Compulsory sterilisation?

The safeguarding officer at the school should not have ignored the reports from the teachers - the whole safeguarding system in schools is just window dressing otherwise.

Local authorities (I know mine is one) have withdrawn funding from preventive work with children families (as it is not a statutory requirement) and concentrated on crisis management (which is). A false ecomony with fatal consequences.

This poor poor child - I cannot bear to think about it. I have two similar aged gradsons and the thought of anyone subjecting them to such cruelty makes me feel ill.

When I reported that a girl had told me she was being abused by her father and uncle, the headteacher of the Catholic High School refused to believe that a 'good Catholic father' would do such a thing. This was in 1974. I think he was concerned for his own career. Nothing seems to have changed.

Allegedly this poor child had various hospital visits. Had one of my patients presented with the broken arm (? arms) being immaciated, etc etc. I would certainly have reported this as a ? NAI (Non Accidental Injury)
As everybody says, it really begs belief that Daniel had to sustain this continual abuse.

What amazed me was that the abuser is always a very plausible and accomplished liar. I have done skeletal surveys for ?NAI (I was a radiographer) on babies and small children whose parents are seemably out of their minds with concern for the child, but obviously they are really more concerned about being found out.

After their 30 year sentences, I suggest these 2 are returned to their homeland, but I doubt it will ever happen.

That seems to be the problem, the head has the responsibility to report the abuse. In Australia there is Mandatory Reporting where those professionals including teachers are legally required to report suspected abuse to a Child Protection Helpline.

I can't understand when a child is stealing food and is very thin why it was left to the head teacher to decide. Also I have read that the boy had been diagnosed as Autistic. It seems to me that this is the era of children being diagnosed as "Autistic" previously children were diagnosed as being "Hyperactive."

Poor little mite, left to starve and be beaten, it breaks my heart to think no one cared enough to make sure he was okay.

Mandatory Reporting sorry the link didn't work.

gracesmum not everyone on GN is a parent - I'm not, but that doesn't stop me from feeling the same revulsion you do. My heart breaks when I think of that poor child, not having someone to turn to who could have stopped this from happening.

Mandatory reporting, sounds ok, and is, until you hear that some teachers are not more than children themselves. They are more frightened of making a mistake, and themselves suffering consequences, than fearing for the life of a child.
As for staff in the prisons, they are more at the mercy of the prisoners than you think, and have to be very careful what the say to a prisoner, and even more careful of what they do, or do not do.Their fellow prisoners would only be similar people to themselves,if there are any, they will be segregated for their own safety, and be in relative luxury compared to the "poor little boy". We will again hear of measures designed to ensure that this sort of thing will never happen again.I say," it will, repeatedly". How many wish to disagree with me , on this occasion?

Not me!

What can you say? Nobody wants to be involved and the fact that a family is foreign seems to give them the excuse not to inquire too deeply and to overlook missed appointments because "They are not used to our ways"
Months will be spent on the review, millions of words will be written and not a thing will change. In a year or two the next tragedy will come to light and the authorities will be "learning lessons" all over again. We were told that everything would change after the Maria Colwell case in 1973 and we are still waiting.

Life imprisonment for them both, with a minimum of 30 years to be served, and not a moment too long!

I agree with what you say deserving. In this country the teachers and others are liable if they don't report suspected abuse.

The other thing is, what is wrong with other people, such as parents stepping in. When living in the UK I saw a vicar riding alongside a distressed ten year old who was running. I bolted after them and stopped this stupid man. I phoned the school and spoke to the head, she said she had asked him to bring this naughty boy back to the school. I told her how angry I was to see the boy in this situation, she then said she realised it was the wrong thing to do. I found out later the boy had severe asthma and even though he didnt stop running he told his mother it helped him to see someone stop the vicar chasing him.

It's not the only time I have had to intervene, I felt threatened once by a bus driver who I told to let a teenage girl off the bus. She had caught the wrong bus which didn't stop until miles further on and he was going to make her stay on the bus for the forty minute trip.

My daughter used to pack extra lunch for my GD's class mate who had a neglectful parent.

I am also in total disbelief that this could happen in our so called civilised society. I agree with everything Iam64 has said about the state of child protection services but in this case I don't think they were the ones at fault. (I stand to be corrected when the serious case review has reported). As well as disbelief at the failings of the teachers, I am at a loss to understand why a community paediatrician who saw this poor child with severe weight loss did not immediately admit him to hospital for further investigations. I am confident that this would happen in my own authority for all it's weaknesses. It is very worrying that an authority like Coventry, hardly a backwater, seems to have no coherent child protection policy and staff who appear unable to grasp the basics.

No member of staff would be in anyway in trouble for reporting a genuine concern of abuse to the CP officer in a school (usually HT).

If the mother had given a plausible 'story' to the HT about a medical condition/eating disorder to try to explain away the child's scavenging and weight loss then I can see why HT might have been hesitant to report on to SS, though along with physical injuries, it does seem odd that they were not pressing for further investigation/information at least. I also think the child's emotional state would have been causing alarm. As a HT I would have written to GP telling him/her what I had been told by parent and ask the GP to refer to SS if medical condition was untrue. I have done that when I was not convinced the story a parent was giving me re keeping a child off school was true. Doc could not disclose any info to me but could make a forward referral.

Sadly school nurses/medicals do not happen any more..they were a good way of getting better communication between health, SS and schools.

It is not an excuse but all services:schools, SS and health are so overwhelmed with centrally issued targets, reports, accountability data and budget cuts etc that this sometimes takes attention away from the things that really matter: the people they are serving.

The two killers deserve their punishment.

I ^certainly do not Deserving.

It will be the same old , same old .

Lessons have been learned, the head of the authority will get a big payoff and then "back to Business" until the next poor innocent child .

It is quite tragic !!!

I can't agree that nothing changes after serious case reviews. As a direct result of the Lord Laming report into the death of Victoria Climbie the whole structure of social services as we had known it since the Seebohm Report of 1968 (one stop shop) was overturned. We have had a return to the fragmented services that preceded it and in my view to the loss of social work as a profession. I think Lord Laming fundamentally misunderstood the failings that had led to Vicoria Climbie's death and took a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It should be no surprise that not only the nut was cracked.

None of this is any reason why poor Daniel Pelka died. This was not even human error. One social worker, one teacher, one doctor cannot cause a child's death if the systems are sufficiently robust and adhered to. There appears to have been a catastrophic institutional failure at the most basic level. I will say again, as I keep repeating, that I will be very interested to hear the findings of the serious case review. I can understand the comments of the Director who said such reviews distract attention and resources from the day to day work of services, but what is s/he suggesting as an alternative? Surely we have to try to get to the bottom of what happened here.

I stick to my post !!

quite really for these poor darling children !!

My post wasn't in response to your post Nonu it was more of a general comment about what is always said in response to such tragedies.

As a young teacher I came across a case where a child was constantly covered in bruises. I asked the Headteachef what we should do and the answer was 'nothing' this happens all the time. When I tried to persevere I was told it wasn't up to me and to leave well alone. The following day he didn't appear at school and was off for a week, allegedly with 'nits'. On his return there was more evidence of faded bruising so that night I anonymously rang the Duty Officer at the Social Services who again was reluctant to 'interfere'. I ask his name and said that I was making a note of it and the time and content of the call and if anything even more serious happened I'd disclose this call to the media and put the phone down.
The child was taken into care, found to have two cracked ribs, numerous healed or partly headed fractures, underweight and bruised and with burn marks from an iron on his buttocks. This was December 1972. A month later in January 1973 a little girl called Maria Caldwell died from injuries inflicted by her parents. Forty years on.....

nonu there is not one of us here who is not appalled by this tragic death and by the failure of those around the child to protect him. Using emotive language 'poor darling children' does not make you more appalled or caring than those who use less sentimental language.

The people who killed him were his mother and stepfather.

Those who saw him in school and hospital and were not more dismayed by his condition need to be held to account. It may turn out that they did everything they could given the information they had from the mother, it may be they failed the child by not following procedures rigorously.

Nanaej some HT can be bullies and threaten members of staff. They don't want 'their' school to appear less than perfect. So a young teacher might feel quite intimidated by that kind of dominant and upwardly mobile HT. I've come across a couple like that myself.

It's obviously not working and I can remember a three year old freezing and starving to death when I lived in the UK over 25 years ago. The neighbour reported this family many times, the child wasn't seen and nothing was done because the parents said she was staying with relatives. That very tragic story will forever be imprinted on my brain.

I am not saying the system is perfect in Australia but if a teacher etc does not report directly to Child Protection, they are liable. When the reporting is passed on to others to deal with often nothing is done because no one has to take responsibility.

Each to his own I will say what I want to say , okay !!!

In other words every professional, from the child's teacher, the head, the doctor etc who came in contact with that child would be liable if they did not report to Child Protection and it was found that he had been abused.

aka it does not happen all the time now.

Referrals are made frequently by schools to SS. There are very clear procedures for passing on concerns about a child. In fact in my experience schools err on the side of caution because of these few tragic high profile cases. For every one of these tragedies there will have been very many more children protected.

Remember it is the bad news that makes the headlines but you never hear 'School reports concerns and SS protects child from abuse'

What a truly beastly little post , to you nanaej for the avoidance of doubt .

for you