Baby P witch hunt

I don't think Ed Balls should have sacked the boss live on TV but I do think generally it was justified anger at professionals not doing their jobs properly.

Ed Balls who iwas Health Secretary at the time sacked the poor woman who was head of Social services and Education for ?Essex publicly in Parliament before she had even been informed -such a big brave man - as if she could have had that much input
She was suicidal.
I wrote the above. I didn’t exactly get my facts right but reading a later newspaper article I see
The boss of Haringey Council's children's services was awarded a £680,000 payout for unfair dismissal after arguing she had been "unfairly scapegoated".
So thanks Ed Balls - I see she got compensation but that is 680,000 of tax payers money - and Ed swans off with his pension in tact.
updated info here
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-62087519

Child protection is hard and I think many SW lose faith in the system. I felt conflicted that we could potentially remove a nine year old who desperately loved their mum, wanted to protect her and lied to us to protect her. The mum was getting back involved with a man who beat her. I felt that this was working against trying keep the child's best interests at heart. Yes their mum was not right but the removal would mean the child would end up living with strangers, probably fucked up for life, and the mum would cling even tighter to the man that abused her, as she had nothing left now. I couldn't do it. I wish I'd seen more happy endings for the children who were removed but unfortunately it seemed if they were over a certain age, the removal left a legacy almost as bad as if they had grown up in their abusive family homes.

Agree, they were the same council that failed Victoria Climbie seven years before baby P.

It was a failing across the board. He visited that doctor with a broken spine.

They failed that child catastrophically. So I disagree it wasn't a witch hunt. It was justified anger at professionals who jobs are to protect children and failed massively.

I don’t think Lucy letby is guilty @TheShellBeach . I’m in America and so I read the New Yorker magazine article that was suppressed in the UK. However BBC sounds have since done a podcast suggesting the same- these very sick babies died because of systemic failures in management

You are right. 2 years out from 2013-15. Apologies. However I’m thinking Sen and and personality are an issue here. Parole board too lenient in 2013 I think,

She was released in 2013 but brought broke her bail conditions and was put back in prison two years later. She should never see the light of day again in my opinion, along with the horrific way that poor baby died the things she also allowed to happen to her two year old daughter are sickening.

@the7Vabo you can read it here. The services involvement section is an eye opener.
While not maliciously or intentionally, that baby was failed , despite multiple agencies and professionals being involved. It IS a travesty. Even worse, his death was used as a political football and click bait revenue.

https://basw.co.uk/sites/default/files/resources/basw111257-100_0.pdf

You do realise the sentence was a minimum! That means she could apply for parole. and she was actually released in 2022. Maybe if posters understood sentencing it might help. She was in prison for 15 years.

I also have to add , I could never be a social worker as I'd either end up with a mental breakdown or in jail myself trying to rescue a kid. I struggle enough being a TA and only marginally involved in cases of neglect and abuse. I can't imagine how these people do it day in, day out.

It's awful the mother got such a pathetic sentence and I think the Government has since addressed the sentencing guidelines. It's awful the prpfessionals get dragged through the press and photos released etc. That should never happen unless they have acted in such a way that warrants their own criminal charges. They should be held to account internally or by an independent authority.

I think the government need to stop prioritising keeping clearly neglected and abused children with their parents. It's a gamble of an innocent life. There should be more money, more resources and tougher rules around child safe guarding but that's the same sadly in all essential services.

The mother was released in 2022 and has been recalled to prison for breaking the terms of her licence. Not sure why a poster earlier said she was out in 2013.

I think the problem with this case was social worker and doctor being too trusting and as individuals they cannot remove a child from a dangerous situation. They can however, feed into the senior team that starts the court process. This case did show a clear light on the failings of SS and the police and the NHS. They were not working together for the safety of children. Parents are capable of crime and dc depend on these services. Everyone letting dc down does need investigation.

This case did lead to a shortage of social workers. I’m not sure it’s all about money either. It’s about not wanting to do children work. Who can blame them?

The Societal breakdown has broken down by more and more people shagging around and have babies,and babies with multiple partners.
Most cases of neglect abuse, murder of children seems to be where a stepparent or mothers new partner is involved or fathers new partner even.

Very rarely are the children products of relationship were parents are happily married.
People enter into having children far too easily and without committment.
Fathers bugger off and start again elsewhere, thinking the social will provide for the mother and the kids.
It's just so depressing.
Wonder what it's like in say France, Spain, and Germany, do they do it better?
If so we should learn from them.
It's all basically about sex and contraception though.
We have more and more contraception than ever, but more and more people having babies that they are not equipped to be able to care for them properly.
We may have laughed at no sex before marriage but at least we didn't have the terrible social problems we have today.
Some people are disgusting the way they carry on.

Pass the parcel of blame.
The people who killed poor Peter are those people who seem to have been overlooked as far as the press were concerned.
Yes there were failings in a non joined up system.
The sacking by Ed Balls was a chest beating exercise. Poor woman. I'm too am pleased she felt able to stand up for herself.
The rest of the professionals who were publicly named, just unacceptable. They were not charged with any crime, they had a right to anonymity surely?
The fact the poor boys mother cannot keep herself out of jail says everything about her paltry sentence and 'rehabilitation ' .

You are correct. But what happens in all aspects of health and social care, is that individuals are scapegoated rather than looking at the system issues.

Weighing up the truth (or otherwise) what's written by the scum press should be a mandatory part of the curriculum.
The problem with low quality click bait stories and the subsequent social media frenzy is that huge swathes of the GB public are too stupid or too lazy to see the actual truth.

Yet still they wonder why there's a recruitment crisis with doctors and social workers.
Go figure.

I think we really really need as a society to invest in parents and their children. All of society's ills come down to parents not parenting well enough for a huge variety of reasons. Knife crime, violent crime, mental health problems...all directly linked to kids being parented by struggling lone parents, abandoned by their dads leading to an absence of male roles models and lack of adequate support generally. We have become horribly individualistic as a society and we are also work obsessed for financial reasons. All our public services are under funded and there are just as a result a huge number of kids who are in real danger at worst and incapable of becoming productive members of society at best.
Its tragic. And yet we tinker around the edges rather than say kids need community. Kids need fathers. Kids need structure. The poor social workers are getting the blame for complete societal breakdown.

This reminds me of my aunt and cousin

Aunt and uncle broke up and she brainwashed my cousins (male and female) not to have anything to do with my uncle as 'he left us!wahh!'

Cousins are not very bright and even though they'd seen what had been happening between their parents,they 100% believed my aunt

Long story short,aunt started dating a bloke who groomed her and started abusing cousin (female)

Aunt refused to believe cousin and turned on her,new bloke dumped her so aunt and cousin started seeing men from the takeaway round the corner to their house

Both aunt and (then just turned) 14 year old cousin where sleeping (being raped in cousins case) with two men from the takeaway-cousin was threatened to keep sleeping with (being raped) with her 'boyfriend' as it was her fault aunts boyfriend had dumped aunt and if this new boyfriend dumped aunt,she'd destroy cousins life

Cousin fell pregnant at 15,nothing happened-she went on to have the baby (aunt brought baby up and cousin went on to have 4 more babies)

As a family,we rang the police,ss,childlike,nspcc-you name them,we rang them from the moment aunt started seeing the first bloke

I was 19 and had just had my first baby,was interviewed by a sw (who was a nasty bitch) was called a liar who deserved to have my own baby taken away (with a threatening phone call a week later) and was told to 'keep my nose out-'aunts rules are the only rules for those children'

She believed whatever aunt said without digging any further,even when it became obvious what was happening and then cousin fell pregnant

She was badly let down by ss and it could have been a lot different if only they'd dug a bit further (or saw what was right in front of them)

The family did have a few sw's but I was only interviewed by that one and all believed aunts take on it all

Not one stepped in