**Trigger Warning** Title edited by MNHQ Very distressing news story about murder of 24 day old baby

[A580Hojas]

Aibu to not comprehend how it can be possible that newborn baby Stanley Davies, who had been in hospital on 3 occasions with broken ribs and limbs (if I am reading the reporting correctly) was sent back home with his parents and not removed from them by Social Services? I just cannot fathom how that could happen.

Someone is guilty of failing massively in their duty of care here (I refer to the professionals, not his parents). Unless any more knowledgeable Mumsnetters can explain to me how this might have happened?

They seem to have been well known for disturbances and drug taking. That should have somehow red-flagged them

Yeah. Do you realise how many families are actually on CS databases for this? Just because people take drugs it doesn’t necessarily make them terrible parents.

There has to be more concerns than these to allocate a Social Worker.

As PPs have said there will be a Serious Case review and all CS Workers (countrywide) are expected to read these and discuss the learning as a team (we do).

It is a red flag for an immobile child (so normally under 1) to have bruises but people lie and their explanations may have been very believable.

All that plus the thought that any mistake you make could result in a terrible consequence. And that could end up with your name dragged through the gutter press.

Oh and when you meet new people, "what do you do?". Well shit, I know the four kinds of reactions there are to my answer. All bad.

I couldn't do the job any more and I salute those that still do.

I tell people I work in a shop now just because I can’t be fucking arsed with the faces people make when you tell them.

This has made me feel ill! That video of the mother pretending to comfort the poor baby, when all he's ever known is pain, breaks my heart.

They are to blame. The blood is on those two monsters hands.

What @MrsTerryPratcett said with massive bells on!

I'm sick of the bashing towards certain professionals.

I'm an SLT and do consultative work for social services. Fucking hell its hideous! Some of the things I've seen and read and are tied up in procedure & protocol.

There's professionals that have too many children on their caseload and an increasing waiting list... we're drowning and trying our best. Don't blame the professionals... we need more staff and resources!

Imagine the thoughts and emotions we carry home with us.

I just found the mother's sister's Facebook and there's photos of her with her baby and her sister with her baby. Her Facebook and instagram is also full of photos with her and her baby. and her baby only lived for 3 weeks. It doesn't seem as if the mother was trying to hide abuse or stay away from family and social media. Presumably if her friends and family didn't notice then not sure what professionals could have.

Surely the whole point is that failures in the system should not be possible because of the caseload or workload of one individual! The safety net is not only one layer deep, surely?

surely the whole point is that failures in the system should not be possible because of the caseload or workload of one individual! The safety net is not only one layer deep, surely

Social worker will have a line manager and should have supervision over cases once a month.

This baby was only a month old so may have only just been allocated and no SV taken place.

Also if you struggle with your caseload and as a result get behind with your work you are told it is your fault for not having a better work life balance and told to work on your resilience.

I kid you fucking not.

That poor wee baby :(

So still in the video as if he’s scared to move or make a sound. The way she was tapping him was making me anxious and I felt she was trying to hide him in plain sight from the officers.

Bet they feel awful 😪

This happens because some people should never be parents. That's the bottom line. Some people just do not have that maternal instinct to care for and protect their children and no amount of parenting classes and support will change that. I think its time w stopped thinking of that parents wants and needs and think about those who cannot fight their own corner

MardyArabella

Or god forbid you take annual leave.

It's not just one individual though is it?

The system is collapsing. All of it. SS, HV, A&E. Chronically underfunded.

My team has gone from 20 to 7 this year. The work keeps rolling in, higher risk, more serious safeguarding, things getting missed as you just cannot keep on top of it.

These families give you the run around too, never in when you agree to meet, won't answer the phone, don't turn up for appointments. It's all very labour intensive admin wise but there's no time for admin or you won't see the families!

And they have got rid of a lot of admin too ....

Yep - no real admin here either

I actually had an appraisal today and was told my area of need was resilience because I highlighted my increasingly complex caseload and pressure to take more children from the waiting list.

The amount of extra hours I put in, I barely make minimum wage for doing this job!

They seem to have been well known for disturbances and drug taking. That should have somehow red-flagged them.

Ideally, every parent who uses illegal drugs (regardless of socioeconomic class) would have their child taken off them, but there simply aren't enough foster carers for that to be plausible.

deally, every parent who uses illegal drugs (regardless of socioeconomic class) would have their child taken off them, but there simply aren't enough foster carers for that to be plausible

Really - what about the parents (a lot of them here) who use the legal drug alcohol on a daily basis.

Using drugs on its own does not necessarily make you a bad parent.

We can't take annual leave as we have no staff! Nobody to cover so it's declined

My team are exhausted, not sleeping from the stress, feeling demoralised from not being able to provide the support families need.

We were given resilience training too (which essentially means 'stop complaining and work harder)

If they don’t disclose drug taking until they test positive after arrest like these people there is no way to know

What happened to this child was horrific, and as many others have already said there isn't enough information to know if there were failings in the system. The unpalatable fact is that even if the system works as it should, there still will be child deaths. Even in an all singing all dancing fully funded service with appropriate support services (which we'll never have) child deaths would still happen.
Suggesting that everything is preventable is akin to suggesting that the existence of the police should mean that all murders and rapes are preventable and any that happen are the police's responsibility. Its the nature of how upsetting harm to children is that we want to believe it could all be preventable but sadly it's far too complex and there's far too many false positives for that to happen (eg families where there are 'risk factors' but no serious harm actually occurs)

Really - what about the parents (a lot of them here) who use the legal drug alcohol on a daily basis.

Using drugs on its own does not necessarily make you a bad parent.

The key is in the word "legal". You can buy alcohol from a shop. In order to get access to drugs, you have to make contact with drug dealers, who tend to be pretty disgusting people. There's a lot of overlap between drug dealing and the child sex trade. I would seriously question the parenting abilities of someone who wants to drag their family into that kind of world.

The key is in the word "legal". You can buy alcohol from a shop. In order to get access to drugs, you have to make contact with drug dealers, who tend to be pretty disgusting people. There's a lot of overlap between drug dealing and the child sex trade. I would seriously question the parenting abilities of someone who wants to drag their family into that kind of world

The concern is usually regarding the parenting capacity whilst under the influence of drugs. Legal or illegal. Some drug dealers actually present as perfectly respectful people. Shock horror.

Ideally, every parent who uses illegal drugs (regardless of socioeconomic class) would have their child taken off them

Any idea the outcomes for those children? The ones taken away? Nope? Increased risks of abuse, drug taking, risky sexual behaviour, prison, low attainment, neglecting their own children and on and on. It's so easy to say 'remove the child' but the outcomes of that are awful too.

I know adequate parents who use. An adequate biological parent is better than almost any care situation.

People have no clue how bloody awful things are.