We need to do something about babies being killed in this country

[faithfulbird20]

Wtf is going on. Are we nation of monsters who don't have the love and care for our own offspring? I'm so upset I can't even function...

People just don’t want to believe it is happening! My own father, born pre war, was subject to terrible physical and emotional abuse from his mother. His sisters, born post war are blissfully ignorant. He has tried to tell them about it but they don’t listen. His one sisters daughter is a detective inspector. I can’t imagine she’d be interested in hearing my father muddy the memories she has of her grandmother either.

Probably children have been abused and hurt since the dawn of time unfortunately.

Remember that the adults who hurt them were treated that way as children as well but they survived. We need to have better grasp if the intergenerational trauma that is created when we cut services to the bone and fail to give good early intervention

Sure start worked. Now it's been cut right back. Every well run playgroup or drop in or family support worker can help protect children and keep parents on the right side.

If little baby P or Arthur or star had survived they would sadly have been likely to become abusers themselves. Yet our sympathy would have not existed for them anymore.

We need to see the chain of causation and stop seeing this as something called evil. Ita not evil its generations of abuse and trauma.

Well my father has never treated anyone like his mother treated him. He is just dreadfully upset when he hears about these sorts of stories in the news.
I had a work colleague whose childhood was horrific. She was nothing like this herself, complete antithesis.
It is unforgivable that concerns were not acted on regarding these children.

@waterrat

Probably children have been abused and hurt since the dawn of time unfortunately.

Remember that the adults who hurt them were treated that way as children as well but they survived. We need to have better grasp if the intergenerational trauma that is created when we cut services to the bone and fail to give good early intervention

Sure start worked. Now it's been cut right back. Every well run playgroup or drop in or family support worker can help protect children and keep parents on the right side.

If little baby P or Arthur or star had survived they would sadly have been likely to become abusers themselves. Yet our sympathy would have not existed for them anymore.

We need to see the chain of causation and stop seeing this as something called evil. Ita not evil its generations of abuse and trauma.

Although that line is said a lot, it’s factually untrue. What is true, is that victims of childhood abuse are more likely (51% more likely) to be victims of domestic abuse as adults.

It’s horrendously sad.

The easiest way to take some real and meaningful action is to use your vote to remove the party that has made massive cuts of public services over the past 10 years. Sure start centres, child and adult mental health services and police have all been cut dramatically and the effects are awful for vulnerable families, and for those of us trying to hold these services together. It’s just heartbreaking to not be able to provide the support you want and need to.

After the death of Victoria Climbié one of the key problems identified by Lord Laming in his inquiry was the very heavy case loads carried by social workers. This, and the fact that so many children known to be at risk did not have an allocated qualified social worker, is very much down to funding.

I'm simplifying here, but the funding is largely comprised of grants given to local authorities (councils) by Government. For well over a decade this amount has been shrinking.

It's convenient for Government figures to blame social workers and to blame councils for disasters in children's social care. But Government needs to fund services properly.

Infuriatingly, Govt is planning to cut and cut even more. Social care used to sit for the most part outside of the council tax revenue system, but this Government now wants councils to raise more dosh locally to fund social services, while capping council tax rises.

It's a catastrophe that's already happening.

Stop locking people down for a start.

It exacerbates the abuse

@acquiescence

I agree here. Emotional responses are understandable. However they don’t actually help change anything or prevent future tragedies.

People who are upset could usefully think about how they vote and why we have such an awful government, underfunded public services and massive inequalities in our society. And if you think we don’t you might want to become more aware of what happens outside your own immediate perspective on life in the UK.

@MLMshouldbeillegal nobody here is grieving competitively but are expressing their sadness and sharing their feelings with others who feel the same. Your assumption of competitiveness shows a very cynical view of the world and I feel sorry for you. You might not be feeling anything, in which case please find another thread and don't mock people for having emotions to a horrific event. It is a good thing that people have emotions over this.

And those that keep saying "oh why don't you do something to change it," how do you know people aren't already? Donating to charity or writing to an mp or adopting are not mutually exclusive acts to feeling sorry for child abuse. Do we need to list our charitable credentials for you to get a license to feel and express sadness? People writing here of outrage and discussing best courses of action is also something that is a positive change in this world.

Your comments are not only useless in themselves, but also hurtful to people who are already hurt and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

I think a lot of people were really upset by this, I have a toddler whos not that much older than star was when she was murdered. So yeah it probably affected me because I was looking at my DD not understanding how anyone could do that to such a small child. Those suggesting not many people shed a tear are speaking for themselves, it’s horrific, you end up thinking of the kids who suffer abuse that doesn’t quite tip over into murder. I think it’s natural to empathise more with the vulnerable and small children are some of the most vulnerable in our society. I find myself skimming past the stories because it’s unbearable.

My mental health is fine too, being sickened by sickening crimes is in my view a healthy mental response.

@ElleGettingBetter

Do you have a breakdown between males and females on that figure?

Also people did do things, with both of the recent cases social services were notified by various people multiple times. It wasn’t as if it was being ignored by the people around them. Thats what we are told to do, report, raise issues with social services, schools, the police - and thats what people did. Theres definitely a case for saying we need to invest more in social services. Both children have family who I think would have taken them in. The question is why did their carers who seemed to despise them not want to hand them over?

[quote Antsgomarching]@ElleGettingBetter

Do you have a breakdown between males and females on that figure?[/quote]
I’m working at the moment, there is a lot of information in the link below there may be something that breaks the 51% down further.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/peoplewhowereabusedaschildrenaremorelikelytobeabusedasanadult/2017-09-27

One issue is, there is such a diversity of lives and experiences, culture, expectations and opportunities, in this country and not enough flexibility in services to grasp and respond to that. Discussion is dominated by those of us who wouldn't dream of doing such things and middle classes who don't want their activities, understandably, tarred with the same brush. I include myself in that: someone mentioned home education as an issue, but given the inability of mainstream to educate SEN children many are forced to consider home education, and I do resent people assuming it's automatically a bad thing.

There's a march happening next Saturday:

www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-petition-to-have-arthur-labinjo-hughes-killers-given-a-whole-life-order/u/30009887