Baby P
Posted by Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, at 15:13, Fri 28 November 2008:
The tragedy of Baby P's death has hung over all our lives during the last week. The depth of public anger and outrage is enormous and that is reflected not only in my postbag, email box and phonecalls to my office but also by the highest ever number of visits to my blog and website.
Our justice system has done its part with the prosecution of those responsible, but we also need to be sure that we learn what can be learnt about how social workers, the police and others involved handled the case.
My concern is that when the media tsunami passes measures are put in place in Haringey that ensure that child protection is properly implemented. Whilst I believe there should be further enquiries, all the recommendations in the world mean nothing if the people charged with the responsiblity to implement them fail - and do so with impunity.
I wrote a quick piece for the Guardian website which I post below for your information. It would be very helpful to me to have more feedback from local people to the various postings already up and I am posting reactions to latest news etc on my blog - http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/labels/baby%20p.htm - where there is a comment facility where you can let me know what you think.
I am very grateful to all those who have contacted me with their often expert and very wise views.
Best wishes,
Lynne
+++++++++ Haringey Council have failed a child - but who will accept responsibility?
I refuse to shrug my shoulders and accept the inevitability of horrific tragedy as Haringey Council fails to prevent another child's death. They say lightning never strikes twice - in my home borough, it has.
Calm reflection in the wake of media frenzy is a sensible response. However, turning this intense scrutiny to something purposeful that will help to prevent it happening again is extremely important.
After the national spotlight moves away, Haringey residents will still be left wanting answers - ultimately, are our children safe? Guaranteeing zero risk of malicious harm to children is of course impossible. We can never eliminate risk. But children's services, like many of our frontline services, are supposed to do their utmost to manage and minimise risk. Their training, their support networks and the organisation behind them must support them to make these difficult judgments.
Haringey Council's defence has been that no one could have protected against deceitful carers and parents. But closer scrutiny of the case reveals that Baby P's bruising stopped when he was removed for a short while from his abusers. It would not have been overly cautious to have put two and two together.
Social workers have a difficult and often thankless task. After the death of Victoria Climbié, it was her social worker who was offered up as a sacrificial lamb. My wrath now is not towards the social workers who made mistakes, but towards the system that let them. As a local councillor when Victoria Climbié died, I was told lessons would be learnt. This time I am going to make sure they are.
After a decade of fighting Haringey Council, first as a councillor and now as an MP, I have come to realise that there is an endemic institutional culture that accepts and defends failure. As I write, Haringey Labour leadership are holed up in their bunker hoping they can weather the storm again. They have only just issued a statement expressing their "deepest sorrow" over the tragedy.
In his report on Climbié's death, Lord Laming said there should be no place to hide when it comes to responsibility. The head of Radio 2 resigned over corporate failure, and that was over a distasteful broadcast. We are talking about the death of a child that might have been prevented. Who will resign for Baby P?
+++++++++
For more about Baby P, see http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/labels/baby%20p.htm
Comments
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Posted by John Kelly, 17:56, Mon 1 December 2008: (Is this post abusive?) #
I have some considerable experiences of Haringey social workers and they seem to me to be much like any others - over-tasked, not very well paid and forever chasing their tales, but evidently compassionate and concerned to do what they can in the context of the enormous social problems of the borough. I believe that fundamentally they need to be better resourced and I am disappointed to see Lynne Featherstone taking the opportunity of the death of this unfortunate child to make a cheap political point.Neither my wife nor I will vote for her next time.