I wish the public, press and politicians could grasp that we do not live in a perfect world. It is not possible to arrange matters so that no bad things happen. Indeed efforts to do so, often do more harm than good. Yes, the death of Baby P was horrific. But the person primarily responsible, the child’s mother’s boyfriend has been jailed. Nonetheless, a great hue and cry has gone up that there should be resignations in Haringey Council for failing to stop the tragedy.
Haringey was the local authority at the centre of the Victoria Climbie case. I found that fairly unedifying. The parents had decided to abdicate responsibility for looking after Victoria. She was looked after by her great-aunt and boyfriend. After a year of suffering she died. The parents then gave interviews blaming Haringey. To be fair, the trial judge also criticized “blinding incompetence”.
The difficulty is that if social service departments try seriously to root out all abuse, they have to be seriously intrusive. As was amply demonstrated in the “satanic abuse” case, that leads to entirely innocent parents being separated from their children, causing great misery to both children and parents. It is rare that the state manages to look after a child better than the child’s parents, and it should beware of intervention.
A climate in which journalists are demanding on air “Can you be sure that there will never again be a child … ?” is almost certain to result in measures which do more harm than good. The error is thinking that perfection is possible. It is not.
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