An agency I work for has real trouble getting social services to act in known cases of abuse. Were it not for the agency workers picking up the pieces, unpaid, in their own time, vulnerable people would be left to either starve or freeze or both as social workers routinely fail to pick up the baton.
In our area at least, it appears that social services lack sufficient manpower and resources to protect those they know to be vulnerable and I strongly suspect that, despite what Ed Balls says, this was the problem at the heart of the Khyra Ishaq case. Her problems had NOTHING to do with being hidden through HE (she wasn't - social services knew about her and would have had good reason to think that she was at risk) and EVERYTHING to do with lack of funding for SS departments.
It would be simply criminal therefore, if Ed Balls were to push through Schedule 1 of the Children, Schools and Families which would result in the monumental wastage of public funds as LAs set about inspecting thousands of perfectly well-functioning families, whilst families known to be at risk, languish at the bottom of some social worker's "to do" list.
Further, if there are any Fred Wests out there, the proposals in Schedule 1 will not bring them to light. Only successful HEors will register under this scheme, so it won't work to find the truly abusive.
The ridiculous proposals in the CSF Bill must not see the light of day.
“On the evidence before the court I can only conclude that in all probability had there been an adequate initial assessment and proper adherence by the educational welfare services to its guidance, [Khyra] would not have died.” So quoth the judge.
ReplyDeleteOnly the officials at fault are making this out to be a home ed problem, even though the judge stated it could have been sorted out if CURRENT guidance had been properly followed.
Balls disgusts me
At any other time the prosecution would have pushed the murder charge, possibly leading to a lengthy trial and closer scrutiny of the facts, including the irrelevance of home education.
ReplyDeleteBy accepting the manslaughter plea, the facts have been swept under the carpet and the government have a great story about how more regulation of HE is required.
This smells of political interference; the prosecution caved-in in order to allow the authorities to make a big splash with this story in time for the Lords debate.
Under present homicide laws I don't see how they could have continued to prosecute a murder charge http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/homicide_murder_and_manslaughter/
ReplyDeleteSo, Khyra had a brother who attended school and that still wasn't enough to help her. Sigh. The logical conclusion of all this is that someone from social services should visit a home educating family at at least one mealtime per day and observe the children. Or preferably, they should have a camera installed in the home of every HE family. But of course, the person whose job it is to watch the footage will probably be off to the toilet at the crucial point where a child is mistreated.
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