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

No need for that Appalling comments. The mother has lost her child in harrowing circumstances

And many of those people are us.

People keep voting in arseholes who cut child services, youth work, police, parenting resources and social services to the bone. They want lower taxes and don't understand that SWs and POs were already working OVER capacity.

And then they blame SWs and POs for the shit service provided.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that I am no longer a SW. I guarantee that SW worried and stressed about what might happen and the worst did. The SW might never recover from this. Even though the same people giving her shit would also be HORRIFIED if a SW was allowed to break their door down.

The mother wasn't much of a mother.

Children aren't taken away because their parents aren't in great health! They don't take them away from violent thugs, drug addicts and just look how many children who have a parent that moves a new partner in and the child ends up dead within a year.

The mother didn't bother to get in touch all over Christmas and neither did any other member of the family it's them and the police who didn't do a welfare check that are responsible , not the dad

So many people with no experience of dysfunctional parents/families chiming in to blame the mother.

If she isn't allowed to see her child unsupervised, her son could be put in care or she could be arrested.

So no, she's not going to be bashing doors down. She probably thinks the father is simply not talking to her.

She's lost her child and people were at the door while he was still alive. Was the social worker to blame? No, not really. She made two more visits to gain access and went as far as getting a key.

This woman's child is still dead. She's going to be grieving and want to blame someone. She will feel let down and wish more was done, it's normal to feel that way.

@GreatAuntMaude

I don’t think social services were at fault here either from what I have read, I actually think the social worker was quite diligent

The mother however !…….don’t want to say anymore as perhaps we don’t know the full story …..

Honestly as extreme as this sounds I feel once you have children permanently removed by SS, you should be prevented from having any more children. I’ve been on the fence for a while but I feel the suffering of these children outweighs the suffering of the mother/father through not being able to have more children that will be removed anyway. The right of a child to be born into a decent life is paramount and matters more than the wishes or autonomy of any adult.

So the mother said: Sarah Piesse, Bronson’s mother, accused social workers of failing to keep her child safe, saying: “If social services had done their job, Bronson would still be alive. But they didn’t do anything."

🙄 Why didn't she go and see her son over Christmas? Why was he deemed 'vulnerable'? What about her responsibility?

Things have changed significantly. Police now don’t routinely do welfare checks they expect SS and Health to make initial contacts and enquiries

👏👏👏

I’ve worked with vulnerable children and young adults for years. I am due to go to University in September to do a BA in Social Work.

Every single day I wonder if I’m making the right decision.

there was no answer in a house where SW were meant to visit every week

Were they, @Devilshands?

I read they visited each month.

@hellsBells246

It was weekly visits.

18th December last seen.
Assume break up for Christmas
Attempted visit 2nd Jan
Second attempted visit 4th Jan.
Attended again on the 9th and gained access.

I wondered where the two older dc were too.

Daily Mail are now reporting her as a “mum of 10.” She has a previous child who died.

Thanks. There was clearly significant concern for Bronson if SS were doing weekly visits. Poor wee mite.

I genuinely cannot see how the SW is at fault here

But parents can change. I have worked with colleagues who managed a project so parents who had children removed delayed having another child until they were able to parent sufficiently (rather than have another baby quickly in an attempt to 'replace' the one that was removed as someone to love and who loves them). And those who didn't have a child until they'd worked with the project for an effective period of time were then able to prove themselves as capable parents. So parents can change. But only with the support and resources our current government has underfunded.

In this case it's desperately sad the mother had no contact with her youngest over Christmas but as yet we don't know if that's because the father refused her calls (it's reported they had a fight and she could have thought he was giving her the silent treatment). Or because she neglected to phone him to check on her youngest.

As yet we don't know why the police didn't follow up the 2 SW requests for safe and well checks. If there were target based crimes taking place in the area the force's priorities might have been on pursuing those (again thank the government for underfunding the police).

It's a desperately sad situation and I hope it spurs people to check on vulnerable children and adults to make sure the likelihood of this happening again is reduced.

A relative of mine was left overnight after a fall but a carer and friend both followed up with family to gain entry to take the relative to hospital. Sad they were on the floor alone for 12 hours but fortunately not 12 days. (There was an emergency cord in the room where they fell but they were so disoriented they didn't pull it).

100% agree with this.

In fact was coming back to thread to say that the more I think about this case and the question of blame, the more I ultimately blame no one in particular except the successive years and years of governmental neglect of public services. Every element in this situation comes down to failings as a society. Why was the mother not able to meet the needs of her child? Was she once a child in need herself? Why was the father's health so poor for a man only in his 60s?
Why didn't the police have the resources to do a welfare check at the time a concern was first raised? Should this little boy have been in foster care if there were serious concerns over the ability the parents? All these questions eventually lead to the absolute systemic decline in our society that allows people to spiral to the very bottom and invariably it comes to the forefront of public attention when something shocking enough happens like the tragic death of a small, innocent little boy.

Why was the mother not able to meet the needs of her child? Was she once a child in need herself? Why was the father's health so poor for a man only in his 60s?

Individual failings in the vast majority of cases. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the government/society/support services. There has to be personal responsibility somewhere doesn’t there? Are we not all adults?

Unfortunately she wasn't fit enough to be a mother. Feel for her in that she's lost a child, but at the same time she couldn't look after him. Her comments don't carry much weight.

Poor wee fella. RIP.

This is soul destroying.

RIP little lad.

No I'm not saying there is no personal responsibility at all. Just that individuals here are not ultimately what led to this tragedy. It all just goes so much deeper than someone making poor choices or not being good enough at being a parent. Where you have deep rooted problems in society and very limited support and intervention available when it really counts, i.e. early on in people's lives, as children and young adults, often the only way is down.

But there are systematic failings that lead to the most vulnerable in society suffering.

Resources, including the police, have been cut to the bone. There are not enough police, and there are not enough social workers. There is no funding for early intervention systems anymore, health services and mental health services are on their knees, domestic violence refuges are closing. More people are living in poverty, which affects health and life expectancy. There are too few foster carers…the list goes on and on and on.

Do you think the police looked at the reports from the social worker and thought “nah, we can’t be arsed” or do you think that there were maybe not enough officers available to carry out a welfare check? And why are there not enough police offers? I am not saying that in this case there isn’t some personal responsibility because of course there is, but it is naive to think that the cuts to essential services don’t have an impact, especially on the vulnerable.

Tragic.

IF I had to blame ONE person it would be the Mother.

People like her, disgust me.

Always expecting other people to do the right thing. Always blaming everyone else when things go wrong.

The audacity of asking where SS were? Why they didn’t prevent this.

Where the fuck were you?

SS are absolutely not to blame here in my view.

@HarraKiri can I suggest that you work just one day with a child protection team ! It is absolutely harrowing and any SW would probably agree! This SW did what they could ,but ultimately poor parenting is the reason these tragedies happen!