Let’s assume you’re not a social worker, not a doctor or a healthcare professional. Let’s assume you are like me, a so-called ordinary person who watches events unfold beyond our control and yet still feels an overwhelming need to do something about it. Actually, you may well be a healthcare worker who cares deeply but I am still addressing the person here, not the professional.
The question is, what did you go through when you confronted the horrific story that was Baby P’s nightmare? And since then, the rape of a two-year-old on the same ‘at risk register’ and, before that,hearing about the harrowing fifteen months of torture that finally led up to the murder of Victoria Climbie?
According to a recent article in The Independent "One child in Britain is killed like Baby P every week".
What do you feel when you consider that we live in a community that cares and yet we have these truly heartbreaking events happening right around us and we can’t seem to do anything about it?
On May 13, 2009, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report on the NHS care of Baby Peter. Chief executive Cynthia Bower, talking about trusts involved, said: "This is a story about the failure of basic systems. There were clear reasons to have concern for this child but the response was simply not fast enough or smart enough."
I disagree. This is a story about the failure of human beings, not basic systems.
How could the dozens of professionals who saw Baby P have been any less remiss with a faster, smarter response if, as she says, there were clear reasons to have concerns? If so many experts can’t spot a child’s broken back or think to wipe off chocolate smeared on his face to hide his bruises, or question the real reason he’s missed his social service appointments, then what good are better, joined-up systems?
At the end of the day, these children were known to be at risk.
This is our fight and one that can only succeed if we have access to better local child protection information. The information itself is not a solution but it will give us a platform to influence where public money goes and where the real priorities are for, say, a child that's been on the 'At Risk' register for 18 months and there is no public knowledge of it.
And if the people who caused the death of Baby P receive sentences that make them eligible for parole as early as 2011 and 2012 (when he would have just been starting school), then what is the point of trying for justice after the event? The NSPCC chief executive Andrew Flanagan said: "We are disappointed that the minimum tariff was so low." "It raises the question of how bad the abuse has to be before offenders get a longer minimum term in prison."
People are ticking boxes instead of taking responsibility. Nowadays, we can all say sorry, but who has stood up and said 'this child died on my watch and that’s that'?"
There are many, many unsung heroes in the healthcare world - but they are not heroes because they have good systems and low workloads to deal with and nothing will change as long as the system is kept within itself, where the reports are done and responded to solely by itself or other sections of the government.
If you and I want these pointless tragedies stopped, then you and I have to be the ones who make sure it happens - where we can most make a difference. locally. And we want that for every place that's 'local' to where someone lives.
To do that, we need to see what is happening right on our doorstep before we read about it or watch it on the news. We need a new local public report that makes available better information - for us to exercise compassion and to demand that children be put first on the agenda, not adults.
In the overwhelming majority of these tragedies, it’s proved to have been caused by placing concern for the adults over concerns for the children. Did you know, for example, there is a £4,000 court fee for social services to have a child taken out of harm and into care, “which may well have kept the child in danger”. Lord Laming says in his review of Baby P.
We need a clear regular report from our local agencies on critical issues such as numbers of children on the at risk register in our area, length of time on the register for each, numbers of children waiting in care to be adopted (and for how long).
Government involvement is not enough. We are needed and a clearer view will get us to the heart of the matter outside of funding, systems and resource issues. This will then highlight what we could do about it to have an informed say around intervention and even discussion at the government 'scrutiny meetings' we are are entitled to attend.
And please don't worry about Social Services and Local Government (both must be involved) having more workload added - the information we want is just a priority summary of data they already produce internally. The interest to us is local, not just the national statistics that they currently provide.
We can transform this but only from within ourselves, not by assigning all the responsibility to professionals but by sharing it with them as a common vision. A vision that says local society is a parent too - one that will fight to protect and love its young just like any good parent would, by keeping a watchful eye on the only thing that counts - the safety and well-being of the children in our community.
Please join the fight for better, publicly-available, child protection information by signing the bottom of the petition at the link below (anonymously if you prefer) and help influence the fate of 'our' children by human beings, not by systems. And of course, I would love to hear your views on any of the ideas discussed here.
www.gopetition.com/childrenfirst
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