My 1500 post

As I missed my 1000th post (it just slipped on by), I decided to notice my 1500th. I was going to set out my wish list for what I wanted to see in terms of reform and the future of law ect.

But as someone who walked away from child protection work 2 years ago in sheer frustration at how the whole system was failing children, I just want to say this:

To Baby P, rest in peace. We failed you and for that I am deeply ashamed and so very sorry. Your blood is on our hands and shall be forever more, to remind us of your loss of life and the opportunities you should have faced, and to remind us that this cannot ever happen again. Rest well sweet child, play happy xxx

And to our Prime Minister, who broke on his trip to New York to give us this pearl of wisdom:

" I am determined to do everything in my power to make sure this does not happen again. Every family needs to know that their children are safe at night".

Sir,

I am appalled you were not better briefed about the case of Baby P. He died at home, in the "care" of his mother. His family knew where he was. His family could not have cared less if he was safe, in fact his family ensured that safe was the very last thing he was. In these circumstances your words are hollow and empty. Child abuse and child death usually begins and ends at home - a child is more likely to die at home at the hands of a family member than it is to die in a road traffic accident. Family is, at this time, the greatest of all risks to far too many children.

Your system failed this child, just as it fails so very many. There is a river of the blood of these children that flows through Downing Street. It is your duty to ensure that drought dries that river.

Child protection should never be a policital issue, and should never be a party issue. Your child protection system does not work and has not worked for a great number of years. There will be many more babies and children like Baby P and those that went before him unless you make the concious effort to know your child protection system, to acknoweldge its numerous failings, to have the courage to admit it is not fit for purpose and to take it apart; to rebuild it to a functioning, fit for purpose system that does what it must do - protect children.

Those of us within your system think daily and dream nightly of the children we have failed because that very system does not do what it is supposed to do. If we had an inquiry into every case that failed a child, we would have to have one for every single case, as we currently fail them all.

One deliberately caused broken bone is no longer enough for us to decisively act - your system expects us to wait until the next, or the next, or for an even more serious injury or death.

I hope you can imagine the pain of every child that sustains an injury that you force us to leave with the those responsible for the cause because we do not have the resources to act. I hope you can imagine the pain of the sexually abused child we have to leave at "home" to face the demon of his or her purpetrator because we do not have the resources to act. I trust you can imagine the abject squalor that far to many children "live" in, in your inner cities - babies that do not receive a nappy change in more than 24 hours because their parents have spent their money on drugs to escape their own living hell. Children who only have a hot meal at school (and go hungry at weekends and holidays) for the same reason. Children who do not receive a birthday gift, or a christmas gift, and who are lucky to even have a meal that day, just as they are lucky if their parents are even conscious enough to ackmowledge their existance.

These are your children Prime Minister - just as they are ours. We can save them, nurture and protect them, but you and only you have the power to allow us to do so.

In the meantime, I do hope you enjoyed your junket to New York safe in the knowledge that your own children were warm, fed, cared for and loved.

Amanda

Amanda,

I cried and cried when I heard the news of baby P on the television, I had to turn it off after that, and turn the channel over every time it came on.

The thought of what that poor little mite had to go through is just unimaginable. I still have tears in my ears for him. I just cannot image why anyone would want to harm their own child, let alone permit anyone else to.

Capital punishment should be the only justice for those sick minded, evil adults.

Failing that, just put them in a room with some 'parents' and let them dish out 'justice' see how it must have felt for that little boy.

I hope they all rot in hell and never have one night's rest from the torment that they will endure whilst they are spending time at HMP.

It is a sad reflection on our society.

zara

What a terrible tragedy that in 2008 children in a "civilised" modern society are still living in poverty, in fear, in danger.

I don't think there are any words that adequately express how I feel about this.

I can remember the Victoria Climbie inquiry, the Jasmine Beckford inquiry, the Stephen Menheniot inquiry, and on and on. Each one was proclaimed to sort out the system so that these things didn't occur again.

But they do.

A statement from the Ministry of Justice said: "Vulnerable children will not be put at further risk by the introduction of new fees in care proceedings."

"When we consulted on this issue both the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Children's Services did not accept that local authorities would be influenced in their approach to dealing with children at risk by cost considerations."

"Each one was proclaimed to sort out the system so that these things didn't occur again."

Of course, everything should be done to prevent mistakes, but politicians and the media making inane comments suggesting that the system can be sorted to protect all children is absurd.

I agree Fiona, it should not just be the system that is at fault, you cannot blame 'the system' entirely.

Choosing to torture and kill your child is not a systematic choice, it is one taken by sick individuals.

These people 'ride the system' a system that does not complete it's tasks, and adults that should quite frankly be disposed of.

I dont want my taxes paying for these people to have a defence standing up for them in court, Why?? On what basis can they defend themselves? , self defence??

I can think of much better ways for the deductions from my earnings to be spent.
zara