THE cleansing must go on until all personel involved are removed.
I'm glad to see that this time, the resignations have begun at the top, even if they are days and arguably months, overdue. I sincerely hope that Shoesmith will not be in receipt of a large golden goodbye package so as to buy her silence, as has been reported.
Perhaps the government will now put our council's Children's Service into emergency administration so that that children and babies are no longer put at risk while the catharsis unfolds.
I was just listening to Ed Balls announcement on the radio. It wasnt good to hear the level of incompetence at Haringey council from the top to the bottom. Apparently the social workers who had direct contact with Baby P failed to even interact with him directly away from his abusers. I havent wanted to comment on this issue because this site has always tried to be positive about haringey, but his issue blows all that out of the window.
As much as I welcome this, it will not eradicate human error or judgment in children’s services across the country. As we operate in society someone has to be fundamentally responsible, this is the fault of many within the services and out of it, not just the three that have resigned. This hopefully will come out should there be a public inquiry.
There are loads of cases up and down the country and there will be more, unfortunately where cases have slipped under the radar.
This is a tragic, tragic case but there are tens of thousands of children that have been helped by local authorities which we shouldn’t lose sight of.
and unfortunately it wont eradicate adults who want to abuse and murder children. It was the mother and other 'carers' of baby P that have murdered baby P not haringey council. Its a terrible terrible tragedy that perhaps if there was a closer community within the neigbourhood that babyP could have been saved. the mother of baby p had every help under the sun as far as I can see, a decent house (not a council flat) room for all her children including her partner and room for a logder, she had parenting classes and the support of GPs, 60 social workers all paid for by the council. The mother is now pregnant again...
THE silence from the police has been deafening. But they seem to be the one agency that emerges with any credit and which operated on the basis of common sense. One has the impression that they have been muzzled by our council operating in cover-up mode. I do not accept the council statements that after objecting, the police "agreed" or went along with collective decisions. One wonders what choice they had from a bullying council.
For a governmental report, the Ofsted review appears not to pull punches about the terrible state of affairs within the Children's Services that we help pay for, and which is operated on all our behalves.
Childrens Minister Ed Balls appears to be taking robust action and the call for a proper Serious Case Review (Shoesmith's one was described as inadequate) may reduce the need for another public enquiry.
Will the replacement Serious Case Review be made public, though?
I have put an emphasis on the fact it is from the Guardian because that paper has, on the whole, shown restraint in reporting this case.
This article shows the results of the report without comment, still grim reading.
If you haven't seen it, the video clip of Ed Ball's statement is here. As Liz says, grim. Ed Balls' own description is "devastating".
A final point which Clive and others seem to overlook. The principle of maximum disclosure is fine. But there are other children involved in the Baby P case tragedy. Their interests must be protected . So, as in every similar case, details about them and their families are not published for their protection and privacy.
Alan, I agree. The MP Lynne Featherstone who unlike us, has actually read the first (flawed) Serious Case Review by Shoesmith, made a similar point:
What I can say is that having read the document I am even more of the opinion that it would be in the public interest for it to be published - obviously with some parts anonymized and with a tiny - very tiny - bit of editing of any personal information around the family.
FOR those who missed Haringey's news conference this afternoon, it was disclosed by the Chief Executive under probing by journalists, that a total of six employees associated with the Baby P case are currently suspended on full pay, presumably including Ms Shoesmith for whom it means c. £2,000/week. The Chief Executive denied in general terms that there would be a "package" offered to Ms Shoesmith.
I welcome the two political resignations and it is a pity that George Meehan has to leave under these circumstances after such long dedication to this Borough.
John, how valuable is the point about the effect of taxation in this context? Surely the larger issue is, the suspension of these particular six individuals on full pay, regardless of the before and after effects of personal income tax?