In wondering what the hell needs to happen for social workers and doctors to be held accountable for their mistakes ?? ** Extremely distressing content **

[SkintAsASkintThing]

I know it's late but as the adult who was one of four brushed aside children of the 80's who as a result suffered repeated abuse I really can't understand why this is happening time and time again. When will these lessons be learnt ??

And I know abusers are manipulative and clever and charming but fucking hell, this has to be one of the worse things i've read. This by the way happened in the same town that little Poppi Worthington came from, why are children being let down like this ?? Does no one care ??

www.nwemail.co.uk/news/Council-bosses-apologise-after-harrowing-report-reveals-social-workers-failed-to-protect-toddler-with-leg-bruises-and-genital-warts-5f0b184a-b6e5-47a6-8d3e-f551420b3adf-ds

It's clear that there were serious failings in this case, but I do think that social workers are in a very, very hard position. Elsewhere on this site you can see the many people who believe that they 'take children away' too easily and on flimsy pretexts, that they break up families and 'snatch' kids. In every case it's going to be weighing up of the dangers of letting the child stay vs. the dangers of removing them and in many, many cases that won't be clear cut.

If you want social workers to remove children from all harmful situations then you have to accept that that means some people having their children removed without any 'proof' of wrongdoing. If you want there to always be a high standard of proof before parents lose a child then you accept that that means leaving children in a risky situation and basically waiting for them to be seriously hurt, abused and neglected. People seem incredibly reluctant to accept this.

There's a lot of money in Barrow, It's a town built on industry and full of skilled workers, employment and opportunities are good. Huge housing estates are being built selling 300 / 400/ 500 grand houses and theyre being snapped up. The cant keep up with demand. People are flocking here for work and staying, because the money's good and once they get to know the area finding it's an ok place to live. (( i'm an incomer to the area, you'd have to tear me away from my life by the sea kicking and screaming ))

Money is also being pumped into the area to make it a bit shinier looking........the flipside of this is there are also huge pockets of deprivation, money is being spent on the wrong things. Theyre pumping millions into a huge, marina development. It will have nice restaurants, shops and water sports. It will keep the incomers happy and those who have money to spend.........it will isolate the have nots even more. And certain types of families will comtinue to exist where abuse and secrecy has been passed down and normalised for years.

This isnt about money or lack of social workers this is about a toddler who exhibited sexualised behavour and was found to have an STD and still nothing was done. They focussed on the wrong thing and that was gluing a family together at any costs. Someone needs to.be held accountable for that.

I so hope these children are getting every help they need and a huge, pot of money is set aside to give them every opportunity as an adult.

Someone needs to.be held accountable for that.

Yes. Hopefully the people who have actually carried out the abuse, because they are the ones responsible. The country wouldn't need a single social worker if abusers didn't exist. But they do, so we do. And there are not nearly enough of them. It's a particular problem in areas like Cumbria which find it extremely difficult to recruit to posts even where there is the money. At least 1 in 10 NHS posts in Cumbria is vacant at any time.

I'm not saying that individuals haven't failed in this case, it certainly sounds like they have. But using the case as yet another stick to beat a group of workers who already take a load of shit, every single day? I don't see how that's going to help the situation. Could you be a social worker? I bloody couldn't.

Parts of Cumbria (like Barrow) just don't get help. Not just in terms of social services input, but in general terms. All the funding goes to the National Park cause that's where the tourists go, but local councils like Furness and Copeland really struggle.

There's no money - streets are in awful condition, there's no jobs outside of care work or retail, poor transport links (you're screwed without a car) and unless you're in a town or have parents willing to drive you everywhere, there's nothing to do either.

I live near Barrow (where Poppi lived)) and it's awful. The town gets no investment and the centre is grey, dirty and every time I'm there I see drunks or addicts or homeless people wandering aimlessly. It's really sad. With some investment, it could be a nice place. The town centre is pedestrianised but half the shops are charities or boarded up. Because it's not the National Park, it gets ignored.

What people fail to realise is SWs are on WORSE pay than nurses. It makes me so angry how undervalued they are.

And worse pay and conditions as teachers and police officers

There's a lot of money in Barrow, It's a town built on industry and full of skilled workers, employment and opportunities are good.

I really have to disagree with you! What employment opportunities? What industry? Every time I go there the town centre is dead, grey and dirty looking.

The money is in the National Park - places like Keswick, Ambleside and Coniston get the funding, not Barrow which is full of boarded up shops and an industrial estate which also has boarded up shops!

So the social work departments in Barrow were all fully staffed with enough trained and experienced social workers to safeguard all local children then OP? No vacant positions at all? There's loads of money being spaffed on a marina but the SS budgets haven't been cut at all? In the highly unlikely event that this is true, they'd be just about the only department in the country where lack of money and skilled staff isn't a problem.

Also from a quick Google on house prices:

Semi-detached properties sold for an average price of £159,895, while detached properties fetched £251,672. Barrow-In-Furness, with an overall average price of £128,673 was more expensive than nearby Walney (£120,543), but was cheaper than Dalton-In-Furness (£136,344) and Askam-In-Furness (£148,779).

That doesn't look like 300-500 grand homes to me!

people do realise that children's services are woefully funded, understaffed and stretched to breaking point?

Early Help services seem to increase referrals rather than reduce them - adding to the stress on services

cuts to local authority funding are hurting our most vulnerable - SW's are only human and when all they can do is firefight it's demoralising and they burn our fast

Mistakes happen but they happen more often when people have neither the time nor the resources to do their job

The town gets no investment and the centre is grey, dirty and every time I'm there I see drunks or addicts or homeless people wandering aimlessly.

That's getting to be common everywhere imo, Ron. I live in a pretty, affluent, historic town in a national park and over the last 5 years we've seen a big increase in rough sleeping and addiction. The fabric of the town is still as lovely as ever, but when you come out of the artisan bakers or the independent bookshop with fair trade cafe attached, you'll pass a homeless person and/or addict before you've gone 20 paces.

There's something very sick about a town where people with more money than sense pay £12 for a loaf of "artisan" (I'm getting to hate that word) bread but others lack the very essentials of life.

but when you come out of the artisan bakers or the independent bookshop with fair trade cafe attached, you'll pass a homeless person and/or addict before you've gone 20 paces.

Barrow doesn't even have that, though. The high street is charity shops, vape cafes, the odd greasy spoon, a subway, a McDonald's and that's about it. Yes there are a few chain shops but in general it's a really underfunded, dreary place and it's such a shame because it has a lot of potential. It's by the sea and if you go across to Walney and the estuary you can get some cracking views, but there's just no investment.

Ronswansons......are you not aware of the 10billion pound investment that's been pumped into BAE ??

Id say Barrow has one of the biggest, rich poor divides in the country. There is money here, it's being spent in the wrong areas. Theyre pumping money into buolding a marina with housing, shops etc which will be unnatainable to a lot of people whilst neglecting other areas massively.

But the fact still remains a toddler presented with an STD and nobody acted. How can anyone justify that ?!?!

Its terrible cases like this that made me leave the sector. SW never saw the children, but were always dealing with very needy, often very damaged and very dangerous parents.

But the time I left I was of the opinion that certain people should not have children, fertility rights be damned.

Sure, but how does that help the locals? People are moving in and pricing them out of their hometown because most of them work in poorly paid jobs (maybe some at Sellafield) and can't afford 300k houses or nice lunches in Marinas.

Barrow is underfunded where it matters - for the locals and the children who are born and raised there.

Ron, just for you here's the info on one of the 4, new estates currently being built (( on one of the old school sites )) The houses are built off plan and usually sold before theyre even built. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E110&insId=1&minPrice=200000&maxPrice=400000&googleAnalyticsChannel=buying in fact Barrow even has an award winning, artisan bakers (( not that any of that is relevent ))

Because of "austerity", private affluence alongside public need is getting more and more commonplace.

It doesn't matter how much houses cost or people earn in an area because very little of that money finds its way to local government, NHS etc.

You can read the serious case reviews online. The reality is that there are many cases of horrific abuse and children being killed by parents or guardians every year, very few make the national news. These cases are happening all over the UK. I've some reports and the cases are often complex with progress seeming to be made before a child's death. You can access case reviews here

library.nspcc.org.uk/HeritageScripts/Hapi.dll/search2?&LabelText=Case%20review&searchterm=*&Fields=@&Media=SCR&Bool=AND&_ga=2.146768436.142872352.1505373827-1169482715.1505373827

My issue is that all this "investment" doesn't help the locals. Barrow has chronically deprived areas and building nice bakeries and Marinas for shopping isn't going to help people who work for minimum wage and live in the parts of town with potholes everywhere.

It will help people who want to move to the Lake District - I would bet most of these new-build homes are not being bought by the locals! I live in a fairly deprived coastal town near Barrow and there is no way 95% of people there can afford 100k on a house let alone 300k.

We bought our two-bed terrace for 60k and some in our street go for even less. Most people I know work for minimum wage in retail or care because there just isn't any other choice. Further education is limited and most people left school at a young age and had kids or got a job in Tesco and that was it.

The reality for locals in these areas and the reality for outsiders who move in is very different.

The fact that a lot of the properties in your link have been reduced or in sale since January also says a fair bit!

I manage a cp team of 7 workers. You have no idea the daily pressure we go through. It's also impossible to imagine the minute by minute terror that one wrong move on your part could result in the death of a child or vital information being missed.

Before you set out to vilify a profession try actually doing it. You have no idea really

Just because they aren't being dragged through the streets for you to throw rotten tomatoes at doesn't mean that they won't be being sanctioned if it is appropriate, either by their employer of in the case of social workers to the HCPC. However this can take time. Years sometimes in the case of the HCPC.

The professional misconduct hearings available on the HCPC website make very depressing reading, and lack of time, resources and support feature heavily in most of the defences.

The social workers and doctors weren't the ones abusing these kids. Why are you not blaming the abusers?
If child protection was an easy job or appreciated by the public they wouldn't struggle to fill jobs. If the folk on here think it's an easy important job why don't they do it? Blame the abusers not the folk trying to help.

It's very sad that there's no publicity for all the great work that CP professionals do. A child that didn't die never makes the papers.

Nobody is justifying it OP. They are telling you about the underfunding of social services departments, which there is no way Cumbria is immune from, and the impact on child protection this inevitably has. And explaining why it is not a good idea to automatically blame the results of systemic failures on the individuals working in overstretched departments when they inevitably fuck up. We need structural change or this will keep happening.

Did you ever watch the Panorama about the underfunding and understaffing of the local NHS trust in Baby P's area OP? It was very illuminating. I recommend it.