To think carers should be jailed

[InBedBy10]

That man who threw that poor child into the alligator enclosure is said to be severely mentally disabled. He was out with 2 carers who clearly weren't watching him when this happened. Witnesses have said they were on their phones. AIBU to say they should be charged for this incident?

To be honest this is not the first time i have heard about carers being totally negligent and getting away with it. Instead the care company they worked for was sued. Which will probably happen here. But i think its totally wrong that the people directly responsible can walk off into the sunset with no repercussions. There needs to be more liability put on people in this position.

This is an absolutely awful situation but not everything in life can be reasonably foreseen. The never ending standards imposed by modern life on carers is extraordinary. If they were on their phones that is a breach in their duty of care no doubt but carers get paid absolutely appallingly so having that significant a level of consequence for something that was completely unpredictable would be atrocious.

They may be charged pending an investigation.

However I will say that care work is what the job centre throw at everyone. Between me having to leave my former job and being able to be assessed for claiming disability benefits they tried to force me to take on care work, helping young adults with significant needs in their day to day life, including getting on and off public transport, going shopping etc, all things I couldn't even do for myself as I had cancer, then a stroke and couldn't (still cant) use my left arm or turn my head. I was sanctioned for refusing the work, and it was a dire few months for me trying to feed my kids and run my home on next to nothing. If it wasnt for food banks and charities we wouldnt have survived. So I can absolutely see how people who can't do the job would need to take it on to avoid that.

I do hope this horrendous story means that the care sector is more carefully looked into and it doesn't end up with just any old person being forced to take on the work or they have to starve.

She's not even in this country apparently.

I think there’s not enough information yet. Some careers can be terrible though, I saw a video where one left a disabled lady in McDonald’s by herself whilst she went shopping.

There’s a video floating around of a clearly mentally unwell man kicking old people over in Ilford High Road while his useless carer just looks on doing nothing and talking on his phone while members of the public shout at him to control the man. He definitely should not have been out with a lone carer who couldn’t handle him.

In this particular case, we don’t know the full facts. ‘Witnesses’ can make extreme judgements when they speak to the papers / post online. Nothing as such has been officially released.

In general though, my perception of carers isn’t the greatest. I used to work in a store many years ago where you can interact with products as much as you want and it was the sort of place where young adults with SEN gravitated towards. No problem at all with this, only it was located in a shopping centre and carers would often bring the people in then leave to go shopping. This would put us in awkward positions as these poor people did sometimes cause disturbances to employees and other customers. I’ve also encountered carers in soft plays etc where they would sit in the cafe bit and let the children go off and play. Witnessed all sorts but the most extreme was probably when one time a child was hitting others, then proceeded to strip bollock naked and run around with his willy out. The staff had to tannoy to find who was supposed to be looking after them.

Now I’m sure there will be a plethora of wonderful carers but the ones I’ve encountered have certainly been doing their jobs half arsed.

People saying we shouldn't speculate... I agree. We shouldn't but we do. Its human nature. Ive seen people criticising the fact this man isn't in jail and wanting him strung up but none of these people or us know the extent of his disabilities. My adult son has severe learning disabled and i can tell you there's not much understanding or patience for adults with learning disabilities. Which is why im probably so angry about this incident.

If it comes out that they did noting wrong then fair enough.

But if its revealed they were in fact scrolling on their phones instead of caring for him then what then?

Trial by Mumsnet.

This seems to be the way lately and it goes for all kinds of jobs. I personally could never be a carer or a prison officer for example, really tough jobs. If you have a bad day in work as an executive assistant or on the tills in shoe shop, nobody dies, you aren’t threatened with prison and you probably get paid more. Yet the people who put themselves out there to do these difficult jobs which most of us couldn’t or wouldn’t do get publicly dragged over the coals and criticised by those who have no idea of the role or the pressures involved. Yes, we all should be doing our jobs to the utmost of our ability at all times but we’re also human. Everybody gets tired or complacent or has other things going on and takes their eye off the ball sometimes. We don’t know that’s even the case here yet.

Caring Is a hard job, there will have to be a review to understand if an appropriate risk assessment was carried out and whether the carers were fully aware of any past behavioural issues. But remaining 100% alert at all times is not easy.

I think I’ll wait until the facts are better known before pointing fingers. Hopefully the perpetrator is being kept in a more secure environment

Can’t believe you have such strong views with minimal facts on a circumstance. Life must be really mentally tiring for you OP.

Really well said I completely agree.

Yep!!!!!

"People saying we shouldn't speculate... I agree."

.........

What are you on about???? You're literally here doing that. Get off your phone and be better.

I can’t find it in me to feel much anger towards someone who is doing such a difficult and necessary job that I know I couldn’t cope with and probably not for much money.

As PP have said it isn’t an easy or well paid job type, if legal protection was taken away then would anyone do the job? Any of us could end up severely disabled through accidents or similar, what happens if there are no carers?

And to say they will wander off into the sunset, this assumes they are not in any way traumatised by the incident.

This.

also fining someone doing a care job is pretty pointless. Baring them from doing care work is hardly a huge deterrent.

im sure there will be CCTV & the evidence of them not paying due care & attention will be made public, if its true.

as for the parents being on a video call, i think its irrelevant, the little boy didn't do anything wrong. Unless his parents were holding one hand each thus couldn't have been prevented & let's face it, no one does that.

i do wonder what risk assessment was done before the man was taken there.

I rest my case. So she needs to take her drivel and stick it where the sun doesn't sun then.

I think we ought to wait to see what's gone on for that to happen. Caring for a disabled person is much harder than people seem to realise and situations can escalate very quickly and unpredictably. Their employer may not of allocated enough carers for any situation, for example 2 carers may be enough for a good day but perhaps more carers are needed when that person is distressed. This person may have never harmed a hair on anyone's head before so wasn't something that had been considered. Theres so many things we don't know.

Yes if they've genuinely not been paying attention, knowing the risks (if any known which perhaps they didn't) then yes they should be held accountable. If their employer hasn't adequately provided enough carers, or trained their staff properly then they should be held accountable.

Well this incident IS in England, so how it is where you are us completely irrelevant.

Why is no-one asking how it was physically possible to do this in the first place? Was the zoo negligent in its safety precautions? Were there not huge fences round the area?

Anyway, no point in speculating about the man and his carers. There will be answers in due course.

I think we need to wait to find out the facts. Was a proper risk assessment carried out? Who was responsible for conducting the risk assessment? Had there been previous incidents of aggressive behaviour? Is it true that the carers were not watching him?
If the carers were negligent they should be held responsible but the agency and any professional that was involved in assessment should also be scrutinised.
This isn’t something we should be jumping to conclusions about.

And yet you’re here doing the same thing to the carers.

Look on the bright side. At least she's not eligible to vote here (presumably) or be called up for jury service.

Yes who needs police, courts and a jury. We should absolutely demand people are put in prison based off rumours and speculation. This worked really well in Medieval times