “I’m slightly concerned about the wellbeing team and Saffron. 

“I’m aware that Ian [a friend] had emailed Saffron twice and called them once to do a wellbeing check. And I had rang once. 

“I then called again a day later, and they then checked. But they did not check on the day I’d asked them to.” 

Saffron provided information to the court about its ‘OK Each Day’ tool. 

This was a button that residents pressed daily from their homes to “check in”, but it was optional and Mr Mullins had opted out.

Area coroner, Yvonne Blake, concluded that Mr Mullins died from a “drug related death contributed to by natural causes.”  

His body was found on the morning of June 7 last year.

Lynne Riddoch, director of tenant services at Saffron, said: “We were saddened to learn that Kenneth had passed away and understand that this is a very upsetting time for his family. 

“We have co-operated fully with the inquest and take feedback from relatives extremely seriously. We are carrying out a thorough internal investigation.  

“Our thoughts and condolences are with Kenneth's family at this time.” 

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