Victoria Climbie, Peter Connelly, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Star Hobson, Finley Boden, and Sara Sharif were killed by those who were supposed to care for them and failed by the state. They died because we still don’t care enough about children that aren’t our own. Because we are still not prepared to fund children’s services appropriately.
We need to implement statutory change so that no child monitored by child services and/or schools should be allowed to be withdrawn for home-schooling. Social services should not be running crisis-led operations as they have done under Tory rule. There should be a mandatory level of work over which social workers are not allowed to operate. So when I was a full-time trade union rep I’d usually have about 20 personal cases on the go. It never got unmanageable. Had it risen to over 30, I’d have asked for help to get through them. Child protection cases are far more complex than your average workplace grievance or disciplinary.
It’s all very well tutting and feeling superior when you hear about the abuse that Sara Sharif suffered. Still, the fact that Sara was taken into care will probably be due to the caseloads of the relevant social services. If a social service can’t cope, then they should have to declare a “Critical incident” as hospitals have to – as if they don’t, more children will die. If you want to live in a civilized country, you have to pay for it. In this case, that probably should mean that Sara’s brothers and sisters need to be interviewed about any part Sara’s parents made them play in the abuse. So that there is no generational pollution.
Why was a little girl given to a man with a history of violence against women? No child should placed with someone with a history of violence. That is the only way to stop generational pollution.
The most haunting moment of this is when Sara’s step-mother Beinash Batool, in police interview, is asked about her relationship with Sara:
The Police Officer asks, “Do you love Sara?” Battool, “No comment.” police officer, “Did you care about her at all?” Battool, “No comment.”
#SaraSharif #GenerationalPollution
