In the paper today in Britain another story of child abuse by his parents?

Question

and the social workers are once again pleading overwork and whatever else they can think of.
At what point, when a small child is seen with breaks, bruises, burn marks and malnutrition do they make this a priority, forget bout lunch, paperwork, meetings and do something to save a childs life.

Mommanuke. I actually got my information from a retired socialworker who told me that the amount of red tape and paperwork was hindering their jobs, that too much energy was spent on dotting the i's and crossing the t's rather than rescuing those who are at the heart of the problem.

dgroundhog 65..and what about the cigarette burns ? have we come so far down the line that we ignore what is obvious to most just to save the neck of one person who, to be honest I would admire if they risked getting brought to task for asking questions about any doubtful situation.

Robert C. Of course the government should be held responsible to a point and of course the social workers are worked hard, but I am talking about a specific case where this child was obviously at risk but nothing was done. and, as I said I got my information from a social worker.

Answer 1

I have said for yesr that if you see signs of abuse on a child do not phone social services call the police - they are lawbound to deal with it.

Answer 2

Well susie, that's a tough call to make sometimes.

Let's say they see a boy with breaks, bruises and looking a bit too thin, and they step in and take the child. Let's also say the parents never abused the boy. So the parents file a big ugly lawsuit, and sue the pants off the agnecy or the government and the child protection worker who was only trying to look out for a suspected victim of child abuse loses their job and their career.

There is no perfect line to walk in these matters.

EDIT: Susie, I don't live in Britain so I'm not sure about the case you are talking about. Maybe the worker could have done a better job, I don't know the details. If they were negligent, then they shouldn't keep their job.

If this is a new report - then you really have to wait to find out more details before making a judgement. Did the worker know there were cigarette burns caused by a parent? Could the worker take the child based on the evidence available? What other events and circumstances are not being reported?

There are usually at least two sides to every story - the truth often lies somewhere in the middle.

EDIT2 - Scotslad, maybe you should don your cape, fly on over to every abused childs home and use your xray vision to witness the abuse. Then you can zoom in to recue all the abused children and take them to the magical land of gumdrop trees and lemonade rivers where they will never grow up.

Answer 3

You should read Kahil Gibrans comments on children Sara. Children are separate spirits as we all are.Parents foolishly think that their child is their property and a version of ,"little ME,".They have them because they're belief is be frutful and multiply or the blessing of a relationship is a child or children. They then bring that child into a world were the power is in their hands however the power is in the hands of the controllers of societies that see people and children as consumers and commodities. They have children as status symbols then leave them to pursue careers and engage in their adult childhood of gathering materialist dreams which in turn they inflict on the child. All a child wants is the love and presence of their parents. Some do get this whilst others get something different. The lying box in the living room the TV is the new babysitter and now it is the phone or computer. How can you be tired of loving your child? How can you be frustrated with your child unless your attention is distracted away from your child? It is no wonder our children grow to despise our beliefs and ideals because we have let them down badly by believing in the false beliefs capitalist secularist materialist societies inflict on all of us. We for the first time are a generation with no ideas left to move towards a future of altruistic thought and planning for our children and their children. Harming a child in any way is abuse. A cruel remark can ingure a child but let us not forget our generation and the ones before us were brought up in a form of abuse weren't they. How many of us were physically abused,Spare the rod and spoil the child,where does that sit with the teachings of Jesus to suffer the little ones to come unto me. Anyone who answered you saying it does no long term harm are already damaged to the point of denial and are inhabited by a mean spirit. Our children soon will rise up against us if we don't show them love by changing the world for them.

Answer 4

You have no idea of the plight of a social worker. You need to walk a mile or even 10 feet in their shoes...

It is not about lunch breaks or them snoozing off. Social workers have it hard. They are worse than teachers they are overworked and underpaid. They care about what they do so they can deal with the pay but the overworked part is what they are struggling with.

For doing their job someone is going to be angry with them. On one side they are criticizing for removing children and on the other hand they are criticized for not removing children when there are no signs at the present moment. (but later there can be full blown incidents)

This was a major for me until I actually had to fill these shoes. By the time I was an intern I was able to see why so many workers get burned out. They don't just work a 9 to 5 job. There job can be worked around the clock. They have to squeeze family time around the job.

More workers are needed desperately in this field. I suggest that maybe you go to school to become a social worker if you think you will make an impact.

Answer 5

Social Work, especially in the area of Children and Families, is a thankless job, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. I think every worker involved in this case is probably totally devasted about this. It is up to everybody - teachers, neighbours, doctors etc to report suspected cases of child abuse to the authorities. Social Workers normally to a great job and save many many children from lives of abuse and torment. Unfortunately some children do not get picked up and that is the tragedy, but at least they are trying to do something about it, for not a lot of pay and not much thanks.

Answer 6

Exactly!

The pathetic excuses of 'following the law' or being afraid for ones job shoud not even be a consideration when it comes to the welfare of the child. Stuff them all and just do it!

If the agency/ agencies concerned threaten staff with dismissal and do not offer appropriate support in suspect cases then we should be looking at the management and justification of such agencies existence in the first place!

ALL that matters is a child is or may be getting abused and hurt. NOTHING else!

I have worked in Health and Social care for over 23 years and nothing would ever stop me from dealing with abuse if I knew it was going on - and anyone who tried to prevent me would become part of the problem!

Answer 7

Maybe you should find out what Social Workers actually do before you start spouting off about them.

I know a Social Worker in Children and Families Services who is carrying 120 cases. It is impossible for her to manage that number. In reality it means that children on the at risk register get physical contact with their social worker about once in every 3 weeks! Perhaps you would like to make those kind of choices?

How about you write to your Councillors and ask them why these services are so under funded that this kind of things happen?

I know it's easier to blame the front line workers, but there are lots of politicians hiding behind them who should be the ones standing up and taking the flack!

Answer 8

Unfortunately they are often in a catch 22 situation. When they take away a child from its parents then everyone is screaming at they for not giving the parents a chance. When they don't take the child away and something happens then they are called names for not doing anything. It is one of those jobs were you don't hear of all the times they prevent a problem, only when something goes wrong. When you are dealing with humans then decisions don't always work.

Answer 9

Yes some social workers are incompetant and *everyone* makes mistakes. The problem is in social work when they mess up it makes the news, how often does that happen marketing? The police and teachers have the same problem.

Answer 10

At the point when they have three equally emergent cases going on at the same time, when if they don't do the paperwork, an abused child will be returned to his parents, when if they don't attend a meeting or training session they will lose their job. Go spend a day with one sometime.