Leiland James Corkhill - heartbreaking interview with his birth mum. Obviously upsetting content relating to physical abuse of a baby.

[LastThursdayInJuly]

I can’t post the link but if you Google Leiland James and BBC news the interview will come up.

Of course, some children can’t stay safely with their parents but this case really doesn’t seem one of them. I’m not commenting on what happened to Leiland James afterwards because it’s obviously practically unheard of for adoptive parents to murder their children.

But I am concerned that people like Laura Corkhill are not treated fairly by SS and are not really able to navigate the system properly. I also agree with the woman who observed that it further punished women suffering domestic abuse by taking their children from them.

I’ve already given my thoughts on the case review in this thread. I’m surprised it doesn’t comment on the social work decision not to support the adoption which was discussed in the criminal trial. I found the identified failings by other agencies as, if not more, compelling/shocking as those by social workers which have already been documented in the criminal trial.

Social services will act on it in the way they always do - review procedures, train staff, try to improve working with partners. There are plenty of recommendations about what other agencies should be doing differently
in the review too. Whether that actually changes the outcomes for children given a social work retention crisis, NHS crisis, rising deprivation, squeezed local govt budgets…probably not, sadly.

I agree, this is horrendous case and I feel enormously sad for LJ’s mother, whatever the circumstances of his removal. As tragic as losing a child to adoption must be for any parent, you would your child is at least being well cared for and loved. To lose a child in these circumstances is unthinkable.

If she had a social worker, then thats an adult services social worker.

Was the worker helping her put her words together?

@bellac11 ywa they wrote a eulogy for her which she didn’t use. I imagine that at this point because the council had joint PR they felt they had a right to control the funeral.

Why would it be an adult social worker? She still has children’s services involvement in her life, the adoption order has not yet gone theough

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet but people don't always want to be out of the situation, they lie, they protect, they go back time after time. Its really not as simple as removing to a place of safety. I obviously agree there should be loads more provision but the social workers in thus case and all cases happening now, are dealing with what is not what should be. So can we actually blame the SW's for not being able to offer something that doesn't exist.

I think provisions should be made for women to be in a safe place with their children. Not just removed the children and leave the mother in that dangerous situation.

But they are, for women who want to leave there are refuges and duties under the Domestic Abuse Act give victims of abuse priority for accommodation under housing and homelessness legislation. I’ve never known a social worker remove a child and leave a mother if the mother expresses a desire to leave, only where the mother denies there is abuse, and continues or conceals the relationship.

The article says “Laura Corkill has been supported by her own social worker” - presumably as an adult this would be a social worker from adults’ services and not children’s.

You said Laura Corkhill's SW so I assumed she had a SW

Do you mean the child's SW?

Ive worked with a number of parents who will ask for help with putting difficult letters or cards together, they want to write something which is quite painful but then change their minds and say the words come from the worker/me.

There are also documents which are passed to the child, life story letters or books or cards and often the terminology quoted 'Im sorry I couldnt be the parent you needed' or wtte are relevant, it helps the child in adult life know that the parent really really tried and wanted their child but just couldnt meet their needs.

I would be interested in knowing whether the draft the BBC claim to have seen was for a eulogy written by a SW or whether it was from another document. But no one will ever know.

This is the problem I have with culture in social services.

”Lots of people behave like this so we are going to assume ALL people behave like this”.

We got a referral after we reported a family friend to the police when my DD, who was 5 at the time, made a disclosure about him showing her something. Because she got the date wrong (he was abroad at the time she claimed it happened) the police dropped it but children’s services looked within our family and kept saying things like “Lots of people tell their kids to blame someone else” and “lots of women know a man in their family is an abuser and cover it up.”

We had the cleanest sheet imaginable - no concerns ever, from anywhere. But we were punished because of what other people sometimes do and I thought how fucking ridiculous and unsustainable that approach is. You wouldn’t get a doctor saying “Well I COULD prescribe you, a person with no addiction issues, with this vital medications but sometimes other people get addicted to it so I’m not gonna”. We constantly heard ‘yes but some people lie to us’ etc - I don’t give a fuck, I’m not lying so don’t bring your haded bullshit to my house when I’m just trying to help my DD get through a hard time.

Anyway it eventually ended and we got an apology after lodging a huge complaint. But my experience was over-scrutiny, and sometimes outright lies and fabrications. It was a weird time. I mean it could be because we were in Cumbria and the Poppi SCR had just been released I dunno

They might be able to get into a refuge if there’s one nearby and accessible and if there’s spaces.

If not - they have 2 options

• sleep in the street with their kids


• stay in their home with their abuser.

Both will have their children removed.

In an ideal world legislation is passed where the abuser is removed from the home and the victim and kids can remain safe. But no one gives a fuck about women so that will never happen

There are also documents which are passed to the child, life story letters or books or cards and often the terminology quoted 'Im sorry I couldnt be the parent you needed' or wtte are relevant, it helps the child in adult life know that the parent really really tried and wanted their child but just couldnt meet their needs.

FFS, some people will fall
ovwr themselves to abscond a shit failing service.

This was not a letter to an adult child, it was a fucking eulogy. And it was written by a social worker and sent to his mum, as confirmed by the BBC. In what world are those words ok?!

So let me get this straight, you made a referral after a disclosure, thankfully/hopefully it was right that there was no further action to be taken by police but due to the need for SSD to follow through with assessments to determine whether your children were safe you're upset!!

This really takes the biscuit.

And I can tell by the terminology you use such as 'clean sheet' or 'punished' that you have a defensive view about statutory agencies and the need to look and ask questions about family life if necessary. Parents arent 'punished' if their children need to be assessed, its about the childs needs not the parent.

I have no idea what the document was, neither do you.

Neither of us know what the BBC have seen, if its a letter titled 'eulogy for you to read out at funeral' that might have some validity

But I asked about which SW did this, you said her SW did this. What investment (if you believe the child's SW wanted to be cruel and cause her hurt) would her own adult services SW have to write that? Adult services are not involved in care proceedings or assessments to determine whether a child is safe at home or should be adopted.

You're clearly letting your own issues cloud what you read.

No, I’m angry because rather than support our DD, which is what I thought would happen, they barely even met her and focussed on us. I have posted about our experience on MN before but I CBA giving full details to someone who is seriously jaded about just how dangerous childrens services departments can be.

And yea I do have a defensive view because Cumbria County Council failed my DD (and acknowledged that they failed her). They’ve failed Poppi and LJ too and a MUCH higher scale obviously but I assure you their culture is not to focus on helping the child but for looking for bad guys.

And why is it right the police did nothing???

I have no idea what the document was, neither do you.

Neither of us know what the BBC have seen, if its a letter titled 'eulogy for you to read out at funeral' that might have some validity

I have worked in the media, the BBC would not publish this info if they weren’t absolutely sure it was true. I believe then when they say the council wrote a eulogy for the mum.

Not to mention the council admitted they did this but that it was ultimately Laura’s choice.

But yeah keep standing up for these incompetent fuckwits who were part of a system that led to a child being murdered

What investment (if you believe the child's SW wanted to be cruel and cause her hurt) would her own adult services SW have to write that? Adult services are not involved in care proceedings or assessments to determine whether a child is safe at home or should be adopted.

Do you understand what a working culture is?

If the council have the working culture of demonising poor people and making many errors and being uncaring - which it is well documented Cumbria Council have, in several reviews - writing a eulogy for a greving mother in which they want her to apologise to the son she was only officially a mother of for 2 hours, for not ‘being better’, is despicable and I cannot believe ANYONE would think this was ok for them to do.

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet seriously the BBC never lie??? What about Martin Bashar he claimed to have seen things he lied.

Yes take a 25 yo example

The Council admitted they wrote a eulogy for LJJ’s mum.

Are they lying too?

It was the first one that sprung to mind, I is ridiculous to claim that the bbc wouldnt lie, I dont dispute that they helped write a eulogy, I like you dont know the context, why they wrote it or the motivation.
Clearly you have made your mind up based on what happened to you, thats fine, I dont agree. Its pointless to continue discussing it I think.

I’ve made up my mind based on the facts - are you saying the BBC are lying out the email they saw?

It’s also a fact that Cumbria County Council have failed families to the point where 2 children have been brutally murdered in the last decade. That wouldn’t have happened if they had done their job. They were also in special measures recently - but we are meant to believe they are a decent service? Pull the other one!

And if one almost 30 year example can make you decide the BBC are liars, why can’t I decide that a failing service that negatively impacted my children and failed my DD by their own admission is failing other people. Why is THAT a ‘clouded judgement’.

Honestly SWs and those who defend them to the hilt even when they’ve proven to have failed on a catastrophic scale are on another fucking planet.

Why is it pointless to discuss? Cumbria Social Services have made huge mistakes in their handling of this case. Ofsted will feel duty bound to inspect Cumbria Social services and see if they and their staff have taken on board the findings of the Case Study Review and that changes have been implemented to reflect their acknowledgement that they were responsible for significant errors leading to the death of a child in their care.
i hope they are full of shame.

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet well ain't you a peach. Why so rude? I dont know if the bbc lied neither do you.
I never said 'clouded judgement' by your own admission you are judging them based on your experience.
I have never said they didnt or dont make mistakes, I just wont leap to attack based on one side of the story.

Pointless to discuss as clearly me and @LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet dont agree and aren't likely to any time soon, and actually its got a bit personal and nasty which I am not up for at all.

Yea I am judging them based on my experience. So what. Don’t we all do that? We leave reviews, we lose trust in authorities, we avoid places we have had bad experiences and believe people when they say they also had a bad experience.

I have seen the shocking incompetencies and culture first hand so why should I believe they were suddenly excellent when it came to LJ?