The Sun gets it right
The comments posted by many of those who responded to my blog yesterday were heartfelt and thought-provoking – demonstrating the wide-spread dismay caused by the torture and death of Baby P. Paul, however, disagreed with my argument that Haringey Council and other agencies involved in child protection should be held responsible at this early stage, even before Lord Laming’s inquiry has reported.
This view has got some traction in the media, part of a broader tendency on the progressive side of the fence to view media storms with suspicion. Peter Wilby, for instance, is a normally shrewd observer of the worst excesses of Daily Mail journalism. In his latest guardian piece Wilby tries for balance, placing at least some of the blame for the current controversy with: “the tendency of rightwing newspapers to assume social work and socialism (along with sociology) are the same sort of thing, and that the profession’s very existence contributes to “the dependency culture”.
I understand this point of view, and those of Paul in the comments to my previous post, and those of others like them want to let the review take its course. But I disagree with them, profoundly, at least in part because I, too, was once put in the care of social services….
Baby P was attacked, and died whilst he was, nominally at least, in the care of the state. (A child can be “in care†and, at the same time, be at home; a little known fact). I hold to my belief that all of those involved in Haringey Children’s Services need to take responsibility. And I add to that list those at Ofsted who carried out a “desk-based†research exercise to pass the service as adequate, and also those civil servants who sent the Haringey whistleblower on a “track down the responsible agency†hunt; they should search their consciences too. Undoubtedly, some of them should resign because they made mistakes, when their help was most needed help.
There is enough evidence out there to support the contention that the child protection system failed Baby P and, of course, one glaring, incontrovertible fact: he died despite the fact that child protection system was supposed to have prevented him from harm.  I’m not afraid of being told that I’m moralising, as Paul said, on this front: this matter lies close to my heart. I, like Baby P, was in the care of the state. My fate, like Baby P’s, at one stage, lay in the hands of social workers. My social workers spent the summer of 1967 waiting to see whether I would pass muster as a white child. (I am mixed race). Luckily, for me, I was deemed “white enough†to be adopted†and the social worker concluded: “One could not call her coloured if one did not knowâ€. And, with that, I was freed for adoption.
Instead of ending up in a children’s home in the 1970’s, like many of my mixed race peers, I was rooted and flourished in a loving family. Some of my mixed-race peers, who ended up in children’s homes at the same time, were sexually abused; I was not. Instead, I was well-educated, went to university, and now work as a social affairs journalist and children’s writer for a living – both jobs that I love. I have been lucky enough to become everything that I could have been because I had a good childhood with loving parents. (Of course some children do really well in the care system – they have loving foster carers or committed key workers in children’s homes – but we all know that this remains the exception, rather than the rule and that life chances for children in care are far lower than in the general population). In Baby P’s case, the lesser of two evils would have been to remove him from his birth family and place him for adoption or fostering. This didn’t happen. Baby P’s chances to become all he could have been were taken from him – and so I hold to what I said in my last post – the state and Haringey failed him when he needed them most.
Katharine Quarmby is a contributing editor to Prospect and is writing a memoir about her adoption.
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the fact that the child may have been officially in the care of the state is it seems the legal status of the case. but where does this leave the culpability of others involved with baby p? i’m thinking specifically of the child’s father, other close family members and the child’s wider social circle (neighbours, friends of the mother, ’stepfather’ and lodger). it’s not enough to merely lay blame at the door of those paid to protect without looking at the implications for the community at large. services had the legal responsibility but we need to think about social and moral responsibility too.
[...] Baby P: For once, the “reasonable†voices are wrong at First … [...]
Mine is a much closer story, a true one, and my view is these mistakes as its called will by immoral vigilantes in our social care whom think there ‘god’ will in fact just carry on and on, until we the public give just cause and explain exactly what we want… A loyal, unbiast, protective trusting, power, but this involves every sector, whom is on the other hand- , sexist, unethical, and not wanting to do there job,
Why do I say these words so harshly, my facts are, the police are corrupt, they see a man and a woman with crocodile tears, blaming violence with no evidence … police go to woman’s story, even though I had bruising blood and wast hysterical, on numerous occasions, again I get my nose broken, a collar bone, still the police say, don’t press charges to me, yet I have numerous false allegations made against me for her cover up of the truth,
I make complaints about her treatment of my daughters step sisters of, there abuse.. Faces being punched, doors being hammered.. Threats of ‘am going to rip your face apart‘, .. Objects being thrown out windows, my daughter being slapped and gashes to her face, yet they do nothing, the police, the services, even though a doctor calls , they do nothing,
… I inform social services of repeat incidents, they see the mother, and ask nothing of me, a report detailing the woman’s side of false allegations, is issued, between this paper report, – my daughter is abducted in a pre meditated incident to which these so called professionals are aware, and collaborate together,
I go to court, am accused again of violence, for seven months I don’t see my daughter, as so called judges cannot see the web of lies, I search , – find witnesses past and present neighbours who tell me of other unseen incidents to me, over 30..!!.., the case collapses a judge states that my ex is an ‘unbelievable’ and ‘exaggerated events,’ I say the case collapses as my ex gives up the ghost, my daughter is brought back to me,
Six months later, a fresh appeal, the past is past,… can you believe that, I cannot use any of it, the cafcas officer from Poole , asks me questions, of past violence, calls me a liar, that if I challenge her I will regret it…. My ex lies about incidences to them with no evidence, I do not given the right to explain nor give a side of truth, I have police records, tapes, witnesses, receipts of my doing the right thing, I believe none of this is read, the report is damming, sexist & bias again , contradicting every single word and police and video, after one brief spell in court I still have my daughter, but within a week another appeal and fresh allegations… the cafcass officer lies in court yes lies, to this as well she miss leads the judge, I lose my daughter,
Within ten days my daughter is sexually abused and mentally traumatised my ex and her partner, , she is handed back to me, after a police investigation, my daughter describes events to her councils, the case collapses as my ex dost turn up again, so the truth cannot be heard or proven and I can be forced back to court again by my ex, on any single allegation, ….
In the four years the child support agency has lost my progress, forgot me, re-department zed my case, further information excuses, and every time I call them on my progress am asked to call the region where my ex lives as this will be the office dealing with my case, as they assume, a mother has instant custody, and to date I have not received a single correspondence from them nor a penny, yet in my ten day loss of my daughter I get six letters, wanting details, a basic error, ?.. I think not, still in the middle ages with a narrow minded society given polices from head office from government who back women to be unseen to be racist??.. A society driven by sexist bent professionals with no god given right?.. Or all of the above, … this can happen it to you,