A HEALTH visitor tasked with making sure a heroin addict mum was caring for her son properly has admitted failing to follow protocols.

Irene Carswell was the NHS worker who had dealt with Kimberley and Declan Hainey after the boy was born.

She told a Fatal Accident Inquiry into his death that she saw him and Kimberley regularly between April and September 2008.

But, when Declan was around five-months-old, she began experiencing problems trying to see him and didn't follow her department's guidelines on what to do in that situation.

As well as giving Hainey advice on how to care for Declan, she also weighed and measured him to make sure he was growing as normal.

She described Kimberley as being an eager listener who asked lots of questions and took being a parent seriously. She said the mother was "articulate" and "well dressed" with an "alert and thriving" child.

But she said that, after September 2008, she stopped being able to see Declan and Kimberley.

She told Sheriff Ruth Anderson yesterday that there was no answer at the Haineys' Paisley home on three consecutive visits to them.

After the first two occasions - November 19 and 20 that year - she should have contacted the social work department to tell them.

But Hainey phoned her after the second unsuccessful visit and arranged one of December 8.

Ms Carswell turned up at the cottage flat - where Declan was later found dead - and again there was no answer.

But, despite guidelines saying "the social work local area team should be contacted immediately" after two unsuccessful visits, Carswell did nothing.

Defending her actions yesterday, she said: "I was concerned that I'd had no reply on two occasions however, based on the information I had and the experience I'd had up to then, I wasn't particularly concerned with her ability to care for Declan."

Sheriff Anderson asked: "The guidelines state - 'If two successive efforts to see the child fail you've got to do X.' Why did you think you needed something else?"

Ms Carswell said: "This was the first time I'd had no response or a lack of engagement"

Declan was found dead in his cot in March 2010.

Hainey, 39, was jailed for a minimum of 15 years for his murder but released last April on appeal.

The inquiry continues at Paisley Sheriff Court.