Another case of cruelty

Oh, just realised it's a daily mail link.
Obviously, I only read it because I happened to be somewhere and needed to read something... blah blah.

This is a very watered down report, from what I understand.

Poor child. I read this week about a couple who were charged after letting their 16 year old daughter become morbidly obese. She died.

This young woman wanted to live with her dad, but social services wouldn't allow it.

She had friends, a boyfriend, and went to college and a day centre at one point.

God that's awful. That poor, poor girl

I wonder why the police were not called?

From what I have read, the "mother" just took the line of not opening the door, not attending appointments, and so, people just went away, time and again.

When social services gained access, and could hear the girl crying in her room, they accepted that she was doing it just for attention, as they were told.

There is such an old fashioned and outdated rhetoric with respect to people with learning disabilities. If she was crying for attention and needed it, wouldn't that have shown her needs were not being met?

Honestly the whole situation sounds just awful.

I wish I could say I don't understand how this has happened but unfortunately I know how as services have been cut so much and I suppose when many young people with MLD/SLD leave education they become invisible.

It seems they were pretty involved at some point; empowering her to live as she chose, and to do what she wanted, then they stepped in and overruled her choice to live with her dad, who was perfectly happy to take her.

They must have had a best interests meeting? They are obsessed with having them. Surely part of that process was to ask Debbie what she wanted

It was very clear that she wanted to live with her dad.
I've no idea what possessed them to overrule her wishes, but she would still be alive if they had listened, without q doubt.

I wonder if it was a financial decision as they'd have to pay for care to meet her personal care needs?

Could be..
I had sort of imagined that she could originally manage that side of things herself, but I may be wrong.

Sounds like the parents are to blame not the social services. They should go to jail. Too easy to blame the ‘authorities’.

Social services have a duty of care to anyone vulnerable that might be at risk within their community. They have a legal obligation to ensure safeguarding so that vulnerable people like Debbie aren't abused and neglected. It is a big part of the reason why social services exist

Breaks your heart doesn't it?

Sadly, I think we are going to hear more cases as I suspect the pandemic prevented visits and caused delays and backlogs.

MissAdventure

From what I have read, the "mother" just took the line of not opening the door, not attending appointments, and so, people just went away, time and again.

When social services gained access, and could hear the girl crying in her room, they accepted that she was doing it just for attention, as they were told.

So many times we read that an obstructive parent with something to hide avoids contact through home visits and appointments. I have no idea if social workers have power to gain entry in cases like this but surely alarm bells would ring in these situations and the social worker should insist on seeing the child even if it means police presence. It might save lives.

The police do get frustrated by social services when they are not called to gain entry to a vulnerable person. To just leave if they can't get in seems unacceptable to me.

I dont know if it applies in this case, but unless meetings and decisions made by the authorities in question are open to public scrutiny, sad to say, this unnecessary cruelty will continue.

Oh 1btw thank you for the link, I dont mind being accused as a DM reader ?

How very sad. I did read about this yesterday, the poor girl. Why when these incidents are reported there are not visits again and again. Surely the services must be aware that the people involved will be hiding things. I cannot understand it.

According to the report she has been sentenced to 9years + she'll be out on licence in 6
Will she change her name I wonder?

That was a distressing read. 10 years is nowhere near enough.

What makes me so cross about these tragic cases is that time and time again the useless, gullible social workers seem to go unpunished.

Repeatedly over the years we hear that concerns were raised by other family members, schools, etc yet the social workers either aren’t firm enough to demand entry, or if they do manage to get in the home, the obvious signs of abuse seem to get unnoticed.

We are always told ‘lessons will be learnt’ but they never are, are they?

I think the main lesson should be to absolutely insist on seeing the person.
Although, a doctor did visit once, brushed off concerns, and couldn't gain access next time, so didnt follow up.

I also put this here as it has attracted a lot less attention than child cruelty cases, which is a great pity, since the victim was as vulnerable as a child when denied the support she deserved.