Mygreataunt - I really feel you have made a good point. In our society there are pockets of people living in a way that is not consistent with decent values. The causes for this are many and maybe not the place to debate on here but I mean they live on sink estates, the kids don't go to school, there are filthy houses, domestic violence, substance and alcohol abuse, they are 2nd or 3rd generation unemployed, have no social skills, they have no structure to their lives, they stay up all night watching porn or playing computer games etc etc. It is within these settings that a 'normal' way of life breaks down and it is here that violence of whatever kind flourishes. Now before anyone criticises me - I don't mean everyone in poverty but we all know the kind of people we mean. Authority is not to be trusted and if you cooperate with the police you are seen as a 'grass' and are under a threat of violence.
I am generally a liberal person but have come to accept that social exclusion or whatever you want to call it contributes to the high levels of child abuse and domestic violence. All ordinary life is lost and this may only mean the kids fail at school or are a bit scruffy or it may be worse.
I trained as a social worker in the early 90s and then worked for the probation service after that. A very typical social work ethos pervades social services, one borne from the 1970s when social inequality was top of the agenda as a cause for all societal ills. A year or so ago a probation officer colleague contacted social services about the children of a case she was working with. She had found a filthy house, where the number of people living there was more than the number of beds, there was extensive drug use and the kids weren't going to school. The youngest child slept on a mattress on the floor. The social worker visited and said the standards were acceptable and 'not to judge by your own standards (my friends'. Well my view is - why the hell not judge by someones standards???? That is precisely the problem!
We should have an understanding of what the basic standards of childcare should be, of how a house should be clean and maintained. Why is it acceptable that some kids are 'just scruffy' etc? It's like that 'broken window's theory......the idea being that if you have an empty house and a window gets broke, well it's not a big deal so nothing is done about it. However if you tolerate that, before you know the doors are off and eventually the house is a ruin.
Start small, start tackling the fact that people live in filth, send round housing inspectors regularly etc. On childcare - between 0-5 when a child goes to school, there is noone to look out for them. HVs make an occasional visit if you are lucky. Well lets introduce mandatory child assessments visits which are legally binding etc.
Can we not just raise standards and expectations to ensure the situations that allow the tragedy of this baby do not flourish. yes of course some will slip through the net but something has to happen.
We all laugh at Shameless (well actually I don't) but that is what some people's lives are but unfortunately you can factor in a large dose of violence or neglect to make it more real.