British society at its worst

@Burnley123

money is being spent in the wrong places .... well @ least where i live

@Burnley123 once again hitting the nail squarely on the head.

@Burnley123 Unfortunately a very common problem in many societies today.

@SunshineGirl Indeed - but no-one likes to be too "neighbourly"; and these ones might genuinely have not realised anything was wrong. So perhaps not lack of concern but fear of taking any action.

We don't know if there were any other relatives - apart from the divorced mother of course - but if there are, they might all live a long way away, and not contact each other very often.

That is probably very common, even normal. Families do disperse.

I can give my own example.

My sisters and I all live in the same village, but not in each others' homes - a point one made when I asked if she was willing to complete a supplement to a longitudinal study in which I am a subject. She wasn't, largely because as she said, we don't actually know each other's daily lives closely enough.

We are quite close socially as well as geographically, but we don't monitor each other and don't even see each other all that often.

@ArishMell Yes, it's quite difficult to make the call on when to step in unless you have specific caring responsibilities for that person. Peoples' homes are like fortresses and the defences are tricky to breach when they are put up.

@Picklebobble2 I tend to agree with you on this .Time and resources will help. It is not a reflection on the people who work in this field. I share their frustrations.

@sunriselover 35 years i've been in Social Work and in all that time it's never been any different.
Endless charities doing stuff we should be doing because we're qualified and trained in how to do it.
We just don't have the time because there are too many cases not being resolved and moved into 'recovery' mode.

Too few Foster Families; too few Adoptive families and even if you find them the process for taking wonderfully intuitive people and making them approved Adopters takes way too long due to court proceedings; rebuttle from parents/families; endless stops and starts and in the middle of all that a child who is trying to make sense of their past; trying to cope with their present and mistrustful of their future.

@sunriselover If they put half the effort into finding solutions as they do into public enquiries then there may be fewer tragedies.

@jshm2 It’s more a commentary on society in that children are not valued, so the public resources allocated toward their welfare are inadequate.

@LeopoldBloom How well do you know your neighbours? Most of us life in isolation. How well are we in contact with our family network? ?Is it too loose? I think it is a commentary on British society today.