Comments on: Is information being kept from the Baby P investigation?

By: Mark H

Mark H — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:26:00 +0000

The Dutch system sounds like an interesting alternative to what we currently have.
This “investigation” sounds like it will be a complete whitewash. It seems to me that it would be very convenient for Ed Balls and his boss if this story just quietly faded away. “No-one was to blame”, “terribly sorry” ,”but no individual or systematic failures” etc etc. We need a full independent enquiry to flush out the real truth. Of course the Doctor that refused to examine the child should be struck off, and I’d like to see some sackings (not redundancies or pay-offs) at the head of Haringey Council and down as far as is appropriate.
Keep on pushing with this issue Lynne. Your compassion and understanding for how ordinary people feel about this issue is commendable. Don’t let the story just fade away, or be brushed aside. For the sake of poor Baby P, who should be a bouncing beautiful happy 2 year old now.

By: joao100medo

joao100medo — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:15:00 +0000

Mistakes were made and tragically a life was wasted.Where it could take upon itself to be, the world will never know.
Nothing can be done to remedy that situation but i’m trusting you, personally, Lynne, to ensure that an eye is kept upon these services, that are so important and, for the most of the times, at best, excellent and to do whatever needs to be done to make them the very best of Europe.

By: NicV

NicV — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0000

I am not convinced that simplistic token resignations or sackings will make vulnerable babies’ lives any safer. A climate of fear stalking Social Services will probably not provide the right environment for making wise judgements for vulnerable babies. Hopefully an external report can judge whether or not the critical comments of insiders have identified the crucial mistakes. If many people shared/agreed the decisions to return Baby P to her mother partner and lodger then sacking one or all is probably not the best way forward. If one person was dominant and repeatedly rejected advice from Police and Doctors then an individual is responsible. Perhaps the advice of the previous enquiry was inadequate or.. whatever. We need to find out and be much clearer about what needs to be changed to improve the care for vulnerable babies.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:12:00 +0000

I am appalled at the amount of buck passing going on the Baby P case. Being an overworked social worker is not a valid excuse. Individuals both within the social service system as well as a member of this poor child’s own family have been reported to have knowledge of the abuse, yet no one stood up for this baby. We have already moved on to the merits of another investigation into procedures at Haringey Social Services, yet if the system was such a failure surely we would hear of similar failures in other councils who operate the same sorts of systems. The fact is that it was the procedures of Haringey Social Services that failed, including the staff involved. First and foremost all key people in Haringey Council should resign or be sacked – they are the ones with blood on their hands.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Hang your head in shame Cllr Meehan you are a inept Cllr who has been around in Haringey for a very long time achieving nothing. Your Legacy will be that your Leadership was at the helm at the time where two innocent chidren that your Council should of saved were allowed to die

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:44:00 +0000

Cllr Meehan Go now for the sake of chidren .No more Lessons to be learned.Your Leadership is a danger to our children

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:33:00 +0000

I notice a vote of no confidence is to be moved in the Labour Leader Councillor George Meehan.The only problem is that Haringey officers have manipulated the Adjenda so that the motion of no confidence is right at the end of the meeting.Labour Councillors will be told by their whips to talk the meeting out so the motion will not be reached whereas these pathetic Labour Councillors will be exposed .The only real vote will be at the next Council Election in 2010 where we can hold these useless individuals to account.

By: Vaughan

Vaughan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:13:00 +0000

with the longer-term aim of making a child’s own home a better quality one for it to return to if possible. I think we are, as a nation, squeamish about taking children away from their parents. But this is because the action is punitive rather than therapeutic.. Social work is emotionally demanding and produces considerable anxiety. Staff always talked about their cases to each other in my day (I left in 1985). This helped to clarify thoughts and plans on how to deal with problems as well as lowering stress levels. I think some study is in order to check out the effect of filling social work offices with computers which seem to take up an enormous amount of human relating time.

Yesterday I heard a very sensible-sounding woman on Woman’s Hour talking about what they do in Holland. They take children away quickly from an abusing parent and then work with the parent(s). They also have strong views about preventing abusing parents from making more babies until they have shown they can be adequate parents to their abused one. She did not speak punitively, she spoke wisely and seriously and somehow I had faith that the Dutch would be better at the whole problem than us with our confused ideas about protecting the privacy (for that is what it is, in large part) of the family. Children may be raised in the privacy of a family but they live in a society and have to cope beyond their family. They become members of society and need to be healthy in body and mind. Society has a right to some form of inspection and judgement. But it could do this without the in-care experience being seen as so punitive, as it always feels (and felt when I was involved) here in Britain. We in Britain should be offering high quality Family Centres across the country and forms of protected care under a Care Order which should be seen as an offer of help to a parent and a protected and happy experience for a child in danger with the longer-term aim of making a child’s own home a better quality one for it to return to if possible. I think we are, as a nation, squeamish about taking children away from their parents. But this is because the action is punitive rather than therapeutic.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:47:00 +0000

While I have a certain amount of sympathy for the work that Child Services do under very difficult and and emotionally straining conditions, it’s surely up to the leaders to take accountability for what happens on their watch. Resignations / sackings must follow.

This is the sort of thing that undermines public confidence in local government and rightly creates anger which ultimately turns to apathy.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:41:00 +0000

I’ve raised this issue with Ed Balls, who assures me that his inspectors are excellent. QUOTE

This is so typical of the whole fiasco. When police raised the issue and were told about the ‘professionalism’ of Haringey social services dept. When the whole issue became public, Ms Shoesmith said never a word of apology, just insisted that her team had done nothing wrong and the medical people were to blame. Now an insider tells our MP that the process of enquiry is being ‘managed’, and Ed Balls doesn’t take the complaint on board but insists his inspector is ‘excellent’.
When will they realize that saying something is so, doesn’t make it so. When important issues such as child protection are at stake, then glossing over information you don’t like to hear is what caused the problem in the first place.