Little Arthur

Yes everyone seemed to be worried about Daniel, but nobody did anything (enough) about it.
^So evil flourished, and another child died.
And here we are again, with Arthur.^

Why?? Because, yet again, his mother was believed. She said he was on a diet but nobody bothered to get it checked. A doctors should have been called or his own dr contacted but the old chestnut regarding parental consent would probably come into it. Until children are afforded real rights and so called professionals do their jobs properly, with support, it will continue.

There is a photo that has been widely available in the news reports about this dreadful case with Arthur(he has a blue Hoody on) reaching round his stepmother as she is cuddling the father and it looks to me as though Arthur has a bruise on his cheek in this photo. I find this heartbreaking this particular photo because he is obviously reaching round to be loved and being ignored… not sure if I can post it? I mean I know I can post it but would it be okay to post it?

But they'd rather threaten to arrest the grandparents and uncle instead as in this case.

Apparently the police can remove a child immediately under their emergency powers for a period of twenty four hours.

Maddyone your grandson was one of the lucky ones to find a loving parent.
A policeman I know said he wished Social Services would report abuse to them as it is a criminal offence and may have saved other lives.
Intervention is the key I think. Even if a child is taken temporarily into care while the parents are assessed to see if there is a rectifiable situation or that that they should never have the child again.

And so we come circle back to Social Services, who after being alerted, usually conduct a home visit. In my experience anyway, when I was teaching, I rather more often than I would have liked, had to report safeguarding concerns to our safeguarding member of staff, and who normally alerted Social Services. However the children were rarely taken into care, although some were. The prevailing ideology is that children should remain with their parents wherever possible, and this ideology needs to be robustly challenged in my view.
My own little grandson was left with an extremely neglectful mother for over a year before being removed, despite social workers visiting very regularly. I don’t want to reveal exact details, but suffice it to say, he was extremely neglected. Since my son adopted him he has flourished.

Yes everyone seemed to be worried about Daniel, but nobody did anything (enough) about it.
So evil flourished, and another child died.
And here we are again, with Arthur.

He used to steal the other children's packed lunches, and eat the dried pasta meant for crafting.
One of his teachers said he looked as if he had cancer.

V3ra

maddyone

Let’s hope schools are never closed again. Arthur may have been alive today if his school had been open. His deteriorating condition would definitely have been noted and acted on if Arthur was in school.

Daniel Pelka was attending school when he was being starved to death by his mother and stepfather. School staff noticed he was eating food out of the bins.
He was also covered in bruises, like Arthur.

His mother convinced school staff that he was ill and that he had to have a special diet.

Even so, warning bells should have sounded loud and clear.

maddyone

Let’s hope schools are never closed again. Arthur may have been alive today if his school had been open. His deteriorating condition would definitely have been noted and acted on if Arthur was in school.

Daniel Pelka was attending school when he was being starved to death by his mother and stepfather. School staff noticed he was eating food out of the bins.
He was also covered in bruises, like Arthur.

The Christmas holidays are coming up.

The children who were probably at risk were the ones who were known to be vulnerable but who were not sent to school during lockdown.

I suppose nowhere is safe if the "parents" are so easily able to keep abuse under wraps.
School does seem to at least provide some sort of limited sanctuary, I suppose

I hope it won’t be closed for long MissAdventure, there may be at risk children who attend that school, and those children need to be in school. It’s their safest place.

Well, the infant and junior school near me closed on friday due to covid numbers.

Let’s hope schools are never closed again. Arthur may have been alive today if his school had been open. His deteriorating condition would definitely have been noted and acted on if Arthur was in school.

Charities have been hard hit by the cuts to local authority budgets. An excellent contact centre thst offered supervised contact between parents (usually dad) and children closed recently. It relied on funds raised snd substantial l.a money. LA’s are struggling to meet statutory duties so women’s refuges, Bernardo family centres, their work in child sexual exploitation, etc are all under real threat

I was a volunteer with a charity for older people, and I would agree with Galaxy and Iam64, that charities, generally, provide the best services, there will be exceptions, of course, there always are, yet charities are often as strapped for cash as any local authority.

I was frequently shocked at the conditions older people were left in at home and experienced the poor, indifferent service they provided, even when the older person could pay for any residential care, so were not going to be a charge to social services anyway.

Galaxy

I must say the worst practice I have seen in terms of social care services has been in the private sector, absolutely dire. I refused to work there again. The best practice I have seen was those run by charities and the local authority.

Same. Without risking identifying children it’s difficult. Let me refer to a 13 year old sent away by a £3,000 per week private placement, with the mother children’s services removed the child from. Mum had been encouraging child in county lines, had caused serious physical injury, left toddlers in the care of gun toting, drug dealing men. Children;s services had no in house services for the child, all Closed due to cuts, hence private provision. The arrogance of the staff there shocked me.

lemsip

just seen on the news the clapping at a football match for the little boy, silence would have been more appropriate is my opinions..

They clap because it hides any noise made by idiots who think it's funny or clever to interrupt the silence.

just seen on the news the clapping at a football match for the little boy, silence would have been more appropriate is my opinions..

I agree MissA.

I must say the worst practice I have seen in terms of social care services has been in the private sector, absolutely dire. I refused to work there again. The best practice I have seen was those run by charities and the local authority.

I wasn't particularly expecting a response.
It's my opinion, and not really up for debate.

That comment is not worthy of you MissAdventure and I’m not going to respond.

It would be hard to do much worse really wouldn't it?
Like it or not, there were massive failings that has resulted in a little boy being tortured to death.
It isn't a one off incident, either.