Having read about the case properly I see that it had nothing to do with HE and the family were known to SS and had had several visits. Obviously SWs weren't forceful enough and were fobbed off. To my mind this is what makes their job so difficult-they are in trouble if things go wrong and they weren't forceful, but equally in trouble if they are too forceful when they don't need to be. Without a crystal ball I don't see how they can get it right all the time.
' She wasn't being educated at home. She was being kept away from school by a madwoman.'
I was really interested in this comment earlier. The problem is-who decides that this is the case? I don't think that you can have a system where someone decides to deregister and one person is told, 'you can't you are a madwoman' and someone else is told 'fine, we know you are an emotionally stable, concerned parent'. You can't have someone playing God. You have to give everyone the same freedom, but I just question whether you leave them completely alone? Who decides who is mad and where do you draw a line? As it happens it seems to get left to the SWs in the end and woe betide them if they draw their line in the wrong place!