The Parliamentary failings exposed by the tragic case of Baby P
James Forsyth 6:53pmSomeone who has followed the Baby P case particularly closely, writes to Coffee House with the following observations:
Haringey's lawyers concluded on 25 July 2007 that the "the threshold for initiating Care Proceedings ... was not met" despite medical staff concluding in June that there was "a reasonable probability" that Baby P's injuries had been caused by physical abuse. This suggests that the lawyers believed that Baby P "probably" being deliberately hurt was not sufficient evidence even to argue the case for a Care Order.
Considering that the hurdle that has to be cleared to get a Care Order is that a child "is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm" this seems a bizarre decision. Why did none of the injuries recorded in the--at least—eight further medical investigations after this meeting lead to a review of this decision? (Did anybody even seek a review?)
Today, Ed Balls refused to publish the Serious Case Review that is the official internal enquiry into what went wrong. He also admitted that he has not read the crucial legal advice of the 25th July himself. But if we wish to understand what went wrong, then we have to understand how the lawyers arrived at their decision. Barry Sheerman should be summoning them to appear before his Select Committee.
This case not only displays grotesque incompetence in social services but also shows just how little MPs understand the incredibly complex bureaucracies that they themselves create, how little effort they make to understand them even when they make catastrophic errors, and how weak our Parliamentary system can be in holding the executive to account with Ministers able to simply refuse to publish crucial documents
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strapworld
November 20th, 2008 7:29pm Report this commentI look forward to the SUN's and Daily Mail's editorials tomorrow.
One wonders just what terrors are hidden in this secret report!!!
Anon
November 20th, 2008 8:11pm Report this commentThe Info Commissioner has released a statement saying Balls was talking rubbish - he never asked the Info Commissioner about showing it to Gove.
Balls has been very stupid to lie about this. Good for Gove for bringing it up in Parliament earlier.
anonymous
November 20th, 2008 8:25pm Report this commentIt is very easy to blame the staff on the ground when things go wrong, but in fact more worryingly it is a national and governmental problem. money that is being literally poured into education is being witheld from health and social care. Without appropriate numbers of staff on the frontline, there will never be appropriate care for those families who need it.
Ken
November 20th, 2008 9:04pm Report this commentMr Balls is (again) talking the proverbial. ICO (http://tinyurl.com/6mnvbe) says: "We have not made a ruling on this case". Looks like Labour may be starting to fear the swelling Baby P outcry that could just be spinning out of the grip of My Lord Mandy and his UK destruction gang.
Michael
November 20th, 2008 9:26pm Report this commentToday I readabout John Sergeant preferring to watch the in-flight movie Erin Brockovich on Tony Blair's plane from Japan rather than listen to the PM. We have a political/media class that is talking to each other while rarely getting to grips with the details of anything. Cameron was bang on track money at P:MQs when saying it is legitimate to ask questions about a service that cost £100m of taxpayers money. We have all kinds of agencies and non-jobs and a highly complacent and complex bureaucratic elite. I was amazed to learn Haringey had appointed a barrister to help defend them from any external investigation (not that external - it's from another government department but hey, it's all paid for by the taxpayer).
I sympathasise with those who work in social services - damned if they do and damned if they don't, often dealing with the sometimes threatening detritus of our society. But I truly despair at how this monstrous bureacratic edifice continually gets away with arse-covering and perks for those at the top.
With CEO's from Detroit asking for government bailouts as they fly in on executive jets, BBC execs blaming unedifying smut on a breakdown in procedures when most of us have been witnessing Ross and Brand's smut every week for quite some time, and the incompetence of Haringey, the tumbril moments are coming thick and fast.
Ray
November 21st, 2008 7:43am Report this commentWasn't it Talleyrand who once quipped half-jokingly that "the purpose of language is to obscure thought"?
Truly, in the Baby P case we are seeing the chickens of bureaucratic opacity that this Government has almost prided itself on hatching now coming home to roost.
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