Two year old starves to death

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.

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.

Well said nightowl

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.

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.

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.

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’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

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.

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

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.

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.

I can’t imagine how the social worker is coping

So true urmston. I’d never defend bad practice and we don’t know the details yet. Devastating for his loved ones
It’s hard to understand why the police didn’t gain access on the two previous occasions the sw contacted them.
Another problem is the ‘working together’ model developed seems to have been diminishing as all services get overwhelmed and invoke inexperienced staff
Heartbreaking to think of that poor little boy.

Afraid I blame the mother completely, row or not how could she not see her little baby over Christmas Anyway the child would not have been given to a sick 60 year old if the social services weren’t more worried about the mothers care

Definitely not the Social workers fault it’s the police and the mother Poor little chap looks as if he was bringing himself up very unkempt

Totally agree Iam. That t**t Gideon (George Osborne) and his pal ‘Call me Dave’ with their austerity measures should hang their heads in shame. Hollowed out much needed services to balance the books.

at least 16 days with no contact from the mother.. who is truly responsible

Such a sad story, poor little boy. I can't believe his 'mother' has the brass neck to blame Social Care.

the threshold for care proceedings get higher as preventive services disappear. Drug and alcohol abuse is becoming normalised. It’s hard to recruit foster carers. Children come into care too late and with extensive needs
It’s easy to say the system as spuddy does but it’s tough to run decent services with no resources.

Totally agree with Dickens. The photos show an uncared for grubby malnourished little boy who’d have been better off far away from these people. So sad. The mother is not worthy of the name.

Absolutely, Dickens and GSM. The mother of the child seems to be full of venom for social services and the police, with no self awareness of her part in this tragedy.

According to News UK, the father had a heart condition which had caused "severe jaundice" in the past few months.

The mother is blaming social services for not doing their job.

"I can’t believe it. They can’t let them get away with this. We have to be able to rely on social workers to keep our children safe.”

The mother should be questioned as to why she didn't do her job, no?

She had a row with the boy's father, left the child in his care - knowing he was not in good health - and didn't see either of them over Christmas.

It appears the police were informed that there was no response from the calls the social worker made, and they didn't follow up. So in this instance, it is not the SW to blame, if that is true... SWs cannot break down people's doors.

I cannot imagine leaving a child in the care of a sick man for one day let alone the period before and after Christmas.

Some people lead such chaotic and unstable lives that I really believe children from such backgrounds might be better off being removed completely from them. The child was already being monitored on a weekly basis because he was "vulnerable".

This whole 'culture' of keeping families together - with support - is IMO questionable. My own family have past experience through fostering of this 'rule'; the child they fostered didn't die, but he was traumatised by this culture of 'keeping the family together'. When they complained, the boy was removed from their care and they were forbidden any further communication with him and told not to ask about him. Through the 'grapevine' they discovered that he'd been returned to the father who had abused him. It was my sister-in-law who fostered, and it made her sick to her stomach to contemplate what he might have suffered. She was so disillusioned with the whole system that she stopped fostering.

eazybee

Always, blame the social worker without any evidence.
Why did the police not investigate?

And how come Mum hadn't seen the infant since before Christmas?
There appears to be much more to this very sad case than has been revealed.
Where were the rest of the family?

One of the saddest stories in a longtime 😢

Have you read the newspaper report Spuddy?