There are some chilling statistics in the tragic death of Baby P as reported extensively in the Guardian today. Despite 50 injuries and 60 contacts with health and social care staff Baby P 'did not pass the threshold to be taken into Care' despite police advice that he should.
There are two questions that leap out from this. Firstly, how high is this threshold? The outcome would suggest catastrophically too high. Another family I know well had their social worker suspended for suspected misconduct for over 6 months, during which time the 4 children on the At Risk register had no contact at all from the social services. And when things were particularly bad, I was told Care was not an option as there was no spare capacity in our borough [not dissimilar to Haringey] for children who's 'lives were not thought to be at stake'. However in this case, for the Social Services to believe that the repeated accidents and bruising suffered by Baby P were normal and not life-threatening, and not a result of neglect or abuse is surely criminally negligent. They had been advised by both the police and at least one medic not to allow the child back to his birth mother.
And secondly sixty contacts tells us processes are in place but obviously no one person with the experience, confidence and authority to provide the protection that this child so desperately needed. Whoever did take the decision to allow the child back to his mother after his bruise-free month in the care of a friend should not only be sacked but prosecuted.
But there is a bigger picture that includes us all here. Surely the downgrading of the status of parenting and the commodification of children have contributed to a demeaning of their humanity and left them ever more vulnerable? And when we've promoted anyone having a child anyway they chose, what are the chances that the child's welfare will be a priority to the parents when a secure start never was? We need mature and radical responses that include raising the status of parenting, funding the expansion of organisations like the Bristol Community Family Trust that support family life and review the inadequate training received by UK social workers.
