Too many children are being taken into care: the Baby P witch hunters are to blame
WHEN Sharon Shoesmith, the former director of Haringey Children’s Services, became the scapegoat for the death of Peter Connelly or “Baby P”, almost everyone joined the witch hunt. The media went for her with a viciousness that knew no bounds while Ed Balls, then Children’s Secretary, took the unprecedented step of ordering her dismissal (unfairly, according to the Supreme Court) with the full support of David Cameron. The rank-and-file social workers who were handling Baby P’s case were similarly vilified.
It is little wonder, then, that the number of children being taken into care hit a new high in January, and has been spiralling out of control ever since the death of Connelly became public in 2008. Social workers and local authorities are so scared that the next Baby P will happen on their watch that they have lowered the bar for recommending a child be taken into care. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
No one denies that children who are being abused or seriously neglected should be forcibly taken away from their families, but it is simply staggering that 8,403 children went into care between April and January. The reason this is so depressing is because very few of these children will end up being adopted. Around three quarters end up with foster parents, although there are around 10,000 fewer places than is needed, while twenty-five per cent will go into residential children’s homes. There they will spend their formative years with other deeply damaged children. A depressing number will end up in the criminal justice system or suffering from alcohol and drug abuse.
Some years ago, I knew a social worker who ended up taking a newly orphaned child home with her because she could not find a foster place and there was no available family. Such an act of kindness would be unthinkable today (she would probably be sacked if her superiors found out), but it speaks volumes about how reluctant she was to put the child in a residential home.
I think Sharon Shoesmith should have resigned voluntarily following the death of Connelly. Not because she was directly responsible, but because there were serious failings in her department. But to blame her for the tragedy is ridiculous, not least because it lets the real architects of the system that failed Connelly off the hook.
To locate the systemic failures to blame for the death of Connelly, we need to return to another tragedy: the death of Victoria Climbié in 2000. In the immediate aftermath, the Labour government set about reforming the child protection system following a report by Lord Laming, the crossbench peer. The most fundamental change was the merging of local education and social services into a single department, the theory being that better communication between social workers and teachers could have prevented Climbié’s death. The jobs of Director of Education and Director of Social Services were made redundant and replaced by a new Director of Children’s Services. The change was mirrored in Whitehall, with Ed Balls becoming the inaugural Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
In 2004, Shoesmith, like most Directors of Education, was asked to become Director of Children’s services, a job with more money, more staff and more power. She jumped at the chance. She had a strong track record when it came to improving schools, first in the private sector at outsourcing giant Capita and then at Haringey. But she had no experience whatsoever of child protection or social services.
These changes happened under the bright slogan “Every Child Matters”, which helps explain how flawed they were. In education, every child does matter, but in child protection its is only a very small minority – those at risk of abuse or neglect – who really count. Instead of focusing on this small but vulnerable group, the new Children’s Services departments spent time and money on a raft of initiatives that helped “every child”.
Schools were given cash to run breakfast and homework clubs that were open to all pupils and which especially helped those with working parents. Over £200m was spent providing free activities for kids during the school holidays. Reluctant teachers were asked to become the front-line in tackling child abuse while social workers were sidelined. The resources once spent on helping the few now went to the many, which suited the Labour government down to the ground. Remember that Tony Blair sailed to victory in 1997 promising three priorities: “education, education, education”. Helping the most vulnerable children isn’t really a vote winner, but free child care is.
The upshot is this. At the moment – and in the years to come – there will be children who are taken from their, admittedly troubled, families and placed into even worse circumstances. In some cases, the consequences will be grave. Some victims will one day speak out about their trauma. Tragically, others won’t get the chance.
David Crow is City A.M.’s managing editor.