eatmorecheese
He's fallen out of the car again
It's going to take a while for me to process all of this horrendous shit, and the implications fill me with foreboding.
There are ways that children's social care was structured (in Rotherham and everywhere else in the UK) that allowed this stuff to be downplayed. I'd love to find out how senior child protection officers downplayed the risks to individual children that appeared on their radar, as well as for the issue as a whole.
It would also be interesting to examine how the police assessment of risk/harm failed and whether anything of intelligence value was passed to social care, whether Education Welfare in the local authority had flagged concerns (and what action was taken), whether front-line social workers or police were part of this complacency or whether their reports downgraded the risks involved.
This "not wanting to be viewed as racist" shtick may have been a factor in some people's minds along the way, but doesn't explain the systemic failures. Transparency and accountability tends to sharpen up responses. Police "Merlins" and other reports should be scrutinised by social workers; social care disclosures should be scrutinised by the police. I note that many of the reforms Rotherham have made have in the last couple of years are in fact national reforms directed by individual Local Children's Safeguarding Boards across the country.
If anyone ever says that assumptions about race, class and gender are not a serious threat to us, just point them to this case. I think this scares me the most. Hundreds of people, from coppers and social workers to councillors and community leaders all refusing to see what was happening to children in their community in front of their eyes.
There are ways that children's social care was structured (in Rotherham and everywhere else in the UK) that allowed this stuff to be downplayed. I'd love to find out how senior child protection officers downplayed the risks to individual children that appeared on their radar, as well as for the issue as a whole.
It would also be interesting to examine how the police assessment of risk/harm failed and whether anything of intelligence value was passed to social care, whether Education Welfare in the local authority had flagged concerns (and what action was taken), whether front-line social workers or police were part of this complacency or whether their reports downgraded the risks involved.
This "not wanting to be viewed as racist" shtick may have been a factor in some people's minds along the way, but doesn't explain the systemic failures. Transparency and accountability tends to sharpen up responses. Police "Merlins" and other reports should be scrutinised by social workers; social care disclosures should be scrutinised by the police. I note that many of the reforms Rotherham have made have in the last couple of years are in fact national reforms directed by individual Local Children's Safeguarding Boards across the country.
If anyone ever says that assumptions about race, class and gender are not a serious threat to us, just point them to this case. I think this scares me the most. Hundreds of people, from coppers and social workers to councillors and community leaders all refusing to see what was happening to children in their community in front of their eyes.
