Another child who starved to death by sounds of things.

[JakeBullet]

On the BBC news website.

Police found the mummified remains of a 4.5yr old child in a cot (in 2011).

Wearing clothes which would fit a six month old!

So

He didn't start school and nobody noticed.
Mum was an alcohol and cannibis user and nobody noticed.

Can't link as am on phone but can hardly believe that this child slipped so easily beneath the net and nobofy realised until his body was discovered two years afyer he dies!

Surely we have to be asking that ALL children are seen once a yeae for a mandatory welfare check.

I haven't made any "sweeping generalisations" as I didn't say that all abused/neglected children would go on to treat their children in the same way. I made a point of saying that there will be exceptions, but in the main we tend to pass on the way in which we were parented to our own children. Of course there will be parents who will ensure that their children aren't treated like they were.

I make my comments based on 30 years of working in the field of child protection and with potentially abusive parents, and so dare to presume that I have more knowledge of these kinds of situations.

As Nana says, most of us have little comprehension of how demanding social work is, how big social work caseloads are etc. One of my students (now a health professional) left social work after a short time (a couple of years) because she was having to deal with dangerous, aggressive parents just days (yes, days) after graduating with a degree in social work. She wanted to work with older people but, because of a shortage of child protection workers, had to work in a child protection role. She was inexperienced and unsupported and it impacted terribly on her well-being. Her experience is not unique. I know social workers and others make mistakes, but sometimes we ask too much of them. They cannot, with 100% accuracy, know who will harm or kill their children in advance. Also, as Nana says, there is a civil liberties issue here. We live in a free society. If we wanted children to be monitored on a regular (24/7?) basis, we would need to change the law to give professionals rights of access to people's home as and when they wanted. Do we really want this? Do we really want this level of scrutiny, of all parents? Families have the right to opt in and opt out of services as they see fit. Unless there is a pressing child protection concern, practitioners' hands are tied. We need - as a society - to have a grown-up conversation about what we expect of our practitioners, given that risk can never be entirely removed. I personally think we ask the impossible of them: to safeguard all children at all costs. No wonder there is a shortage of social workers.

Thank goodness for the "voice of reason" Bladerunner and I can well imagine why the young woman you mention gave up social work.

I began my career in social work in 1980 and I was fortunate enough to be in a team of experienced and committed social workers and supportive and experienced managers. I was a "mature" student (aged 37) and had "seen some life" in the sense that I had suffered domestic violence, subsequent divorce, living on benefits and being a single parent to my 2 boys. However nothing could have prepared me for the stresses of dealing with child protection work. At that time there was no issue with drugs and sexual abuse didn't really "rear its head" till the mid 80s. I used to work around 60 hours a week and spent nearly all my weekends writing reports etc. However I was very well supported and this enabled me to "learn on the job" and become a competent social worker.

NOW I fear for the new social workers coming out of uni with a social work degree, as they will, as you say BR be out on the "front line" as soon as they get their first post. I am still in touch with some of my colleagues and they tell me that it is dire. Given the budget constraints, buildings have been sold off and sws are sitting in car parks with the lap tops!! I'd better stop or I'll go on and on.........

After I retired I worked independently for 5 years for a local inner city Council and the standard of social work was in the main very poor, because they were trying to run a service with around 30% vacancy rates, high sickness levels with stress related illnesses, agency workers trying to plough through some very complex cases. AND caseloads - the sws were carrying up to 30 cases (many of them with children on the "at risk" register) and others in care proceedings. The managers didn't seem competent enough to offer the guidance and support that these social workers needed.

I welcome your comments too about the civil liberties issue. I am amazed at how some posters seem to think that sws should have the "right of access" to all children. I just wish that when a tragedy happens that the directors and chief execs would tell the truth and say that it is simply not possible to totally eliminate risk to children, and yes more children sadly will die.

I have made the point earlier on that patients die in hospital due to medical error, patients consulting GPs on occasions don't get their cancers diagnosed early enough for effective treatment. The police get away with murder, literally and then lie to cover up their actions. I'm thinking of the newspaper man who was assaulted on video by a PC and all the stuff that is coming out about Hillsborough and many other cases. In these cases there is no Serious Case Review and these matters just seem to disappear into the ether.

Sorry I've probably said too much. I just wish some of these people who think social workers should prevent harm or death to a child could follow a child protection social worker around for a week or two.

Nana, you know what prompted me to think of my student (the one who used to be a social worker)? By chance I read an article about Lisa Arthurworrey, Victoria Climbie's social worker. She was a newly qualified social worker when Victoria became part of her (very large and difficult) caseload. She was badly managed and unsupported and, when Victoria died, she was the patsy, the 'fall guy'. She was hung out to dry by her managers. She was, apparently, professionally and personally destroyed by it. That could have been my student (who was a fantastic student, by the way, and is probably now a highly competent health professional, and probably would have been an excellent social worker if she'd been able to learn on the job as you did, and been properly supported). The Munro Report argued for a move away from this blame culture (while still expecting accountability from professionals, which is as it should be) but I wonder if this will ever be achieved. You are right that social care professionals are reviled more than other professionals when things 'go wrong'. They are the bogeymen/women (and, in my experience, sometimes used as such by unscrupulous healthcare professionals to ensure patient compliance, which really annoys me because it feeds people's fears about social workers and really does not help anyone - patient or practitioner).

I wasn't by any means blaming social workers. My suggestion would be that when a child is school age the lea is given a list if all the children in the borough of the relevant age using the child benefit records. I know this wouldn't necessarily be a catch all, but in this case that little boy wouldn't have lay dead and undiscovered for 2 years.

As always tho the blame lies firmly with the parent.

The father told the police and contacted social services, he was ignored. A social worker saw him eight months before his death and described him as well fed and well taken care of! Four years old and wearing baby clothes - who could be dumb enough not to realise there's something seriously wrong there?

The problem is 'professionals' who are anything but. A functioning brain should be a requirement for any job with responsibility for other peoples lives.

the father is a crock of shit, excuse my language

That poor baby was dead for TWO years. two years.

so he essentially wrote him off. Otherwise surely he would have raised the alarm earlier? I am baffled how he just let 2 years slip by with no news, or sight of his son?

he may have flagged his worries, but the fact remains he did nothing for the 2 years between.

Horrific tale. and so soon after Daniel Pelka

Hamzag was literally left to rot, his mother is culpable. but so is his father. he knew she was a shit mum, yet he let it slide for TWO years. did he not wonder how he was? check in on him?

yet again I am baffled by this. did neighbours not alert police diue to smell. did noone wonder where the little baby was? were the only people in his life his mother, father and dad?

where were the extended family, friends??

and I am not even going there with "blaming the authorities", really fucks me off how that father even DARE blame anyone. he left that child with a shit mother, to rot. evil cxxts the pair of them.

rest in peace Hamzah xxxxx

Zaty I actually thought this wasn't going to be a "social worker bashing" thread but you have managed to pile in with your insults.

The thing is the only person who knew what was happening in that house is the mother of the child. I think there is a lot of misinformation flying about. I heard that it was the mother's adult son who said he had informed Social Services but they say no such call was made. I have not heard anything about a sw visiting the child 8 months before his death, but he could well have been all right at this time, and wearing the right size clothes! Children lose weight you know and maybe he was deprived of food during the latter months of his life.

I'm wondering how your brain functions if you aren't aware that children can gain and lose weight over time in the same way that adults can.

I'm wondering how your brain functions if you aren't aware that children can gain and lose weight over time in the same way that adults can.
They can lose weight but not height surely . I'm pretty sure an average well-nourished 4.5 yo couldn't shrink in a short time to the size of a six month old baby, however much weight he lost!