The Sara Sharif case: what is the point of taxpayers funding these failing organisations?

The point is that home educated kids aren't more likely to be abused, and it does not seem to be the case that there are significant cases where home educated kids are abused and it isn't picked up, compared to kids in school.

So you would be wasting time, adding more work to an overtaxed system, to do checks on all of these families just because they home educate.

When you have services that have funds cut you have more pressure put on staff you get staff leaving, you have to hold on to staff and that means holding onto staff that are not good at their jobs

many public services have lost fantastic members of their teams as they are just burnt out and often are not getting to do the job they really want and to and having to spread themselves too thinly

To attract good staff services need to be fully funded, offer good pay, offer good training, good environment to work in and strong management

so often this isn’t the case and so much of this is down to the constant cutting back of funds

Well that’s wasn’t down to social workers….they wanted Sara to be removed from parents ….that was what they put to the courts…l.but the judge went with the view of the Guardian ….so not sure why everyone is social worker bashing here

Step parenting is a known risk in child abuse. This gets glossed over and yet is a consistent issue.

Nobody seems to view it accurately in these cases until it is too late; an adult loyal mostly to the abuser and not the child. Yet we tell fairy stories to children about wicked stepfathers and mothers, because of it. When one parent is abusive and the other adult chooses an abusive partner, this should prompt a lot of concern if a child is involved. Why it didn’t here is very strange

🙄 er no….a child died horrifically because her father and stepmother killed her

I hadn't picked up that detail. Another slip adding to the mass.

They undoubtedly should've phoned but it might not have made a difference. Neighbours of Alfie Steel made numerous calls to police when they heard him being abused repeatedly. But nothing was done and he was then murdered by his parent and stepparent, just like Sara.

A child died horrifically because her parents abused her and no one did anything to stop it

It’s only when you work in a setting that tries to make referrals to social care, that you realise how atrocious and unfit for purpose the service is. Lessons have not been learned, no matter how many times we hear it. I despair.

We don't hear about so many of these cases because they don't make national news.

family court also got a lot to answer for

Nothing was learnt from baby P? That could not be MORE wrong. And of COURSE there are 'successful cases'. Every single day social workers are out there removing children from potentially life threatening conditions. The numbers of children who are protected from harm are immeasurable.

The family court is a disgrace. It allows abuse to be made into a game to be torn apart by lawyers. That is not what children need, but is an exercise in advocacy, which is subject to manipulation by abusive people. These cases are made into granular excuses, which adults would never tolerate. As adults, we can leave if we are hit or beaten or abused. There is no such choice for children and if such behaviour is not dealt with early in a child’s life, that abuser is inevitably emboldened and gets worse.

It’s often said on Mumsnet that abusers escalate towards adult partners. What’s little discussed is that same dynamic towards children. Slaps, punches, kicks, all called discipline but simple violence. And children have even less chance of understanding it’s wrong.

It would help if abusive men weren’t considered as people who need help but what they actually are. Violent. You’ve got a better chance of getting a stranger prosecuted for hurting you or your children than someone who lives in your home. This guy should have been in prison. Not given custody

All child deaths of this kind elicit official enquiries.

Time and time again in these cases that do make it to the paper it always seems as if steps are missed or just not taken for fear of being phobic.

A news article today said about not asking her to remove her headscarf which would have shown bruises. In other cases not being investigated properly due to them being homosexual relationships or involving the travelling community and such.

When it comes to protecting children our government bodies should not be cutting corners incase of cries of phobic.

It’s always lessons will be learnt but it doesn’t feel they are when there is a possible “card” that could be played. They then air on the side of caution and tragedy happens.

It is a thankless job but most councils have too many managers and not enough front line staff sadly. I speak from experience.

These things don't happen in a vacuum, our institutions have failed and keep failing.

I agree with you heads should roll and people should be in jail

With regards to taxes to pay for the most vulnerable to be protected, do not allow the narrative that all the money gets spent on these services and the only thing we can do is pay more tax. What about all the billions and billions of pounds they get wasted on bogus, poorly executed, unnecessary and wasteful military projects which do nothing but pump tax payer money into the bank accounts of the arms industry?
www.declassifieduk.org/how-britain-is-wasting-its-defence-budget/

Logan Mwangi, Star Hobson, Arthur labinjo Hughes, Hakim...

Exactly. The pro contact culture, mimising an abusers behaviour. That judge bears huge responsibility for this. He ordered that child to live with a violent perpetrator and without proper follow up. The family court is not fit for purpose.

I agree. I think someone tried to mock me up thread when I said tax. How do people think services get funded I wonder. Yeah current tax could be distributed more efficiently bla bla bla but root of the matter is, there isn't enough money to go around due to years of underfunding schools, social services and NHS. And yes homeschooling can be used as a disguise for abuse in the current system. Noone is saying all hs parents are abusers. But hs kids esp in known case need to be watched very closely. I dont think these are minority views. And saying parents kill or ss can't catch all is really unhelpful. So what. We shouldn't strive to improve? Just accept child abuse? Some kids can and are saved. That's worth it.

Edited for typos

This nails it. ^

Exactly, with his history?

This. There are too many people needing help and not enough helpers and that seems to be the same across all services at the moment. I don’t envy social workers, they have a very stressful, thankless, risky job and I’m sure most are doing the best they can in very reduced circumstances. If things don’t improve there will be more cases like this poor little girl who undoubtedly deserved better.