i cried last night

The scary thing is that things like this, and worse are going on everyday and nobody knows about it. The police are too tied up with the red tape that the government are forcing them to stick to, so many of them cant do the jobs they signed up for...mainly beating the crap out of people who do these sick acts! I am certainly not pro violence but in some cases there is little else that can be done.

Lets hope, if nothing else this incident serves as wake up call to the government and services.

It's horrific. There were clear failings.

However, the job of a social worker is difficult and if we're not careful we will make it impossible. There's always a fine balance, here yes there are serious questions to be answered. But generally SWs try to keep families together. Look what happened at Orkney when social services went the other way. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Not an easy job and as stated the issues aren't always so clear cut.

If we victimise and stigmatise SWs, then nobody will want to do the job. Personally I think they do a terrifc role. Yes they make mistakes - as inthis case, serious ones - but overall they do a good job and I feel sad by the torrent of criticism.

I dont get the lack of action from Social Services in this case - this was going on under their noses, how on earth could they not see what was happening? RIP that poor little soul, I cried too, my grandson is a similar age.

Then on the flip side of the coin there was the family that had 3 kids (IIRC) taken away because one of them had brittle bone disease - and they jumped very quickly to the conclusion that the mother had caused the injuries - she kept telling them there was a history of it in the family - by the time they had been cleared their kids had been adopted and it couldn't be reversed.

When are these professionals who get paid a lot of tax payers money going to get it right?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Miss Alpinestarhero

I forget her name - it was a black girl...had quite a heavy presence in the news.

Sorry Maria, not having a go at you, but using this as an example.

This is part of the problem, as a society we forget all too quickly the lessons from previous cases, forget the names, the faces and suffering of the poor children subjected to this level of cruelty.

It is all very well us expressing our disgust on this forum, at work, down the pub but what good does it do? In a week or two this case will be out of the news and 'forgotten'. We should write to the head of social services concerned, our MPs, this 'Minister for Children' (FFS!), the Home Secretary, the newspapers etc etc. We cannot DO anything about it ourselves except be vigilant, but we can make sure that the people who CAN DO something about it know that WE expect them to do something about it.

I'm sure that those in power know this, but their think tank / focus group led policy making process does not agree. This is because these processes are dominated by the PC brigade who in all honesty are nice people who live in nice places and do not have to meet this horror on a personal level (I may be wrong, but I do believe this). Therefore, lets inundate them with communications from regular, normal folks who expect people who perpetrate such acts to be caught, stopped and punished severely.

So do something and not forget this time.

Its a tragic story, and as is so often the case, so preventable with hindsight. Its worth remembering though that these sick individuals have been found guilty and are being granted anonymity so i guess they may have more children? . . a scary thought.

For those who think more stringent guidelines are in order though see if you can guess which famous person said this . . . .

"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think."

Anyone???

Originally Posted by Ed

It's horrific. There were clear failings.

However, the job of a social worker is difficult and if we're not careful we will make it impossible. There's always a fine balance, here yes there are serious questions to be answered. But generally SWs try to keep families together. Look what happened at Orkney when social services went the other way. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Not an easy job and as stated the issues aren't always so clear cut.

If we victimise and stigmatise SWs, then nobody will want to do the job. Personally I think they do a terrifc role. Yes they make mistakes - as inthis case, serious ones - but overall they do a good job and I feel sad by the torrent of criticism.

agreed

But if they had made 60 visits (I think it was?) and the mother had been arrested twice how on earth could they miss what was going on?

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by neillfergie

"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think."

Adolf Hitler.

This is why we need to let those in power that we DO think.

Heard about this on the radio this morning, shocked me then. Similar case to that one that was mentioned not so long ago about the baby with a broken spine, wtf possesses these people. Obviously some high degree of evil but so totally inhuman its unimaginable. It goes completely against nature and as said in the other thread, why should these people not have to suffer the same fate as the one inflicted upon their victims.

If the scum walk free in the next 5 years then my thoughts that this country is just becoming a laughing stock will be confirmed. I'm thinking we'd do a far better job governing it ourselves. These type of cases just keep on coming out, and those are just the ones revealed by the press, there are no doubt 1000s of cases going on that everyone is unaware of, not exactly a problem if the social workers walk about with their eyes closed like the ones mentioned is this case clearly effin' do.

RIP little lad, you're misery is over.

That's the sadest thing I've ever read. I would give anything for 10 minutes with those responsible but more to bring that poor child back and give it a good loving home and family. So very sad.