Little Arthur

Calistemon

^It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.^
We don't hear about the excellent work they do but we do hear about it n the occasions when they fail.

When they do fail it is because an innocent child has been abused or murdered.

They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope
In this case it did not seem to be a case of offering any support. Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

Ah, those missed opportunities again. A polite way of describing incompetence.

BTW, my comment was neither in defence of, nor an attack on, social workers.

One thing for sure though, there appears to be a huge caseload and too few social workers to cope with them. We just cannot keep cutting services to the bone.

Of course, the pandemic was a perfect smokescreen for the step-mother and father, there is that, too.

We all realise social services are struggling but even when the alarm is raised there seems to be no action taken. Surely when they are alerted to abuse those children should take priority over everything else. Or are we saying each social worker has dozens of abused children on their books?

We no longer have the death penalty unfortunately.
These two horrors deserve life sentences.
By that, I mean to the rest of their natural lives.
Never any prospect of release.
Fortunately, they will both be given a very hard time in prison.

It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.
We don't hear about the excellent work they do but we do hear about it n the occasions when they fail.

When they do fail it is because an innocent child has been abused or murdered.

They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope
In this case it did not seem to be a case of offering any support. Signs of dreadful abuse were missed and warning messages from others, including family and teacher, were ignored.

Has anyone thought about her children? She has 4, God help them.
They were prob encouraged to hurt him too, what kind of adults will they become

It's easy to criticise social services (although sometimes it's justified) but consider this.

In England, children's services have been crippled by austerity cuts (long before this current government came into power). Early intervention is virtually impossible because family support services have been gutted. High tier councils spend up to 70% of their budget on children's and adult social care, leaving little for other core services. A large amount of that spending is on children's home placements, mostly provided by the private sector which, an investigation about a year ago revealed, if owned by equity-owned providers, could collectively make hundreds of millions of pounds a year in profits. A placement can cost up to £250,000 per year, although only about 1 in 10 children are placed.

Then there are the guidelines that social workers have to work by. They have to spot signs of abuse and neglect, but at the same time the emphasis is on keeping children within their family environment - with the help of the family support systems that are struggling to cope. Is it an wonder that some children are taken into care unnecessarily, whilst others are left with abusive parents. They simply cannot cope, there are not enough of them for the caseloads and the support systems they need are not there. They will get it wrong, and they do.

So what are the "lessons" that we will inevitably be told need to be learned - to prevent this from "ever happening again" - what do we do about the "missed opportunities"? What has been "learned" since little Victoria Climbié was murdered?

It's not enough to sob and weep for Little Arthur, and I have cried, like others because I watched the video - my own son is called Arthur, and, to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, also called Arthur, we called him "Little Arthur".

V3ra

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_ombudsman

Well I've answered my own question...

Toothless probably.
Just another layer of bureaucracy.

Lessons clearly have NOT been learned

I am sick to death of hearing that phrase.

I hope that the authorities are given more funding, more powers to investigate and remove babies and children from abusive, torturing, murderous parents. They should listen to all the warnings.
The parents should forfeit all rights to their children and should receive tougher sentences.

How can a so-called civilised society turn a blind eye to the suffering of these helpless children?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_ombudsman

Well I've answered my own question...

She has been jailed for a minimum of 29 years - the judge told her that she will be in prison for that length of time before she is even considered for parole. The boy's "father" (find it hard to describe him that way) was jailed for 21 years

My recent safeguarding training stated that we must:

Think the unthinkable.
Display professional curiosity.
Show respectful uncertainty.

And stressed that:

Safeguarding children is everyone's responsibility.

Fine words.
But if the authorities don't act on serious concerns, which often have been raised by the wider family, there needs to be some independent body that people can go to.
A Children's Ombudsman maybe?

I haven’t read a word of it, I looked at his face and know he was tortured to death and it breaks my heart, the evil, the manipulation, I wish the parent could have the death penalty. There is no place for them and their like, no redemption nothing, I can’t stop thinking of him and that little baby recently killed. What has happened to the world. In prison they will need to be very worried. I can’t understand how the police cope, they are family people, it must be traumatic for them.

My mother was traumatised after hearing about little Sarah Phillips who died in 1983 aged 16 months old in Llanishan, Wales. She was brutally beaten by her parents, admitted to hospital unconscious three times and kept being returned to her parents who killed her the fourth time. I won't give you the details, they are too distressing. Sarah's murderers will be free now of course. Just more evidence these horrors have always happened despite supposedly having social care and child protection services. The list of babies and children who have died since then is a very long one. It's about time those lessons were learned and implemented but it seems they never are.

Poor little Arthur. Can't begin to imagine the physical and mental suffering he endured at the hands of this evil pair.
Those involved in these cases should err on the side of caution where abuse has been reported.
A Gran I used to know reported her daughter's boyfriend to social services for abusing her 10 month old GS. Nothing was done so she took it upon herself to remove the child while he was out. Her D didn't object. They found the baby was covered in cigarette burns. Not the legal way to do it but he may have ended up as yet another sad statistic.

I cannot watch the video MaybeMaw, I'm traumatised enough having read the story and seen the photos of thus dear little boy, I can't do that

Dee1012

Wasn't it around 1973 when Maria Colwell was killed...as usual the powers that be will have enquiries and say 'lessons will be learnt'.
How many lessons do they need?

It's utterly heartbreaking.

Just spotted this - I was in hospital having my first baby (who died 3 weeks later) and I can still remember the 4 of us mums in our ward, sobbing at the tragedy.
Lessons clearly have NOT been learned.

OK call me “ head in the sand” but I CANNOT hear the details of this horror, read about it, even look at the poor child’s picture on the front of the paper.
Shocked beyond belief.

I feel sick just hearing about it. Why or even how do they get away with it at the time. I hope they are both given life and then when they get to prison some of the inmates are nasty to them. Poor little mite.

I cannot move past this after reading about it online.
The level of evil and horror is traumatising. I cannot sleep at night without seeing this tragic, helpless, defenceless little boy and all he suffered at the hands of these evil monsters.
Yes, they will go through it in jail, but it won't take away this dear little boy's terrible suffering or bring him back from the horrifying death he suffered at just 6 years old, his paralysing fear or his inexplicable foresight of his own death at the hands of those he loved and trusted

This is a long standing issue Chestnut joint working of all agencies. I think there has been some improvement since I worked in Social Care but clearly not enough.

Does anyone know whether the various people in the child's life all come together at any point? Grandparents, teachers, social workers and anyone else involved should have a combined meeting to discuss their concerns. Only by doing that will they have a full picture of the child's situation.

Wasn't it around 1973 when Maria Colwell was killed...as usual the powers that be will have enquiries and say 'lessons will be learnt'.
How many lessons do they need?

It's utterly heartbreaking.

It is so very sad to read this Dickens, so sad. Social Services need a serious overhaul and quickly.
It leaves me in tears to read about this.

Arthur could also be heard wailing in one 23-second recording "no one loves me" and "no one is going to feed me" repeatedly.

This is almost too much to bear...

Relatives of mine once fostered a young boy who had been abused by his father. The father was allowed contact with the child under supervision, and later, 2 hours unsupervised. The little boy frequently returned traumatised, refusing to eat and tearful (there were no physical scars) but was too young to explain what had happened. My relatives pleaded with social services to stop the visits, but they were ignored. Eventually the child was removed to another home. My relatives gave up fostering because the experience left them too depressed, and dealing with social services, too challenging.

It seems the videos released to the media are the milder ones! God only knows what the others must show. As Germanshepherdsmum says the lessons are never learned.