RIP Baby Star Hobson

Just a comment.
When I was a SENCO I attended a day long conference to explain the purpose of Cafcass, (family and court advisory service) and every support service that worked with children from troubled families was represented: education, health, welfare, police, prison, travellers, migrants, parents, law and others I cannot remember. The only body not to be represented was Social Services, and this was at the direct request of parents, 'because families were frightened of them.'
So the Service specifically trained to work with these families, allowed into their homes to help and advise but with the knowledge to make a balanced assessment, was deliberately excluded from a conference aimed at co ordinating services by the very people they were trying to support.

Heartbreaking and disturbing again."lessons will be learnt" always said in the aftermath but never are.

tickingbird

I’m aware of that Doodledog but she basically said this is because people voted Tory.

Yet again, it’s become political.

Feel free to explain why these failings in child protection were happening under a Labour government.

How is safeguarding the most vulnerable in society and providing appropriate resources ever not political?

tickingbird

*Sarnia*. You aren’t being judgemental anymore than I am. You are speaking from your experience as am I. There’s far too much of this dismissing people’s views. I know a friend’s daughter who’s in sw and when she was studying for her degree she told us she was taught that the ‘lower classes’ don’t have the same standards and not to judge. It’s outrageous. Most of the so called lower classes love and care for their children just as much as anyone else. To casually dismiss a neglected, dirty child because ‘they’ have different standards is not only camouflaged snobbery but displays a mind boggling lack of understanding.

I doubt very much if your friend's daughter was told that by any decent lecturer, using those words. It's your friend's daughter's interpretation.

nightowl

So many generalisations here. I can assure you that middle class people abuse their children too, but they are far better at hiding it and keeping the authorities at bay than the poor and feckless. What horrible judgmental attitudes some people have.

I have only just come back to the thread, but yes, that is true, nightowl.

Someone upthread mentioned psychopaths too - they are not necessarily stupid, they can be clever, manipulative and devious.

I might add all strata of society are capable of abuse.

Iam64

Up to two children die at the hands of parents/carers each week as a result of non accidental injuries or neglect. That figure seems to have been unchanged over many years.

The numbers of children in care increased by 50% during the pandemic.

I hope the awful reports of the suffering of Arthur and Star result result in an overhaul in all the agencies involved with children. The wheel doesn’t need to be re-invented. Each inquiry consistently identifies similar issues.

I agree.

And so often the parents have warning of a visit and brush up their act for the time the SW is in the house.
Yes, and of course they are then in a position to deceive and manipulate over-worked social workers.

However, if warnings come from several sources then surely alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear.

Allsorts

What a shameful to say. A beautiful innocent baby died a horrible death, but it’s not the perpetrators to blame it’s the government. Little Star, was let down by many, but her own mother did it.

Why do people on here persistently twist what people say to something entirely different?

Of course the perpetrators are responsible, which I for one have already said explicitly. In both cases it seems as though the natural parent's partner was largely responsible, and yes, they are absolutely to blame, as are the parents for allowing it to happen. I can't imagine standing by watching my husband hit or hurt my children, and I'm certain that he wouldn't allow me to do so either.

But nobody has said that these people are not to blame. What people have said is that blaming social workers is not fair when the whole care system is underfunded, and that is the fault of the government (and indirectly the fault of those who voted for them). This is not the same thing as absolving the perpetrators and blaming the government. Nobody has done that.

Absolutely agree with all who say a drastic overhaul is urgently needed. And surely there should be a change in the legal system regarding the penalties the vile perpetrators should face?
I'm not suggesting the return of capital punishment but maybe another, more severe tier to reflect the horror of their crimes?

Brockhill laughs as she gets 25 years for murdering Star
The mother gets just 8 years.

I think if the social workers visited this baby, saw the bruises and all the rest of it then clearly the system, such as it is, is working but they as individuals failed in their job which is to investigate reports of abuse on this baby, reported by numerous people. Surely, common sense should override dogma and training in universities? A bruised baby, reports of abuse…surely at the least she should have been removed from their care until it could be investigated further. Or am I being naive?

I've just donated to the NSPCC for myself and a Gransnet friend.

How can the neighbours not have heard the baby's screams?

Hetty58

We've had severe cutbacks in council funding, social care, education, mental health support, police, NHS and housing - the whole safety net - since at least 2010. People struggle to do their jobs with underfunding and understaffing, isn't that obvious?.

Bradford children's services had an 'inadequate' rating way back in 2018, (and that's Ofsted, with their low 'standards') with social workers trying to protect children in caseloads of 50, meaning high staff turnover and pressure to close cases.

It seems to me that the public don't really care, don't want to fund decent services, ignore all the others, the two children killed every week by neglect or abuse (the ones we don't hear about). Then there's the predictable outcry when a violent case makes the headlines, the calls for severe punishment, the blame put on social workers. Still, people vote again to pay less tax, the hypocrites.

Exactly. Very well put. To be frank, if I was in charge at Bradford council and facing calls for my head over this I would request a press conference and bluntly lay out the cold facts. Serious funding cuts cost lives, and nobody in their right mind should be considering voting for any party with cutting taxes on their manifesto. I can't get some of the details of what happened to Star out of my mind, 30 punches and slaps to the head while she was strapped in her car seat........my god.

My daughter wrote this last night:
You little angels, shining so bright. You had no one close, to hold you tight.
I cry so much, when I think of you two. How lonely you were, so black and blue.
How can anyone be so evil? I feel so angry towards these awful people.
I cannot explain what I would do, to bring you back, the both of you.
So warm, so sweet, so gorgeous and innocent. The beauty in your eyes was so magnificent.
I’m so affected by your loss. So many of us are, disgusted and cross.
The social services let you down, to think of them only makes us frown.
But it’s way too late, to save you both. No one will ever witness, your beauty and growth.
It’s times like these I really hope, there is a heaven, it helps me cope.
I’m being selfish, I’m fully aware. But please forgive me, it’s because I care.
Our hearts are broken, they really are.
We will never forget you, Arthur and Star

The NSPCC refer to Social Services now, Shandy57

The days of people dreading a visit from the 'Cruelty Man' are gone
A neighbour and I once reported another neighbour to the NSPCC as her children had far more bruises than would seem to be normal, plus broken bones (untreated) and a burn 'from a hot water bottle'.
A seemingly nice, respectable middle class family.
They did a moonlight flit and we never knew what happened.

I doubt very much if your friend's daughter was told that by any decent lecturer, using those words. It's your friend's daughter's interpretation. Really growstuff? You weren’t there so you can doubt all you like, in much the same way I ‘doubt’ much of what’s claimed on these threads.

Calistemon

Brockhill laughs as she gets 25 years for murdering Star
The mother gets just 8 years.

Brockhill sounds psychopathic.

Obviously we don't know the details of their relationship; but the courts will, and it sounds as though Smith may have been in her thrall.

Like Arthur's 'carers', they will have an awful time in jail, and whereas I would never condone violence against anyone, I won't be losing sleep over any of them.

Beautiful words Chestnut

How can the neighbours not have heard the baby's screams?

They probably did and they may have reported hearing those screams…….

Brockhill laughs as she gets 25 years for murdering Star OMG what an utterly vile individual.

tickingbird

*I doubt very much if your friend's daughter was told that by any decent lecturer, using those words. It's your friend's daughter's interpretation*. Really growstuff? You weren’t there so you can doubt all you like, in much the same way I ‘doubt’ much of what’s claimed on these threads.

What 'claims' do you doubt, tickingbird?

I agree with growstuff that it is highly unlikely that a qualified lecturer would use the term 'lower classes' or say that they didn't have the same standards (as whom?). Both 'lower classes' and 'standards' are very vague terms that are meaningless in any academic context, and that sort of generalisation is, again, most unlikely to be used in a lecture, particularly one given by someone who has had a career in social work.

I can imagine there being a caution to the students against imposing their cultural norms onto clients and making assumptions about them based on whether or not theirs are the same, and I think that makes sense.

Whether someone is in their dressing gown at lunchtime or not is not an indicator of the likelihood that they will abuse their children, and nor is the tidiness of their house. Again, that is not the same thing as saying, in fact or implication as 'the lower classes have different standards'.

tickingbird

^Brockhill laughs as she gets 25 years for murdering Star^ OMG what an utterly vile individual.

She won't find it so amusing when the inmates form a welcoming committee for her.

There was no evidence before the Court that neighbours heard or reported Star screaming. That isn’t to say the little child wasn’t screaming or that neighbours didn’t hear the sound of violent physical and emotional abuse from the home.

I’m another who doesn’t believe a lecturer on a social work degree spoke in the way tickingbird’s friend’s daughter claims. This report sounds like the kind of misrepresentation of comments here that don’t suit the narrative.

I posted earlier the consistent number of two children a week dying because of parental abuse or neglect, over many years. To clarify - yes that confirms children being killed by carers happens whichever govt is in power. I haven’t seen anyone suggesting otherwise.

Trisher sets out accurately what happened when the Blair government came into power. Every Child Matters did not introduce box ticking, far from it. The Orange book set out clearly the factors to be covered in assessment. There was investment in early years. Sure Start was universally admired and I saw lives improved by the involvement of families.

Cameron’s austerity was unnecessary. Over the past 11 years every public service has been cut to the bone. We are a wealthy country. We can afford to invest in early years. We should do so

Sarnia

tickingbird

Brockhill laughs as she gets 25 years for murdering Star OMG what an utterly vile individual.

She won't find it so amusing when the inmates form a welcoming committee for her.

I do hope she'll be laughing the other side of her face very soon. However, she must have spent time inside on remand already.

I'm not a naturally violent person but these crimes against innocent babies and children sicken me.

Sure Start was universally admired and I saw lives improved by the involvement of families.

Cameron’s austerity was unnecessary. Over the past 11 years every public service has been cut to the bone. We are a wealthy country. We can afford to invest in early years. We should do so

I agree, Iam64 but the children being abused, tortured and murdered are often hidden away, the parents are not the type to come forward for help and support.