Social workers wrongly took seriously ill little girl from her parents in a 'feeding frenzy' of 'misrepresented and incomplete information'

[edam]

The judge's words, not mine. They called in uniformed police to snatch an ill little girl from her home, FFS. Smacks of arrogance and a severe lack of critical thinking on the part of these social workers and the other professionals involved.

I know social workers have a difficult job yadda yadda yadda but they still need to behave properly and avoid actually harming children. Much like the doctors' pledge to 'first do no harm'. It took SIX MONTHS for SWs to figure up they'd made up a load of crap about the family!

XP

"5. It is not suggested that the issues raised in this case should not have been investigated. What is criticised is the way the information has been presented, both before and after the issue of proceedings, and the process that was used by the LA. It has graphically illustrated the dangers of not rigorously analysing the evidential foundation for and against any allegations made and not exercising a balanced judgment. "

It's not exactly a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't, is it? More a case of "damned if you do but fail to follow safety procedures". Do other professionals expect anything different? Do doctors expect not to be in trouble if they diagnose without a proper investigation? Or operate and don't follow protocol?

It is clear from the judge's comment that there were many occasions where the SW's report were pure invention. Would you trust a doctor who kept inventing symptoms that weren't what you had experienced?

But cumfy is right: the cutting of the tubes should have been investigated. The judge concludes that on at least one occasion the cutting seems to have happened at a time when the parents were not in a position to do so: the child was not in their care but at a hospice which incidentally was a sharps free environment. (on the other occasion they were closely watched by a student and the tube only seems to have split after the parents had left the room). It also seems that no one same person was present on both this and the earlier occasion when a tube was cut. Which rather seems to suggest that there was some kind of manufacturing fault which mimicked a cut. The only other assumption would have to be that the health professionals were in cahoots about cutting the tubes- and that does seem very far fetched.

I am not surprised if the father reacted badly when his daughter was taken into care: if I had been in a position where something potentially damaging kept happening to equipment when I wasn't there to keep an eye on my child I'd be fucking terrified!