Two year old starves to death

Iam64

The social worker visited by appointment, got no reply and contacted the police. I don’t understand why no police action was taken.
The social worker visited again, no reply, child not seen so police informed. Again, no action.
The social worker obtained a key from the landlord, let herself in and found the bodies.
Please don’t just blame this social worker. I don’t understand why the police didn’t gain access to the property. In my experience, they’d have used their powers to gain entry to ensure a vulnerable child was seen.
The child’s mother is complaining to the Sun that social services let her child die. No comment on thst

Not the social worker's fault, she did the right thing by informing the police.
Why the police did not act and try to gain entry the first time when they had been informed there was a vulnerable child there I do not know.

I will not comment on the mother either.

My husband just said “that should have been sorted on the same day. A vulnerable little boy. When the social worker reported it to the Police she didn’t go back for five days? What! How hard could it have been to keep behind it by phone and ask the Police 5 HOURS later ‘where are we up to with this?’” And if she was off duty pass on to a colleague.

Although he agrees the Police input (or lack of) needs addressing.

LBC contacted the various agencies and confirmed that the social worker visited several times. A caller to LBC said that each service had different computer systems which weren't linked. I guess that's for privacy reasons. this would make it more difficult for the various workers.

Given the shortage of staff in all the agencies, which includes (when necessary) teachers it must be very difficult to get representatives together for case studies.

The social worker is now on leave (at her own request) and I hope that she isn't bullied on social media. My niece who is a social worker often used to go to court to give evidence. There was no protection for her - she used to have to wait outside the court near the families against whom she was giving evidence. She got a lot of abuse from them.

I’m still wondering why the police didn’t use their powers to see a child classed as vulnerable. Given the little we know, I’d speculate that ten years or so ago he’d have had a child protection plan and police woukd have had him red flagged

It seems from the report that Mr Battersby had at least one older, possible adult child too who is now posting on Facebook.

Where was she over Christmas and New Year? She is angry and obviously upset but where was the family over Christmas and New Year?
She said her baby brother deserved so much better than this life and yes he did, poor little boy.

I agree with Dickens - why are children left with some of these chaotic families? They do deserve a better chance in life.

I would have expected the social worker to have received feedback from the police after she first alerted them, and in the absence of that feedback to phone to ask for it. I’m not taking the popular stance of blaming the SW but, given that she had reported inability to gain access to a vulnerable child I’m surprised that she didn’t follow it up but instead made a second unproductive visit and a second report, then returned five days later and managed to gain access via the landlady. By which time the poor little mite was dead. I don’t think either the police or the SW, overworked though she may have been, will come out of this well.

The Social Worker visited three times in a space of five days, she made two calls to the police that we know of, and used her own initiative to gain entry when the police, for some reason, did not assist her. I think she deserves praise for her actions. I can only imagine the trauma she experienced in finding the child and his father dead, and I’m sure the sight will never leave her. These were people she was working with and cared about.

I do not think it was helpful of Shelagh Fogarty on LBC to say that if she was the social worker she would have found a way in by breaking a window if necessary. Easy to be wise after the event. If social workers broke into houses every time they could not gain access this would be happening on a daily basis, and social workers would soon find themselves in court and out of a job. We do not know what the level of risk was perceived to be in this case, only that the child was vulnerable. The risk of the father dying was presumably not something anyone expected.

We really do not know the details of the action taken or lack of it by anyone involved and would do well to reserve judgment at this stage. It is truly heartbreaking.

GSM I agree. Safeguarding is complex and it’s becoming more so. There’s been a push to reduce care proceedings, reduce the numbers of children with a protection plan etc. we have huge problems with drugs/alcohol with the mental health problems and chaotic, often volatile or violent lives associated with substance misuse
We need to return to the working together mantra of the Blair early years, along with surestart, family aids etc
Austerity has a lot to answer for
Im not deflecting from the obvious question of why the police didn’t gain entry. Why the sw team manager didn’t tell the sw to phoned the sergeant at their local station.

Well said nightowl

The period which encompasses the first visit on 2 January, the second on 4 January and the last on 9 January is 8 days inclusive nightowl. And we don’t yet know when the child died.

Callistemon
You ask where was the mother over Xmas and the new year, probable off her face in a crack house.

My ( now retired) social worker friend had a gun pointed at her when she went ( with the police) to remove children from the house.

petra

Callistemon
You ask where was the mother over Xmas and the new year, probable off her face in a crack house.

My ( now retired) social worker friend had a gun pointed at her when she went ( with the police) to remove children from the house.

I meant the child's older, possibly adult, supister.

Did you not see her sick father and much loved baby brother over that period?
It seems that a neighbour had invited Mr Battersby and the little boy over on Boxing Day.

Now the social worker and the police will be blamed (I do think the police should have been more proactive) with the actual family blaming anyone but themselves.

It must have been a dreadful shock for that social worker but she probably had an overloaded caseload too.

Oh dear.

supsister - sister
Did she not see her sick father and much loved baby brother over that period?

If entry must be forced into a home, a social worker/ housing officer/ health worker has no right to effect entry: it has to be a police matter. Prosecution would follow anyone who flouted these rules.

👍

So sad. Speechless.

Thanks Iam - I didn’t want to point the finger unnecessarily at the SW.

Callistemon, the mother has two other children but I have no idea if all or any of them are from the same father. I expect her part in this tragedy will be revealed in time. I can’t imagine not being with my child over Christmas because of a row with the father. She will, I hope, regret that for the rest of her days if she has a shred of decency.

Having read comments from people in the newspapers who have seen her Facebook messages and posts apparently they reveal a lot about this ‘mother’ that has not yet been reported in the press. Poor little boy should have been adopted at birth.

It is a consequence of failing public services imo but I suspend judgment as to who is at fault till the inquest. It's too easy to blame social workers or the police.

You are right GSM, it was a period of 8 days, not five.

I agree with your point about the SW requesting feedback from the police, or preferably asking for an immediate visit while she was still at the house, which would have been best practice. I just think that without knowing what conversations were held between them it’s impossible to say whether she could have done any more at that point.

Btw, my earlier post was not aimed at yours - I was composing mine very slowly when you posted.

Yes, I know. 😊

Pantglas2

So very sad and it appears that the social worker informed the Police after her first visit but they didn’t do anything- no doubt it will all come out at the inquest.

Several years ago an internet chum of mine didn’t post for a while. Other internet chums, who knew him far better than I did and knew him in the real world too contacted the police but they refused to go to his house as they said he probably didn’t want to chat with anyone. Even though they kept saying it was totally out of character they still wouldn’t visit him. He had died of a heart attack. That poor little boy

Another problem is the ‘working together’ model developed seems to have been diminishing as all services get overwhelmed and invoke inexperienced staff.

Years of underfunding have made it unworkable.

It seems we are in a parlous state. Mental Health services, social care, dentistry, the NHS, the police force - all stretched to the limits of feasibility.

We are not a poor country - why are we allowing this?

Absolutely heartbreaking event. That poor little boy. How can these things happen in UK 2024..