Alfie Steele

[Ffswhatsthepoint]

I checked there was no other thread before I posted this one. Alfie, 9, killed by mum and her bf. Drowned. A catalogue of abuse and many phone calls to police/ss by neighbours. The neighbours often fed him too. We HAVE to find people accountable in this case. It was reported. People knew. Nothing was done. Absolutely nothing. Its harrowing. I feel like I failed him. And I'm hundreds of miles away.

@MySugarBabyLove
The reality though is that this has nothing to do with the Tory government or lack of funding.

not true. The tories removed guaranteed bursaries for social work training, massively reducing the numbers coming through. They pushed the 'step up' programme as their pet project which produces under prepared social workers who burn out more quickly. They cut funding for tier 3/early help support services through successive years of austerity meaning the numbers of children coming into social work teams increased and the complexity increased just as numbers of social workers were falling.

We HAVE to find people accountable in this case.

People have been found accountable - the people who actually killed this child.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to blame social workers, send them to jail, end their careers. It’s much harder to resource social work so that newly qualified workers aren’t carrying a case load of 30 kids straight out of training, to provide time and training so they receive adequate clinical supervision, to ensure there are adequate accessible foster placements (not 100+ miles away from their home), to have the time and skill to build relationships with families in crisis, to have appropriate support for women in abusive relationships.

All of that costs money, which people don’t want to spend on the underclasses that social work engage with. Fucksake it wasn’t long again folk were complaining about parents being given £15 a week to feed their children lunch, I can’t see anyone voting for the millions it would cost to create a functioning social work service for children.

You get what you vote for, with all the consequences that entails.

How dare you. Only the vile mother and her boyfriend have his blood on their hands. How dare you say such a thing. Go and train as a social worker then see if you could say such a disgusting thing. And if you won't - say nothing

@Jellycatspyjamas

Agree with everything you posted

Those social workers have his blood on their hands. They did an appalling lack lustre job of 'looking after' that lad.

Do you have any idea what it takes to get a court to agree removal of a child from their parents? How much work you need to do with the family, the evidence you need to provide, the legal minefield you need to trip through? Unless you do, and can show social work weren’t doing it you really can’t common on how “lack lustre” their efforts were.

This though...how can young girls and woman be better supported so they don't get into these relationships and instead prioritise their children. And support for women who do end up in relationships where they are being abused themselves is so poor. These should be a priority for government to stop the cycles of abuse. We won't get this from a Tory government.

This jury members too; what they watched and heard as evidence will forever be etched in their minds. Absolutely horrific.

Trust me, it will also be etched on the social workers heart and mind for the rest of their lives. Along with the very similar circumstances of every other child on their case load of 30, 40, 50 children. Thresholds are so high, and resources so limited that every single case could be this child on any given day - and there’s no magic trick to knowing which ones will be safe enough or which will end in tragedy.

Our local social work teams are running at staffing levels of about 40-50%, newly qualified workers are putting in 50 hour weeks, retention is appalling (ie workers lasting less than a year), no one wants to work in children and families.

But yes, jailing them is definitely the answer.

Boris has blood on his hands. So many kids were abused during lockdown, and fell through the cracks, and we have only skimmed the surface with the ones we know about.

Trust me if all social workers downed tools nationally and went on strike for fair pay and working conditions, there would be no support shown.

the impact on families would be eye opening for those on mumsnet for a start and deaths and non accidental injuries would sky rocket.

funny during covid everyone clapped for essential services except social workers, who were never mentioned. And yet there we were still visiting children every week, still going to the office, schools etc…

@captainjacksparrow I hear you, our experiences are very similar I think.

This is one of the most ignorant posts I’ve ever read.

tell me, how many children have you prevented being murdered in your illustrious career?

because behind every tragedy are thousands of children who are alive, happy and healthy because of the very work force you want to see jailed

The whole of local government is chronically underfunded. I was only a homeless officer but I had far too many cases, my phone didn't stop ringing all day. The rules said that I had to answer that phone within so many seconds. I've interviewed a homeless person on a Friday afternoon and had them phone me the next Monday and ask if I had made a decision. Upon being told that I didn't work weekends I've been told that I was a lazy bitch. The common misconception is that public sector workers do nothing, but sit on their arses and wait for their gold plated pensions. Most are fire fighting, we deal with cases as fast as possible but it's never fast enough. Home visits take more time out of a busy day. I had to write reports which would stand up in court. And that was just me as a homeless officer, a social worker is far busier, far more home visits, far more report writing. No one had a secretary, own letters etc to write, and the managers were rushed off their feet too. Yet the myth of lazy workers continues.

I reported my neighbour and the bloke I spoke with at SS laughed and said 'what do you expect us to do? We don't actually VISIT people' then started laughing again. He also denied there was any SS involvement which was a lie as I knew for a fact there was.
They're an absolute joke.

For most people, this is beyond our understanding, it is hard to imagine how anyone could hurt another human being, let alone a defenceless child that should be under their care. I have worked with social workers too and to blame them is completely cruel and unfair, this poor child was killed by evil people, not social
workers, I don’t have the facts of the case but I’d say he was also let down by his wider family.

To assume that a systematically flawed and understaffed system can easily take a child away from their legal parents is just not correct. I have seen social workers in tears after a court has ordered a child in foster care be returned to their birth parents, completely contrary to the recommendations of the social care team.

Do people realise that there aren’t children’s homes anymore, where do you imagine a child is placed after they are finally removed from an unsafe environment? If even 1% of people disgusted and horrified by this looked into becoming foster carers, there might be more options available.

I know we can’t all open our homes to another child but honestly, some people commenting here must be able to and we’re all so quick to be horrified and rightly so, this is incredibly and unbearably upsetting. The fact is, the system is flawed, even if it were overhauled it would take a generation to improve, we know that’s not going to happen to if anyone can become part of the solution, why not consider becoming a foster carer.

I know some social workers just aren’t good at their jobs but a lot
of them literally destroy their own mental health trying to make any change they can in a world that constantly disappoints us all.

RIP Alfie, I’m so sorry that we couldn’t protect you x

The myth of lazy social workers is actively encouraged by the right wing press. It distracts people from looking at the real reason public services are in such a terrible mess in this country. The government

Firstly not every social worker does visit. Some teams just triage and pass the referral on the to right department.

secondly do you honestly expect people to give out confidential information about families to random members of the public?

lastly, if the system is such a “joke”, when are you training to take the job on and show us all how it should be done?

@BerriesPineCones I agree, it detracts from the real issues. Underfunding, trying to control the economy by cuts in public spending and boasting about it. What used to make me seethe with anger was getting a letter from the MP asking, for example, why MrA hadn't been housed. I wish I could have given a piece of my mind, I used to point out that there is a shortage of social housing but knew they didn't care.

Well said!

I say this as someone who is a foster carer and is training to be a social worker

Yes exactly. The overly defensive and aggressive manner is one I’ve often found with social workers - who blame everyone and everything without an iota of self reflection.

@LifeIsPainHighness

i take it you will be training to become a social worker then? Given you know so much better than the existing ones?

So to be clear here, any concerns expressed about the fact that in this specific case some opportunities missed to help this little boy cannot be voiced unless the individual decides to train to be a social worker?

Is that really what passes for an acceptable viewpoint here?

We are desperate for more Forster carers. If people are able to they really should consider it.

And don't vote Tory

I worked for a social services dept under the last Labour government.

There were just as many scandals then - "lessons were learned" then, and yet, the same thing happened again.🙄

There has been a shortage of social workers for many years. Because of pay, and because, a lot of the time, it's a thankless job.

if people are able

Not many are, are they?

Some people are just evil imagine being those neighbours/teachers and knowing your outcry was not listened to.
my children had a SW and were on a CPP due to my mental health but as we are middle class with a clean home and they did well at school nearly every statutory visit was late/missed underfunding and a government that only seem to care for the richest means poor children are suffering right now the fact that so many people reported issues and he still was left at home sickens me.
I had social workers growing up I was still SA by two males in parental roles for over half my childhood and it seems things haven’t changed in 40 years