Page 1 of POLL: Social Services: A Waste of Space

After the death of Baby P and the lack of care by Social Works do you think they are a waste of space? 60 Visits and they never spotted any problems. On personal experience I do.

It`s hard to quantify how many children are saved though. We always hear about the ones they missed or the ones where kids are taken away and it`s a mistake but very rarely here of any successes.

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I miss the honky tonks, the Dairy Queens and Seven Elevens...

Irrelevant Poll based on one story

That`s true. Partly why I can`t really vote on this occasion.

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"Why should YOU go to jail for a crime someone else noticed?" - Bob Loblaw
DVD Reviewer News Hound
Tales from the Script @ MyReviewer.com

I don`t think they`re a waste of space at all. They can only act on information available to them, and in the the PC culture we live in I think it can be really hard. I firmly believe that they are there purely to act in the best interests of the children, but this occasion really is quite unique. The mother was smearing chocolate over the kids bruises to hide his injuries. Ok, so he may have looked a bit dirty, and they may have suggested keeping him clean. Kids eat chocolate, kids get messy, you don`t automatically think `I wonder if that chocolate is hiding something a bit more sinister`. They could probably have acted quicker, but they were constantly misled and cannot be held completely accountable.

My sister had her 3 kids removed from her care a few years ago. I actually gave evidence against my sister to social services, along with other members of my family. She wasn`t mistreating them, beating them or anything, but they were certainly not getting the life they deserved. It was a really hard thing for us to do, but it was in all their interests, not just the kids. The kids dad was given custody of them, and they moved away to Manchester. My sister still had access to them, but the space she had allowed her to get some qualifications, get a decent job and settle down a bit. She used to live quite a hectic life, she drank a lot, took all sorts of drugs, but with the space and support from social services she kicked it all, left that life behind and now works 2 jobs, has got married and has been given custody of her eldest. The other children and the dad are now living back near her, she has regular access and lives the life of a normal parent.

She wouldn`t have achieved any of this without the help of social services. They`re obviously gonna get it wrong sometimes, everybody does and perhaps their profession isn`t one where you want to make mistakes, but they`re certainly not a waste of space.

I`d have a guess that for every mistake they make, they get thousands right.

From my limited knowledge of social services they seem to be commonly under paid with too big a case load to cope with and lack of support.
Most of which I suspect is due to under funding and cost cutting. Step forward Brown and co and explain.

Whilst I understand the frustration, disgust and anger that may prompt this poll I`m getting heartily sick of being governed by The Red Tops and the Pollsters. Legislation by majority vote is essentially mob rule.

Snaps

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Some days it`s just not worth gnawing through the straps

This item was edited on Wednesday, 12th November 2008, 13:23

Damned if they do, damned if they don`t. In an ideal world we wouldn`t need Social Services, but we do, and while they might not do a perfect job they`re better than the alternatives of going too far or not doing enough.

The last thing we need is certain sections of the Press stirring up uninformed public emotions to gain political support for its own interests. This latest tragedy is about a dead baby, not winning the next election.

J Mark Oates

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The Sprocketeer
Celluloholics Anonymous
sprockethole.myreviewer.com

Ive had good and bad dealings with Social Services over the years through work.

TBH the fact this happened within the same SS area as Victoria Climbie screams out that there are problems within that area.
The training and guidleines instigated following Lord Lamings report and the Climbie case obviously werent followed by SS, the Doctor, the medical staff etc etc.

Its not just SS who are to blame - FFS the doctor felt she couldnt thoroughly check him over as he was distraught - being distraught is what babies do best when they come in to hospital...............the small fact of a broken back and ribs may have contributed to him being upset. Why the hell did she go against all the guidelines? Where were the nursing staff to be a patient advocate? WTF are great Ormond Street playing at employing such people? The list of those to blame is longer than just SS

At the end of the day a child has been killed. No one will ever fully take the blame for `not doing their job properly` and the accused will have sky tv and board games if they go to prison.

I just hope everytime any one of the involved parties looks in the mirror or closes their eyes to sleep, they see that little boys face and what they did or didnt do haunts them for the rest of their lives

Juls

Juls makes an excellent point - Haringey Social Services aren`t the only people at fault in this case. What about the paediatrician who examined Baby P when he was brought in and failed to notice he had broken ribs and a broken back.

Then, on an unrelated point, what about the forensic team at Jersey on the Haut de la Garenne case who have apparently mistaken a piece of Victorian coconut shell for a fragment of human skull.

If we can`t trust so called "experts" to get things right, how can we give them the trust modern society seems to think they deserve? And doesn`t the "they`re only human" argument completely debase the idea of the infallible expert everybody puts their faith in these days?

J Mark Oates

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The Sprocketeer
Celluloholics Anonymous
sprockethole.myreviewer.com

This isn`t an isolated case, and unfortunately this type of physical and mental abuse is happening up and down the country, and a lot of the times it`s bureaucracy that prevents a child from being taken in to care sooner rather than later, when the physical and mental damage has been done.

It happened to our foster children, which according to our social worker, was the worst case she ever come across, and it took the social workers 5 years to decide that action needed to be taken, even though their first child was taken off them 4 years ago, under the same circumstances, and the abuser has had another baby, but the social workers are on hand to help her look after the new born.

The final verdict from all the investigators of this tragic case will be, 'lessons must be learned', which they have said time and time again after every tragedy involving a child.

floyd