Childcare Services Unsafe for Children

Published: 12/03/2010

Sheffield and Lincolnshire Unsafe For Children
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

How in heaven’s name can we give shape to the revulsion and dismay we collectively feel? And this time how will those responsible excuse themselves, as surely they will? Yet another report, this one by Professor Pat Cantrill, denounces child protection professionals – a hundred in total- who left two sisters to be physically violated by their father. It started when one was eight and the other ten and went on for thirty five years. The girls went through eighteen pregnancies and yet were left to endure all that by twenty eight different agencies. Sheffield and Lincolnshire child protection services are not fit for purpose. Read the numbers again- they convey more than words can the depravity of the father and the epic failures of social workers, police officers, housing officers and others who knew what was going on and did nothing. They were complicit in the crimes against the innocents.

Hitherto, the Austrian abuser Hans Fritzel who imprisoned, raped and impregnated his daughter Elizabeth for twenty four years was the ultimate, evil patriarch. But he kept his victim hidden. The villainous British father in this case was known. Teachers, ambulance workers, family members came forward to share concerns about the welfare of the girls. So case conferences were held, cul de sacs that led nowhere. The girls and their brother were on the child protection register for a decade. Examplary book keeping was kept up. Perhaps that was all that mattered. To hear their fulsome apologies today and the usual promises of lessons learnt and moving forward makes me sick.

How many enquires have we had? How many recommendations by worthy people? How many times have paid professionals been named and shamed? Just a few weeks back we heard about poor Khyra Ishaq in Birmingham, the little Muslim girl who was beaten and starved to death by her mother Angela Gordon and step father, Junaid Abuhamza. A whistleblower has since got in touch. She knew the family and is appalled that no heads have rolled and that Tony Howell, head of Birmingham children’s services and even the NSPCC claim social workers had no authority to act. Excuses to get off the hook says my informer. Ed Balls rightly intervened in Haringay to get rid of Sharon Shoesmith, the head of social services which disastrously failed Baby P. Ishaq died horribly and those who could have helped didn’t cross over the threshold of the family home. High Court Judge Mrs Justice King said if they had done so, the child, only seven when she died, would be alive today.

Cantrill is even more scathing of the services in Sheffield and Lincolnshire where ‘a culture of “having a quiet word�’ had developed and some of the professionals were either intimidated by the father or didn’t know what to do because, I suspect, they believed the family had its own values that could not be challenged. Class- or ignorant assumptions about working class families- prevented judgement and intervention. I can just imagine the ‘quiet words’ they exchanged. Best not interfere, it is their way, who are we to judge? Anyway, better to keep the family together and intact. That must be the priority.

In that sense the case is similar to the Victoria Climbie murder. She was tortured and eventually killed by her African aunt and boyfriend while social workers kept their distance, fearful that to intervene would be racist or an affront to ‘black culture’. Ishaq, I am convinced will have been left alone for similar reasons, only this time they were Muslims too, step carefully, social workers must have said to each other, they live by different codes, and we must respect all lifestyles and family choices.

‘Benign’ laissez faire is part of the modern social services ethos. That and a fanatic belief in the rights of a family to live and behave as they wish. Then there is the credo of equality- which I passionately believe in and advocate- but absolutely not the distorted way it is understood and promoted by many by care providers. Not all parents are equally good to their children. Some are inept and others malevolent. The two Sheffield girls had a monstrous father who even now thinks he did no wrong and is the real victim. Their mother didn’t protect them either. I know she was frightened of her abusive husband but I find it inexcusable that she left her children to be destroyed by him. Most mothers in the world- even those who have nothing- would die rather than let their kids suffer.

Every abused child must matter. If the state is reluctant to step into working class or ethnic minority families because of some lunatic idea that all must be respected, they are in effect discriminating against the most vulnerable members of our society, giving them inferior service. Meet Debra, a seventeen year old who was living rough for two years before a charity worker found her almost frozen to death near the South Bank centre. Debra is now with a foster family and I interviewed her when I was doing a story on teenagers who run away from home. Smart, beautiful but with a terrible stutter she is now at college training to be a chef. She was born in the Midlands. Her father was a labourer with a drink problem and an uncontrollable temper. Her mum was also an alcoholic. Until she was fourteen Deborah was beaten by both, neglected and often kept away from school to stop people from noticing her bruises. Her uncle raped her a number of times but her mum disbelieved her. A teacher realised what was happening and reported it to Social Services. They came into the school to talk to Debra who was too scared to tell. The teacher was informed no further action was needed and that they tried where possible to keep children with families as that was best for them. Within six months Debra had run away and was on the streets.

There are too many such children and young people. Although British youngsters have a lot of stuff, the interests of child count for little in our society. Parents come first- even those who are incapable, negligent or indescribably cruel. Cantrill wholly condemns this tendency in her report on the raped sisters: ’Professionals failed to listen and consider the situation from the child’s perspective. They did not see the children, and where possible, talk to them. Too often the professionals took the word of the parents at face value.’ Nick Clegg, the Libdem leader whose constituency is in Sheffield says such ‘an unimaginable horror’ must never be allowed to happen again. But it will, again and again and there will be sombre reports and meaningless contrition after each episode. An alarming number of child protectors are like those three monkeys which try hard not to see, hear and speak truths especially when dealing with families who are from disadvantaged classes or races. Children, says, Debra pay a high price for that so called objectivity and ‘fairness’: ’Social workers do care, but they still want to believe all parents are angels. Some parents should never have kids. They should not be allowed to have them and treat them like shit. Like my mum and dad. I could have died. I had to run away because they did nothing. What’s the point of social services? Tell me.’ That must be the question the two sisters from Sheffield must be asking too.

Published in Daily Mail