One of the saddest stories in a long time TW: Neglect/child death

[Perjo]

I read this this morning and it has to be one of the saddest, most avoidable child deaths I've read about in a long time. Especially where it says he was still alive on January 2nd.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/47b4c6b2-673d-4c43-8ef0-b8ba05c47f0a?shareToken=39b0f7f8b3c90882aca021214db91159

What a shit mother!! She didn’t bother with her child for weeks and over Christmas as well. It looks very much like the poor baby was born to crap parents and didn’t stand much chance of a good life.

This is unbelievably sad on so many levels.
I also can't hold the sw responsible, but they are often a convenient scapegoat

As a Social worker myself my heart sank reading this in the news today. The children on our caseloads weigh heavily on our minds and there is only so much we can actually do and it really sounds like this childs social worker tried all she or he could in this situation and will be absolutely devastated right now. What's refreshing is most of the responses on this thread seem to understand the limitations of social workers in respect of us forcing entry into people's homes. It's still so frustrating that in the media the social worker is yet again being blamed for this and it's really no wonder there is a crisis in recruitment and retention of social workers when this is what we have to contend with. RIP baby boy

The child wasn't in her care when he died so I can't see how she could be charged with neglect? A parent leaving a child in the care of the other parent is not neglect.

Indeed. Otherwise there are thousands of uninvolved fathers out there who would be guilty of criminal neglect of their children as opposed to just being shit human beings.

He might have come to the letter slot if they’d called enough.
But the mother blaming others instead of tearing herself apart speaks volumes.
Another sad, short life.

That poor social worker.

Assuming he was still alive and conscious then.

I don’t understand blaming the social worker. They did nothing wrong.

It is so, so sad.

I think this is why we need stronger communities. Neighbours, friends and family to raise the alarm if no contact for a few days.

I saw that mum was blaming social workers but IMO we can't blame statutory services as they were repeatedly visiting and raising the alarm.

Whether Police visit every time a vulnerable family aren't in for a scheduled appointment is another question, however that would take huge resources. I don't think it would be workable.

It's incredibly sad but from what's being reported the social worker is not at fault. The family don't appear to have gone to see the little boy over Christmas or New Year although a neighbour made the effort.

I don’t think we can - on the evidence provided - blame it all on the mother with any degree of fairness.

We have been told she argued with the father and left - we don’t know how often, if at all, she tried to get in touch - she may have been blocked; we don’t know if she was the one who sought SW help.

We don’t know if she was capable of visiting - obviously I don’t know this, but if she had been admitted to hospital or arrested for example she may have been physically incapable of intervening.

She may have been subject to strict visitation terms and calendars of contact and was not allowed to reach out.

It’s an absolute tragedy - but I do think people are reaching out to blame the mother without enough evidence to do so.

This makes me so mad. The main person who let this wee lamb down is his Mother. As is usually the case in these stories tbf. Yet again SS get the blame.
That poor Social worker.

Absolutely heartbreaking, that poor terrified child.

People go on about dog licenses but Jesus Christ I think humans need to be vetted before having a child. The mother is blaming SS, no doubt keen to remove herself from blame/ prison. Selfish, despicable excuse of human.

For all the social worker knew, the dad could’ve been out each time - I don’t know why there was SS involvement in the first place. It is odd there was no crying when they went? Unless he was too frightened, ill or weak or dead to respond. Can’t read the whole thing it’s too upsetting.

Where with the neighbours, family, etc. Nobody thought to ring the police ?!

What a sad story.
Sounds like the social worker did all she could and more.
What kind of mother abandons her child like that with a father known to be in poor health? Now she's deflecting and blaming everyone other than herself. Makes me very angry.

Fuck The Times newspaper for trotting out their same old, tired old trope of social services 'failure'. Even though they put failure in quote marks, we know their condemnation is the same right-wing small state/nanny state narrative they always push, despite it not remotely fitting the facts here.

As pp's have said, SS appeared to be the only ones doing anything constructive at all in aid of this child's welfare.

Mind-boggling how the mother can say her son died because Social Services didn't do their job. Look in the mirror, woman.

None of you have the first idea as to why this mother wasn't involved, but it's all her fault?

Nice work, MN. Nice work.

Poor Bronson :( And that poor SW too, who did nothing but exactly what she should have.

Absolutely heartbreaking but SS were the only ones who gave enough of a damn to try and get to him. The police should have come out when SS called them the first time. They should take a lot of the responsibility. And the mother should have phoned police for a welfare check given that she claims she was being kept away from the child by the father. If I hadn't heard from my little ones for that long, especially at Christmas, I would have been raising complete hell.

Poor little toddler. He was curled up with his daddy when they found him. 😭

Agree, I wonder if anyone heard the boy crying...but would you be accused of being a nosey neighbour if you went to ask if all was OK?

But very sad that no friends or family have close or regular enough contact to be worried/raise the alarm if they were not able to get hold of them

Agree with this. There's a lot to be said for abortion in the circumstances under which she had a baby - she obviously wasn't capable of being a parent and he was old and ill and shouldn't have been becoming a father again in his late fifties.

I feel for that social worker...

The mother blaming social services ? Where was she ? Why didn't she check in on her son !

@LeviOsaNotLeviosaa I was aware when I criticised the mum that the background of the case is likely complex and nuanced. I understand that there may have been a range of reasons why she was not caring for Bronson. I think if the dad had been abusive to her, the child would not have been placed in his care.

I still think she could have done a lot more for her son, to prevent this happening. She was quite capable of talking to the Daily Mail after the fact, to deflect and blame. Why didn't she speak to the Police before the fact, and add her concerns to the Social workers'?

Agree. Poor lad. The mother is more guilty than any social worker x

I am not S/S biggest fan but they are not to blame here. Bronson's mother and the Police Service are to blame here.

Sarah, 43, told The Sun: 'If social services had done their job Bronson would still be alive.
'I can't believe it. They can't let them get away with this. We have to be able to rely on social workers to keep our children safe.'

How dare she. If she had done her job as his mother rather than treating him as a timeshare child she could abandon for weeks at a time then he would still be alive.

This is part of a wider culture of believing support services are ultimately responsible for children and their parents are doing them a favour by hosting them.

SS took appropriate action in my book, this poor little boy was failed by his mother.