Social Services should be prosecuted for negligent manslaughter

[KaurDee]

I have just started a petition on Change.org head as above. Please would you consider signing this. No-one wants to hear the words "we made mistakes and will learn from them" after a child is brutally killed whilst known to Social Services. No-one can forget the recent horrific case of the murdered school girl Sara Shariff. Incompetent Social Services are just as equally responsible for her death. The law must be changed so Social Services know what they could be charged with. Please Please sign this so the law can be changed. Thank you

You are unbelievably wrong and offensive.

There's so much to unpick with your petition op. Where would you stop? Ban people home schooling too?

What is it your petition is asking for exactly? Social workers to be charged with murder?
If you had read the details of the Sara Shariff case, you would know that a Judge returned her to her fathers care, and the critical thing that occurred in her life prior to her tragic killing, was the removal of her from school to be 'home educated ' which is perfectly legal and of which children's services had no notification or knowledge of.

Good way to discourage people from doing a thankless job that’s absolutely essential for society. When things go wrong you have to look at systems not just individuals. Usually people are doing their best in very challenging circumstances.

You clearly have no idea or insight into the role of a social worker. Sadly it is the parents/carers that actually harm/kill children, not social workers.

Definitely unreasonable. Social workers seem to be dammed if they do, and dammed if they don’t.

Not sure if the constant threat looming over them will help them do their job.

And when we have zero social workers? Who will you go after then when a parent kills their child?

Then it’s time for a new petition!

And it will still be anyone's fault but the actual murderer...and bleeding hearts like op will then be sympathetic to the killer 'oo how were they meant to know killing their child is wrong?! School/ss/gp never told them!! How can it be their fault?!!'

"Social Services are just as equally responsible for her death."

Well that's bullshit. On no planet are they equally as culpable as someone who murdered/abused/neglected a child.

Let's also remember that social services are dealing with higher case loads than ever before while managing significant government cuts and huge issues with staffing. The staff that are still there are holding Fort for the number out on stress. And I can't blame them for being off.

If you want someone to blame you look to the government, request an overhaul of the service and proper funding. THAT is the way to more effectively safeguard children. And even then social services are there in an attempt to safeguard. That responsibility falls to EVERYONE. So by your own theory the entire community is at fault. The next door neighbours, the postman, the gp, the teachers, the education authorities, the dentist etc etc etc it takes a community to protect a vulnerable child and even then there will sadly always be some who slip through- not because of failures but because people who harm children are manipulative and conniving. All you can expect in this situation is for service improvement which can only be done with the correct resources.

Since you never make mistakes OP, maybe you should train as a SW.

People assume SWs have a couple, maybe a few dangerous and high risk cases. And they fuck them up by being incompetent and lazy. In realist every single case is dangerous, they have an overwhelming number and there are few resources.

Maybe we should prosecute the people who voted for service reduction parties for years.

No. It's a terrible idea.

The people responsible for her torture and death are in prison.

I'd sign a petition for adequate funding and staffing of social services.

Not all social workers are great, but many are perfectly competent and caring, and facing impossible workloads. Adding "you will be tried for murder if you make a mistake" would make their situation untenable.

Boris Johnson was responsible for 20,000 deaths by his inaction, he is the one who should be prosecuted.

Social workers walk a terrible tightrope.

On one side they are childsnatchers tearing children from their families. On the other they are negligent lazy idlers who leave children to be abused and killed.

They are under resourced too.

Yes lessons can always be learned, but the actual abusers/killers are always to blame. SWs are a backstop.

This.

Social services do the absolute best they can with limited resources, and I say that with adopted children in my close friendship group who were known to social services before they were born and not taken in to care for a few years.

"Adding "you will be tried for murder if you make a mistake" would make their situation untenable."

Plus what you would actually create is a toxic culture of cover your ass by any means. Lack of accountability, even worse staffing issues, finger pointing etc. There's a reason why they do serious case reviews - they look for systematic failings or gaps to then make the service more robust and to encourage staff to step up and own their mistakes, to seek guidance and to support each other with honesty. That makes for a better and more ethical culture.

Surely the people to blame are the politicians for underfunding such a vital service. Should a doctor be prosecuted for not being able to save 10 lives when they alone on their shift? Firemen for any lives lost after their arrival? After all, if they were doing their jobs better no lives would be lost.

See I don't think many social workers do a good job I've worked with many charities and they literally leave children in risky environments reliant on the charities to keep an eye on things "lessons will be learned" never do learn a dam thing

What is the point in a degree when they don't have a degree of common sense the amount of cut copy paste reports inaccurate ones reports that claim visits that never happened actions that haven't been taken nine months waiting for them to make one phone call or write one letter to a support charity every single meeting parent hasn't accessed support from x company parents reply social worker needs to call them I cannot self refer months later "parent hasn't accessed..." then you get the inevitable escalation from them because the parent isn't doing what they are supposed to do completely ignoring the fact that it's there fault they can't access the service in the first place! I would love this to be a one off but it isn't it was demoralising

But prosecution is probably a step too far maybe proper funding and actually training them correctly making them responsible for doing there jobs because I don't know any job where you can fail to do most of it and still keep your job

Social workers work extremely hard and are generally highly skilled. You sound bitter and resentful.

You can't even be arsed to get her name right. Pathetic. I assume you're a social worker yourself as you feel so qualified to judge? No? Just a judgy fucker then?

yeah that’s a bit of a nonsense.
I’ve worked in many sectors, social work, education, mental health and have retrained a few times now.
you clearly have no idea of how hard it actually is to remove a child, the level of evidence needed and the emotional toll that it takes to go into a home and remove someone’s child.
Thankless job, often dangerous, not great pay, and the physical/emotional/vicarious trauma is massive

Who would choose to be a child protection social worker?

Thank God some people do and I thank them for their service.

Why don't you train as a social worker, OP, if you feel so passionately about this. Channel your energy into something positive. You have no idea!