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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ArishMell · 70-79, M

A terrible tragedy but you can't write off an entire country's society like that.

If "British society was at its worst" as you claim, the authorities would not now be trying to find out where they went wrong.

Remember though that social workers do have limits. They cannot break into someone's home.

One common result of a child's unwarranted death (usually criminally, not accidentally as here) is a call to "put procedures in place" so it can't happen again. Well, it can and will - you cannot predict every tragedy - but I wonder if some of the difficulty is too many "procedures", rather than not enough. Establishing so many and so detailed, that they stifle initiative, make case-workers etc. fear to tread and hamper liaising with the other services?