Jail Social Workers

[Workingman]

I am absolutely certain that the good ones outnumber the bad ones by a great factor, but unfortunately the actions of the few bad apples cause far more damage than all the good of the good ones put together.

We cannot, must not, be afraid to tackle and punish the bad ones, but unfortunately that is we appear to be doing in order not to upset the apple cart too much. It has to stop.

[Workingman]

If it wasn't for a social worker doing her job properly and acting swiftly my eldest would have been dealt with by a morgue rather than social services.

But if that same social worker had not done her job properly S could have been in a baby P scenario. Should that DipSW have been protected? Should her/his seniors have been allowed to continue with their mismanagement? Unfortunately that is what is happening in some cases. Should we allow it to continue?

[KateLMead]

Your husband Shell is obviously one of the dedicated, does he agree that all is fine and dandy
In the SS departments.?
We see children being wrenched from loving mothers who have
actually approached these departments for advice, others terrified, surrounded by police having their babies wrenched from their arms
"As they are considered to be below average intelligence."
Drug addicted parents ignored, consequently the child /children live in an environment
Not fit for animals let alone human beings, but the SS hit easy targets with a view of the golden handshake
Their departments will receive if they hit those adoption targets.
Ignored! the child female mutilation, the forced child marriages! the churches where children who
Are accused of being possessed are beaten abused and terrified. Drug addicted parents Ignored!
It infuriates me that people think everything in the garden is rosy. Time the decent ones made their voices
Heard. Abuse is endemic in our society affecting the young and old.
Pretending it ain't happening by those good workers solves nothing.

[miasmum]

Frank, the DipSW disappeared years ago

[KateLMead]

Well if my posts are not justified let us look at the DM headlines.. £600,000 payout for shamed Sharon Shoesmith, rewarded for her failure to do her job that caused the death of baby P.
She was smug throughout the whole fiasco, she liked the high life and lived it, she sued for 1m will probably get near enough that with her pensions etc. she was due to go back to court this week seeking a declaration that she remained in the employ of Haringay Council.
What a farce and what a disgraceful waste of tax payers money.

[Suff]

Mrs S, as a teacher, never found a social services worker in FIFE that she would have trusted sweeping the streets.

Two points stand out in my mind.

The second was when a child in her class (in a very deprived school), arrived in school the next day covered in bruises. It transpired that the child, on report, had received a terrible report for absolutely horrible behaviour in school. The "Uncle" (boyfriend), on reading the report, had dragged the child out of bed and kicked the hell out of him.

The SS response?

Remove the child? NO
Censure the mother? NO
Charge the "Uncle"? NO

Tell the teacher, who had immediately refused to write another report on the child, that if she did not continue writing reports then she would lose her job. This went all the way to the director of education and, finally, a workaround was reached. Reports were written. Not a single world of truth was ever written, the child was "perfect" no matter the behaviour at school.

Social Services at work for "You".

The first event was much more personal. After her divorce, Mrs S was targeted by the SS after my Stepdaughter refused to see her father again. A social worker came to the house and demanded to talk to the children without their mother present. Then the social worker wrote a report which was submitted to the courts. It was a total fabrication of lies. The upshot of which is that a very determined 11 year old girl was sitting on a bench in the court of session in Scotland, absolutely determined to tell the Law Lord in his high seat in his formal robes, that the social worker had lied and that neither he, nor anybody else, could order her to visit a man she despised once she was over 10.

No recourse to justice for either child; in either case.

Personal experiences like that tend to make people believe that SS are lying scumbags until they prove otherwise.

The sad fact is that this was endemic in FIFE then and still is today. The best doctor in our medical practise resigned the practise to oversee social medical funding into the community because the SS were doing such an appalling job of it.

There is no way of getting at a social worker who just chooses to do a bad job. However I welcome the courts who wish to make social workers understand that they are not above the courts and that their liberty is the risk they take when defying the courts.

[KateLMead]

Shocking, but that is the state of the ark...these individuals are, and always have been a law unto themselves. Punishment for failure? No way! A nice big fat reward for hurt feelings. Whilst The whistle blowers in these departments and in the NHS are persecuted their careers ruined.
These individuals lose their jobs, are considered unemployable in any department controlled by councils or government. Lives and careers are ruined for telling and accepting the truth that these departments are criminal in their neglect of caring for these children whilst concentrating on those who suffer unjustly, and have their babies and children wrenched from them.. Not considering the terrible trauma the child suffers..And the of those "in"charge take advantage of the gifts in kind and the freebies like Ascot etc that are thrown at them.

[Workingman]

The Shoesmith case should not be used as a stick to beat all social workers with, but it should provide the motivation to change the system.

She could have been calmy and clinically removed from her post (sacked) without any comeback, but Ed Balls, in his desire to be seen to be doing something, made a cock-up of the procedure. The method was wrong and it is that which Shoesmith challenged and has used ever since to blackmail Haringey with for such a huge payoff.

First she put in a claim for £1m in compensation, a claim which would obviously be challenged. The claim failed, as it was probably intended to, but the case proved that Balls had acted illegally in her original sacking. That gave an opening for an appeal, and when that case was won it left the door ajar.

Had the proper procedures been followed, according to the news, Shoesmith could have been removed for about £35,000. Instead, and becasue of the claim and appeal, she has been able to use the law to incrementally ratchet up her compensation by either taking, or threatening to to take, action for loss of future earnings, damage to character, ill health etc.

The whole thing is a mess, as it is in so many areas of national and local government management.

[miasmum]

Why does the Paediatrician who failed to pick baby P up and therefore did not notice his injuries never get blamed for anything?

Why do the parents and their 'friends' never get the same vitriol as the social workers do?

[Workingman]

Shell, the paediatrician was struck off by the GMC for her failure(s) re Baby P.

Relatives, friends and neighbours do get lambasted, but not as much as social workers. I can only assume that the vitriol aimed at the social workers involved in such cases is because they have failed in their job - what they are paid to do.

That, however, should not be any excuse for society, led by the media, to tar all social workers, or police, or nurses, or any group in all the many disciplines they work in based on the actions of a few, very few, bad ones.

By the same token there have to be ways of cutting out the bad ones to the benefit of the service as a whole.