British society at its worst

Boy who starved to death was too small to reach the fridge.

For our American friends, this is a brief summery of the tragedy. A high risk child of two lived with his fifty nine year old father. Social services visited twice in the holiday period, but could not enter the property. They informed the police who failed to act. In the meantime the father died of a heart attack, and the toddler starved to death. He was found hugging his father.

Neighbours were aware there were problems, but did not act. British Society is much like that.

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sunriselover · M

I cannot see these tragedies are going to stop.

Yes, there will be public enquiries. But in the end it is the loosening of family bonds that is the issue here, and the lack of cohesion in society itself.

It is a reflection of the times we live in.

Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M

@sunriselover Until there's a [b]MANDATE[/b] generally accepted in our [b]SOCIETY[/b] that sees [b]EVERY[/b] referral [b]HAS[/b] to have [b]ADEQUATE[/b] personnel and [b]TIME[/b] and [b]BUDGET[/b] and [b]LEGAL[/b] backing in favour of the [b]CHILD[/b], this going to keep happening.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to work in this field, give 100% + to it and know that for every thing you have a handle on something else is going amiss because of those reasons.

sunriselover · M

@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.

Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M

@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.

novaguy2u · 70-79, M

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