Ten years ago, Lord Lamming published his report into the murder of Victoria Climbié after her death in the year 2000. The cruel torture meted out to the eight year old girl by her great-aunt and the great-aunt's boyfriend before they finally murdered her sent sickening shockwaves throughout the country; nobody who read or heard anything about that case could ever forget the litany of injuries inflicted upon this child, or the anger they felt as failing after failing was uncovered in the investigation; something the Lamming Report highlighted extensively. Victoria was let down, the report concluded, by the very people who should have protected her from this abuse: Haringey Social Services and the police, in particular, were singled out as being particularly ineffective, perhaps backing up the assertion of the judge during the trial of Victoria's killers that all those involved in her case were "blindingly incompetent". Heads, quite rightly, rolled.
Never again, they said...
Fast forward to 2009 and another report by Lord Lamming is released after another child is systematically abused and murdered. The 'Baby P' case - the death of 17 month old Peter Connelly at the hands of his mother and step-father in 2007 - once again sent sickened shockwaves throughout the country; the fact he had lived in the London Borough of Haringey - the self-same Borough whose social services had been identified as failing Victoria Climbié - meant that this time round the anger seemed even more forceful. There was yet another gut-wrenching litany of cruelty reported during the trial in 2008; yet another internal Serious Case Review - albeit one which was condemned by both local and national MP's for being little more than a cover-up job - and once again external reports were commissioned by the Government to look into the competence of Haringey Children's Services. Once again, heads rolled.
Never, ever again, they said...
Fast forward once again to last week, when it was announced that Coventry's Safeguarding Children Board are completing a review into the systematic abuse and murder of four year old Daniel Pelka by his mother and step-father, which is due to report back in six weeks time.
Don't bother, Coventry. Seriously, save yourselves the bother of reinventing the wheel and just take either of the previously mentioned Safeguarding Reviews, change the names and dates and Robert is, in fact, your mother's brother. Because from the sounds of it I don't think there are going to be any surprises in there. In fact I would pretty much lay money on where your report will highlight the failings were: Children's Social Services. Police. The school. Healthcare officials. It will be almost exactly the same fault-finding and recommendations which were first highlighted after the death of Victoria Climbié thirteen years ago.
Have we learnt nothing in thirteen years? Nothing at all?
Now I work alongside people who work with 'troubled' children and families; indeed, I work with said children and families myself. It's a huge responsibility and, if I'm completely honest, half the time I live in a state of utter paranoia that I might be missing something, that something might happen in one of these families which causes irrevocable harm...and the families we work with are not as complex as the families social services have to work with. I sometimes work alongside our social workers; I know how stretched they are, how pressured their workload is; how under-staffed they can be. That's not their fault; it is the fault of Councils for not employing more social workers to carry the load. But it is their fault if they suspect something is happening in a family and they don't at least report it; if they have to ask their superior whether something is or is not abuse then might I tactfully suggest that, passionate though you may be, you're in the wrong damn job, kid.
It isn't easy working with some of these families. I know that and I don't have to work with the most acute and complex cases, and yet there are days when I might as well bash my head against the nearest wall as it will be more productive. But that's the nature of the beast; that - surely - is why we choose to go into this field: to help people and do what we can to ensure these children and families have every chance to have a half-decent life? When I read about the horrific abuse meted out to Daniel Pelka I cried; not just because it was so horrific - which of course it was - but because he could so easily have been one of the children I come across in the course of my work. It haunts me that, maybe, there were chances to save this little boy at an earlier stage; before the abuse escalated, before it became so severe that social services had to become involved. And it made me think that maybe, just maybe, there are children I work with right now who could potentially - only potentially mind you, but that potential is enough - to become the next Daniel, the next Peter, the next Victoria...
I do my job because I love it. Not because it's easy, not because I earn mega-bucks or get medals for it or am likely to win awards for it, but because I love it. It was exactly the same when I worked for Victim Liaison or when I worked for Women's Aid; it was hard work and exacted an emotional toll, but I loved it. And I don't doubt that all those people who worked on Daniel Pelka's case, or Peter Connelly's, or Victoria Climbié's loved their jobs too; after all, it isn't really the sort of thing you go into if you don't have a passion for it as it will just eat you alive otherwise. But thirteen years on from Victoria's death we are still having exactly the same conversations around the water-cooler over what should be done, who should be blamed...nothing, it seems, has really changed. In two or three years time I expect we'll be waiting for the result of yet another Serious Case Review, after yet another child is abused and murdered by those expected to nurture and care for them; wondering who will get the sack for failing to protect said child; shaking our heads sorrowfully at yet another life lost...
I hope I'm wrong. I really, really hope I'm wrong. I hope this time the anger will be so white-hot and righteous that when we say never, ever, ever again we don't just mean it, we do something about it; something more than just enact legislation or carry out reviews or give people the sack. But, realistically, there will always be people prepared to torture, abuse and murder the children they are supposed to have been put on this earth to protect, and there will always be over-stretched and under-resourced services battling to keep up with the never-ending stream of cases coming their way. We are, after all, a society which founded an organisation for the protection of animals long before we founded one for the protection of children, and with the current programme of Government budget cuts with the best will in the world it's not going to magically improve overnight.
I don't have the answers, or any real conclusions. I just have a deep sense of foreboding and a terrible, terrible sadness...
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