Two year old starves to death

woodenspoon

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.

Poor little boy should have been adopted at birth.

In hindsight, so should many others.

I'm sure there are parents who live chaotic lives who can be helped because they have a genuine love for their children, but I'm equally sure that there are those parents who should never be allowed to be in charge of the children they conceive.

This mother appears to be more enraged about social workers 'not doing their job' rather than grieving for the loss of her baby in such dreadful circumstances.

And it happens again.
Social services are under so much pressure but apparently the social worker did tell the police. Why didn’t they go round and break in?
Lessons are NEVER learnt. Time after time.

henetha

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

In a word. Money, and all that spreads out from the lack of it.

This is so heartbreaking . I can scarcely take it I. 😢

It’s not just about money. Why didn’t the SW chase up the police? Why did she wait another five days before visiting for the third time? Why didn’t she obtain access via the landlady earlier than 9 January?

Agree GSM the 5 days before visiting the 3rd time

Why are you blaming the social worker? Did you read the article-she did contact the police twice & it was her who got the key to enter the property.

It’s the mother who should be blamed. Why did she leave her baby for so long without contact. I really feel for Social workers picking up the pieces of such useless parents.

Lessons are NEVER learnt. Time after time.

This

I really feel for Social workers picking up the pieces of such useless parents.

And this!

It seems so unfair that lovely people who would make excellent parents are unable to conceive a child of their own and are unable to adopt babies because the poor babies must stay put with feckless, inadequate, often drug or alcohol addicted birth parents.

🤬

There seems to be a lot going on here. Why had the father got custody of the child when he was in poor health? I read that the home was being visited every week so why wasn't a huge red flag raised when the social worker couldn't gain entry. Why had the mother left her two year old without visiting for days? Would it have helped if the father had had a personal alarm? And where were the neighbours? Surely the poor child must have been crying at the beginning?

There was a similar case a while ago when a single mother died suddenly and was eventually found with her dead child. In her case I don't think anyone was aware of her situation and she wasn't found until people realised they hadn't seen her.

There was a similar case a while ago when a single mother died suddenly and was eventually found with her dead child.

I suppose this is something that could happen but rarely.

However, this child was already known to Social Services

I wonder how many cases the social worker was dealing with? It's quite usual now for them to be handling double the number of cases they used to. So had she slotted in another visit to this family another child would be deprived of help.
Social services are massively underfunded and social workers are trying to fill a widening gap.

This too.

Social workers often have to make very difficult decisions as to who has priority. None of us know what other cases she was dealing with.
What if it were my friend who had a gun pointed at her when taking the children away from the mother.
Can you imagine the process that goes into that.
And at the same time you have a mentally ill person in a police cell who you have to find accommodation for, knowing that there aren’t any places. And on and on it goes 😡

This father, very sadly, died whilst taking care of his young child. There were, as far as I am aware, no indications that he was abusive or would in any way harm the child so warning bells would not have been ringing on that score.

The child was classed as vulnerable and being checked regularly by Social Services.

On the news:

The child was being visited monthly by Social Services and was not considered in need of the highest level of protection.
The social worker visited other addresses to try to find the father and child.
The social worker followed the protocol.

This is a tragedy but Social Services are not to blame.

I burst out crying when I saw this on 6pm news.That poor poor little boy, he was too young to know what had happened, likely thought his father had gone to sleep.
If the father had known medical problems he should never have had unsupervised access to the child, let alone been allowed to have him stay with him alone.
That little boy must have died in agony, all of which could have been prevented.I can remember years ago when the government announced that vulnerable children are best left with their parents in their own homes with ''adequate'' supervision.I said at the time that was a cost cutting exercise and there will be tragedies.
There is a lot to blame or this, most of all the childs so called mother
God rest his little soul

The fact is everyone involved in this desperately sad case is in some way to blame.
Firstly of course the mother is the very person who should have ensured that her little toddler was safe, yet we learn she hadn’t seen him for several days.
Then there are social workers and the police who also let him down, even though the child was known to social services.

Someone here mentioned neighbours and I wondered about that too, The father’s home looked like a terraced house or flat so surely neighbours would have heard the poor little mite crying, hour after hour.

That mother should never,ever be allowed near a child again. What an appalling woman. The social worker must have been way overworked but still should have done more. As for the police , they need more manpower and specific welfare training if they are unable to follow through calls about such vulnerable little children. Perfect storm I suppose. Horrible, horrible situation and I pray it never occurs again.

Iam64

I can’t imagine how the social worker is coping

Nor can I. S/he must be absolutely devastated.

Don’t blame the SW, she went above and beyond- they were only due to call once a month. Why weren’t all these “devastated” relatives in contact over Christmas ?

Where was the extended family over Christmas and new year Wasnt that child getting any presents, any visits, any cuddles
We don’t know anything about the father except he was pretty old and unwell so why give a little baby to him to look after
Whose decision was that?
The area looked very run down and the house itself looked pretty awful however much the man may have loved his baby he was too old and sick to have been put in charge of a growing baby What a strange, strange decision and that needs looking at because that is the start of the catalogue of blame

The poor SocialWorker is the tip of the iceberg and tried but was let down by everything else she or he can’t fight it all alone

I doubt the blame lies with one person but a whole heap of wrongs from the time the baby was born

The mother should be sterilised

BlueBelle, ‘why give him a little baby to look after’. I understand why you’re looking at it in that way given what happened. The question though, is what right would the state have to remove this man’s child from his care? Neighbours and the land lady speak kindly of this father, who seems to have been vulnerable.
We know so little about this little boy’s life but there are huge and growing numbers of ‘children in need’. The numbers of children looked after / in the care of the state is increasing as resources to support them diminish.

I couldn’t agree more Woodenspoon. I believe the mother is on tv this morning blaming everyone but herself.

Iam64

I can’t imagine how the social worker is coping

Neither can I, and I do not blame the social worker either. I am also uncomfortable at the way people are blaming the Mother, especially as we are not in full possesion if all the facts. I think Bluebelle saying the Mother should be sterilised is disgraceful, over the top and a knee jerk reaction.
I really feel for that little boy, and cannot imagine what he went through.

Everyone should have a friend or a neighbour with a key, in an ideal world.

My 90yr old mum lay helpless in her flat for 13 hours with her hip broken.
Luckily her neighbour rang her bell and getting no answer, let herself in and called an ambulance.
If she hadn't, mum might have died and my siblings and I would have our names in the paper for being uncaring etc.

This case is horribly sad.