Baby P

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Hi, to make it easier for people who are finding this subject very distressing, we're going to keep all Baby P posts in one thread. If you'd like to discuss this subject, then here is the thread to do so. We'll go on the other threads and link to this one. Thanks very much.

Mamadiva I didn't feel 'attacked' - not by you anyway! I thought Conniedescending was being condescending but I guess she's named herself well there... I wasn't attached personally to the idea of the march, but pasted over a report about what public actions were being taken, having seen that in the same telegraph article someone else posted. Mamadiva I also think like you that the worst punishment the mother could have wuld be to develop a conscience about what she did (or didn't do) to her own baby. It still makes me feel very sad and heartbroken for that little boy. It doesn't sound as if she will be offered counselling in prison but If she were and really faced what she had done she would no doubt suffer it badly for the rest of her life. I believe she will suffer it for the rest of her life anyway.

The BBC reported this evening that the Peadiatrician who "examined" Baby P two days before his death has now been suspended by the GMC

I have just had a written reply from my MP about the EDM.

He says EDMs aren't the best way to make ministers take note of such concerns and instead he has written to Ed Balls MP directly asking him to step up efforts in this area.

Thats good Perty the more people who kepp on gthe more chance that this wont happen to another child, well even one child is a start Im not that naive although I wish I was

Anyway just seen on Sky news that the 3 bastards people who have been convicted are going to have to wait atleast another 3 months to be sentenced! So much for being out for christmas. But oon the other hand every extra month they spend in there before sentencing is another month out of their sentence.

Im hoping its nothing to do with all these bloody stupid FB/BEBO groups inciting 'campaigning against them or whatever it is they say they are doing. Might have caused a problem with the courts Id imagine.

Mamadiva - well let them stew, that's what I say - they'll have to wait longer to find out their fate, which is good as far as I am concerned

Three months of uncertainty for them is nothing compared to that they inflicted on that poor baby is it?

Ed Balls will have to read the independent investigation when it comes out on Monday - I don't envy him having to read through all the harrowing details again

Shame the government can't change the law in the next three months, to ensure longer sentences isn't it?

This is the reply I received from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, in response to my email to Ed Balls and Beverley Hughes:

"The death of Baby P is a very tragic case that makes all of us question how someone could do such a terrible thing to a child.
Safeguarding children is undoubtedly the Government?s top priority and it should be the top priority for local agencies too.

In response to Lord Laming?s Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié, the Government introduced fundamental reforms to help keep children safe. Local areas are also now required to review every case where a child is harmed or killed, and neglect or abuse is suspected.

The Government has acted quickly following the completion of the local review conducted by Haringey into Baby P?s death. Ministers have:

asked Lord Laming to prepare an independent report of progress being made across the country in implementing the safeguarding reforms we have introduced in response to Lord Laming?s original recommendations. He will submit his findings early next year;

decided that Ofsted, the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection and the Chief Inspector of Constabulary should carry out an urgent Joint Area Review of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in Haringey. A first report has been requested for submission to the Secretary of State by 1 December 2008;

agreed that with immediate effect, the Director of Children?s Services (DCS) in Hampshire, will be seconded to work alongside the DCS for Haringey to ensure that proper procedures for safeguarding children are in place and are being properly applied.

Safeguarding children is the responsibility of us all. It is vital that we strive for the best practice so that vulnerable children receive the protection they need. The Government is determined to continue to strengthen the systems for safeguarding and child protection and we look forward to Lord Laming?s report and his recommendations."

Look:

news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Baby-P-Haringey-Council-Leader-George-Meehan-And- Cabinet-Member-For-Children-Liz-Santry-Resign/Article/200812115169887?lpos=PoliticsFirstUKNewsAr ticleTeaserRegion0&lid=ARTICLE15169887BabyP%3AHaringeyCouncilLeaderGeorgeMeehanAndCabin etMemberForChildrenLizSantry_Resign]]

Sorry that didn't work, but look on www.skynews.com

Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Haringey have resigned - at last - after dodging the Vote of No Confidence the other day

Brilliant.

Sharon S has been sacked.

I wrote to my mp & as yet no reply. Once wrote about another matter & never had a reply - even though I ask what there going to do &also give an email if it helps. Wont be voting for them that's for sure.

Sharon Shoesmith's top priority in the whole affair was obviously to hang on to her job at all costs - good news she's been sacked.

Sharon S should have resigned last year IMHO, after Baby P was murdered. She clearly hung on until the last possible minute.

How does she sleep at night I wonder?

Its good they've gone but nothing can eradicate the suffering of that poor baby. It had me in tears again today, just thinking about him

I really do hope the Labour Party lose control of Haringey at the next Council election.

What with Margeret Hodge (former "Children's Minsister") and her record as Leader of Islington, it makes me despair it really does

Oh, Six staff suspended...The Sun have a link to the full report on their website

I am really liking Ed Balls in all this. I will email him to tell him - just to keep the pressure up

Baby P: Ed Ball's statement in full

I'm so pleased that something firm has been done. It somehow seems like a small mark of respect to this child. The two councillors who resigned were very dignified and Ed Balls struck the right note. Sharon Shoesmith has been a complete disgrace from the start and is still on full pay I note.

But nothing can really affect the sense of heart break about this child. You just want to turn back the clock and hold him in your arms. My own son turned 18 months a few days ago, and I'm relieved he's not 17 months anymore as I found it really hard to look at him for a while without thinking of Baby P. It's so hard to believe that adults could be so cruel to such an innocent, beautiful baby.

Blue shoes I agree with you about Ed Balls. Ladyworsley too. As for the feelings: it's a time if you have any spiritual practice to try to engage with it and send love to Baby P and all suffering and vulnerable children everywhere.

skydancer, it's funny you should say that because I just went and gave a cuddle to my own little boy who just woke up and did feel very spiritual and questioning about things lying there in the dark with him. It may sound corny to some, but Baby P had a truly angelic look about him and I recalled that there is a saying about St Peter holding the gates to heaven. I would love to believe that there really is a God and that there was some point to his suffering and that he is enjoying eternal joy now.

RIP little baby x

ed balls ws the least articulate speaker i have heard in a long long time

I have not heard Ed Balls speak, but he is making the right noises I expect a Minister to make. I will no doubt be paying more attention to him to see if his good intentions carry through to the Laming report. It does not matter if he is inarticulate if he speaks from the heart. And his statements have so far been plainspeaking and show his concern.

I agree Ed Balls is handling this well but what really scares me is how many SWs have defended Shoesmith and Haringey. Clearly there are lot of people in the job who see nothing wrong with the way SWs behaved over poor Baby P.

And the idea that more reviews by Ofsted will sort things out, when they gave Haringey good marks just before Baby P died, is hardly reassuring.

Hi Edam - well this first review into Haringey has been conducted by Ofsted but I think other reviews into the general state of child welfare in the UK are going to be done by other bodies. I agree it's weird that Ofsted gave Haringey good marks for their performance last year and they come up with a 'devastating' (Ed Ball's words) report this time.

Ladyworsely I just hope that some of the love so many people will have felt towards baby P will help him wherever 'he' is now and make people generally much more sensitive to children's vulnerability. This was an extreme case but I think so much casual cruelty goes on. In a way it is down to all human suffering and ignorance - creating cycles of more suffering. Anything we do to create the opposite of that is going to have a good effect.

I personally feel there is something rotten in the state of social services - and I don't mean individual social workers.

I mean the procedures, their brief, the management of cases and interagency communication, workload, remuneration, support of frontline staff by management, culture of dealings with deprived families, and mindset. Most importantly, whether social services feel that the buck of protecting individual children stops with them or whether they are just looking to spread the shame when things go wrong by blaming 'poor interagency communication' or 'working in silos' to quote Sharon Shoesmith.

I agree that the 'good' rating by Ofsted just months before the news of Baby P is scandalous. Apparently the glowing report was written by an Ofsted reporter who used to work with Sharon in a previous job.

Oh, to add to that list - the secrecy under which social services work exacerbates the problem because it becomes a cloak for hiding incompetence by social services (where there is incompetence) rather than for the protection of children. In fact, viewed in this way, the veil of secrecy leads to complacency and actually endangers children rather than protect their privacy.

That is why the Laming report also commissioned by Ed Balls which is due early next year and will conduct a broader review of child services is far more important.

Maybe a lot of the social workers defending Shoesmith and Haringey recognise that it wasn't simply social services at fault but that there are clear systemic faliures which also involve other professionals and organisations.

I also think the Government have some responsibility in chronically underfunding social care services which make it impossible to provide a decent service. Social work has become increasingly administrative and our work is evaluated by the data we input and the forms we fill in rather than the quality of our contact with clients. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Haringey got the good Ofsted report.

Of course individuals should be held accountable for their action/inaction but they do not operate in a vacuum. I'm not defending Haringey social workers as frankly I don't know exactly what happened, there seems to have been a catalogue of errors involving not only social workers but Haringey Borough legal department and also the NHS.