Baby P campaign: The Sun at its worst

Peter, the fact is that people need to be held accountable over this, they need to be punished, its as simple as that, and if takes a right wing rag like the sun to add more pressure to this outcome then I am fully behind it.

I never buy the Sun, I hate what it stands for, I consider myself to be very firmly left of centre, and have voted accordingly all of my life, but I am also the father of a 20-month-old baby boy and since I heard the news of baby P last week and have watched Labour's slow comment on it publicly, only prompted to address it by the accusations of David Cameron, I have been sick with anger that this child could have been left to this fate by people employed by society as vanguards of child protection.

I have also had to suck in the cold hearted 'professionalism' of Sharon Shoesmith, a highly paid woman in a caring leadership role who responds to the shock and horror of the public with an angry defensive stance, brandishing her charts and paperwork to justify just how well her department of university educated workers have been doing, people whose skills we are to believe were no match for a cruel and poorly educated mother and her thuggish and illiterate boyfriend who successfully duped the hardworking social services that you so readily jump to defend here online.

Unlike you, I am neither a 'professional' worker, nor do I have an online blog to allow me to shout out my views via a Google search. I hope you read and publish 'my comments' on your very Expert Blog.

I have just read the disgraceful article composed by Peter Corser.

I am not delving into the idiotic statements and points of view that he has clearly demonstrated. However, I want to state that, even though I am not a regular Sun reader, I have actually purchased this particular newspaper with the intention of taking part in this campaign. The reasoning behind this and presume (only a presumption though) that everyone else agrees, is that we demand and are entitled, to our view point and for that to be heard. I suggest that through defending your profession and your fellow professionals - although one would question if so many so called professionals cannot implement the legislation that is there in black and white in front of them and which one would presume the knowledge of such child protection legislation be a prerequisite of the post - that this is why we have a problem with you.

Need I remind you that your job as a civil servant is to protect children, utilise the knowledge you ought to have acquired in your studies to ensure this and most importantly to utilise at point of use the legislation enacted to protect children. In any other job there is consequences in such grave failures - why then do you presume and demand to be above this? Are your posts above a child’s' life? If a surgeon is negligent accountability is a consequence, he cannot say, “but the rest of my operations went perfectly”. Why then are you any different? Going back to your statement, you are either a "professional" or you are not. You cannot state to be a professional then neglect your professional duties of accountability when the proverbial hits the fan.

Also, with regards to your inadequate excuses, everyone recognises that often there is good work on your behalf, however it is not enough to let even one case slip through the net, as stated previously in regards to a negligent Surgeon.

Maybe, instead of attacking the Sun for providing the public with a view point and an OPTION to have their say, you should have a long hard look at yourself and your fellow professionals. Maybe, just maybe, you may see what everyone else is seeing today.

Finally, maybe next (and we all know that by your actions and contempt for accountability there will be a next time) instead of trying to protect yourself and your fellow professionals you will think twice about using a defenceless (and should have been protected) babies death as a spring board for you to proclaim to the country how much good you actually do. Shame on you.

I signed The Sun petition. I rarely read the paper and never buy it. I thought hard before I signed it, and about the implications, not wanting to be irrational because of my anger, but wanting to add my individual and powerless voice to the demands for changes that must be made. I decided I agreed with what the Sun asked. I would have signed it wherever I found it and - given the enormous numbers of people who obviously felt as I do - so did they. Whatever opinion you hold about the Sun, surely the fact that you work within the service cannot blind you from the fact that this is the honest opinion, not of Sun journalists, but an unignorably large sector of people?

Thank you so much for your excellent responses to Peter Corsers outrageous blog. I am no Sun lover, however, as you might remember from your training - all voices and opinions are important (but not if your a Sun reader cause their outrage doesn't matter!!) As a profession we need to grow up, take responsibility for our inactions and stop moaning when we get justified criticism for not doing our jobs.

The Sun would only notice when something goes wrong because us, as social workers are always going to be the scapegoats!

I had an interprofessional module on my social work degree course with nurses and the first thing they asked us as social workers was 'why are you doing this? all you do is take children away from their parents when it may not be needed!.' I was so upset by this at the time as even they thought we were all just selfish people with no feelings. But with the Baby P case, if there is no referral then social workers will not know that anything is going wrong! the media says that Baby P was seen by 60 professionals, that isn't 60 social workers! He may have been seen to slip through the system, but he was seen by numerous nurses and doctors. One doctor even failed to notify that he was paralysed from the waste down! Why is it social workers that recieve the slagging off when in fact this doctor missed his injuries and the health visitor failed to indicate anything was wrong! I think the Sun talks a lot of rubbish and think it is a waste of space and paper!

SWAN have started an on-line petition against the witch-hunt of social workers in the aftermath of the Baby p case. You can read the full SWAN statement and sign the petition at www.socialworkfuture.org

Make sure you let all your colleagues know!

I did 25 years in social work , 8 as an ASW . Middle management will do anything , go to any lengths to 'do nothing' in Child Protection . Doing nothing and always having an excuse is what they do best .
'Proactivity' is just a bad joke .
"Blood on their Hands" is exactly right .

The only trouble is , the alternatives are fostering and adoption (I did 4 years on a placement team) & they're 'hit and miss' .

But now is definately the time to start finally addressing these problems . The 'Blood on..' headline hurts - but only a fraction of what 'Baby P' went through .

All this anger directed at social workers is really disturbing and some of the comments on here are quite worrying. Why are some folks incapable of taking a deep breath and considering what it is that they are actually saying? Why are people so quick to judge? So quick to condemn? So quick to demand punishment?

This is a sad and sorry state of affairs. Lyn Williams and George Roy would do well wind their necks in a bit, and allow articulate professionals such as Peter Corser, to try and redress a rather hysterical balance.

Hi Peter,
Great response to the Sun article. Clearly mistakes have been made in the case of Baby P. However, it is unforgivable that the Sun is abusing the power they hold in creating mass hysteria against all Social workers.

Don't they realise that this only goes to make people more suspicious when talking with social workers – therefore making them less likely to not engage with the service? Great work the Sun. In one reckless article they have perhaps endangered the lives of many more children because people may be hesitant to report incidents to social workers.

Its a shame more people (including the likes of Lynne Williams) don't recognise this. Perhaps if they did there would be more calls for the resignation of irresponsible journalists.

I'm quite sure the Sun (and some people who have commented here)will be happy when all social workers are condemned for the sick actions of a mother. How about recognising the fantastic work that the majority of social workers do day in day out.

Thanks once again Peter for being the voice of sanity.
Gary Preston
(Boyfriend of a trainee social worker!)

p.s. Note to the Sun "Great recruitment campaign for the new social workers that clearly needed in this country by the way. Perhaps we could bring down all doctors & the police as well. Then the country would be perfect! You truly are complete idiots.

I understand that people feel this is awful and no doubt every decent human being would feel the same. But by just buying the sun or adding your name to their petition you are failing to really make a stand on how we protect children and young people in our communities. Its easy to let them take the lead, but not so easy or convienient to make that stance yourselves. Isn't that where we all failed this innocent little boy. Many people had contact with him, from professional of all kinds, not just social workers, to friends and neighbours etc. Where is our responsibility in all this. If we made this government think more about the changes they impliment on our services rather than sit back and moan when they go wrong, maybe then we could blame someone else, but really we all failed him.

you all get paid to safe life
let me see firemen,policemen,paramedics,lifeguards,doctors,nurse,mod
if they came to save you would you escaped a half shut job no you wouldn't but its not there fault its the managers fault you are on the front line of our children safety so go over your managers head and save a life or is the money more important than life there is ppl out there that would help you get herd one of which is the sun

I am sickened by this case. I have two children under three and that is what spurred me to sign the Sun pettition. I also feel that I need to address Peter's comment in which he said "The sacking of those involved, should the sun get its way, will just mean less people working in child protection." Is this such a bad thing? It doesn't appear that they did much in the way of child protection for poor little baby P.

Ive read the above comments with interest,I dont buy the sun,because like most newspapers its only interested in selling papers, not the truth.However the current rage about the death of this child is more about the reaction of Haringey council and the secretive nature of all the proceedings-i.e.the gagging of the whistleblower Nevres Kemal.Why not simply let her speak?The public are tired of public officials hiding behind soviet-style euphemisms such as 'best practice',learning lessons'etc.Social workers need to be paid more but also to be held accountable and open.If a private company was to cover up the circumstances of a death of someone in their care, I think the penalties would be far harsher.Also Ms Shoesmith didn't exactly handle the the press with the adroitness of a under-fire premiership footie manager did she?
Again, in the private sector I dont think she would have lasted long.

I think the article in the Sun is disgusting "Blood on their hands" was the headline. Pictures of these public servants asked "Do you know them?", with a number to ring. If anything happens to those individuals the sun will be to blame.
I wonder how much knowledge those people baying for blood have of social services?

Instead of creating a witch hunt driving people away from the proffesion we should be paying these highly skilled proffesionals working in difficult situations a decent wage. Maybe then there would be enough of them to do their job properly.

Peters blog was a considered response to the Sun and it's witch-hunt. The two comments further bashing social workers underneath, and then a couple further down are made by people who seem to have no knowledge of child protection, the baby P case.

Thanks to Holly Wilkins - no they weren't all social workers, so why are we blaming them solely? Why not start a petition to sack all the people involved, why social workers?

J.Roe, your comment reeked of bitterness. It's unconstructive and despite working in mental health and as an ASW for '8 year' and on a placement team you don't say whether you've had any experience at all as a frontline child protection practitioner.

I'm not a social worker and i fully understand that people are signing the sun's petition because they are signing thinking of their own children. But in countries like mine (a south american country) ruled by a well known neo-liberal president, tragedies like the ''babyp'' sadly, became our everyday reality and off course irresponsible tabloids in order to get more people buying their everyday stories , don't mind to write whatever looks more attractive and controversial.
I beleive that even if we all feel anger and frustration when things like this one occur,the most important is to analyze what is deeply happening. In my country it would be very easy to go after every single social service worker and fire them and even put them in jail but that is not a real solution for the problem.
when this people don't even earn enough money to survive, don't have enough time to analyze and give a solution to every single case between the 1000's they got, honestly, what are we expecting? We can sign as many irresponsible and irrelevant petitions as we want.. But will that really change anything? Wouldn't it be better to sign a responsible an honest petition asking the state to face the situation of social services workers and for once in a lifetime invest in a reliable and productive nonprofit descent welfare system?
I think if we do want to protect our children ratter than buying cheap manipulating tabloids and trying to find mistakes everywhere we shouldn't , we should realize that it is not a matter of two or 3 people trying to do their job as honestly as the government lets them.
Its very easy to clean our hands and feel better with ourselves pretending we have done something signing a silly petition. But unfortunately (and we all know it)
that signature or those people loosing those'' great'' jobs will not get between a future possible case like the one we are discussing about.
Other social services workers will replace this ones but again, will that resolve anything?
Lets sign but to change our governors and their policies.

how can you do such a thing to a poor defenceless little boy, he could'nt fight back or call out for help, but all the sighns were there. Why do things like this have to happen. It truely is beyond belief. WE MUST MAKE SURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN! Heads must roll, take action and sack those responsable.

I have followed with disbelief the coverage of this tragic story, by The Sun. While I acknowledge the death of a child will provoke a dramatic response it would be nice if the reporting was honest and considered, as opposed to inflamatory and derisory.
I find it dificult to believe that any of the reporters or those outraged readers, wishing a worker to commit suicide, have no idea how the world of child protection works. Decisions are not down to individuals but made by committees. With regards to Drs, they do make mistakes but don't provoke this kind of coverage. Social Work bashing is easy by the uninformed majority.
As one of the other comments highlights, we would all like to live in a world of black and white where legislation explains everything and dictates professionals actions, unfortunately human beings don't fit neatly into boxes.
What about the CPS who chose not to prosecute the mother, surely what they do is black and white, why is there not a hue and cry about this.
This backlash makes social work even more of a profession where people will be wise to reconsider entering, why not have a nice black and white job which would probably be far better paid, like being a Sun Journalist!

To the Sun Newspaper

In what way do you think your witchhunt of the social workers you name, contributes to the future safety of children in this country ?

You do not know the reality of the involvement of the social workers. You're picking out bits of information and in so doing , speculating and creating distortion .The vast majority of people in the profession are sincere and well intentioned.

The social workers did not kill Baby P.The question to ask is why did the system involving all the professionals ie doctors, health visitors ,social service manager and social workers,not save this life?

You are stuck in an old groove of reckless blame which stigmatises and victimises professionals without offering a constructive way forward. This attitude is only likely to demoralise others working for children and quite possibly demoralise the families who receive input from social workers.

The public doesn't need reminding that it was in fact the parents of Baby P that murdered him, we are well aware of that thanks, but to suggest that the many services that were involved in his case were in no way responsible is a pretty outrageous statement to make, telling us that 'the people responsible for the child's death are the people who perpetrated the abuse'. These services very much share responsibility for the death of this child. Unfortunately, our society has many monsters living in it, hence the reason why we employ people, such as the police, social workers etc, to prevent these monsters hurting others. This is not a child who was visited a couple of times, he was continually assessed by professionals throughout his life and was let down terribly by these services. To suggest the public are on a witch hunt is incredibly offensive, this is not a witch hunt, but rather people demanding that those in the important position of ensuring the safety of children are competent at their job, which many involved in this case are clearly not. I agree that until a full report is available then it is difficult to lay blame on any particular individuals, however, it doesn't take a report to see that somewhere disastrous mistakes were made, and yes, people should be held accountable for this. As much I despise tabloids like the Sun I have to acknowledge that without such papers then stories like these would probably go unheard an I applaud them for putting this tragic story into the public domain.

i think its a disgrace all baby p ever new was hurt , pain even with a broken back he still managed to smile , he not suffering ang more ,
if social sevices did there job properly and put him in with decent family , he would be alife today . rest in peace my little one

After reading other comments I have to say "if the cap fits"

Having read Peter's blog, I wholeheartedly stand by his opinion and thoughts on the Sun coverage of the Baby P. Many of those who have commented on the blog have admitted to not buying the Sun as they don't agree with what it stands for - why would you then go ahead and support such a witch-hunt against a beleagured profession such as social work? I work within the social work sector in the UK, and am astonished that so many people are backing this vicious campaign. In order to stop such awful incidents as that of Baby P ever happenning again, we need to re-dress issues such as training and qualifications, and the image of the sector in order to attract people to work in this worthwhile profession. I would also like to point out that social care is a devolved issue in the UK today, therefore you cannot tarnish ALL social workers in this country with the same brush. By starting this witch-hunt, the sun will have to realise that they potentially have caused irreversable damage which ultimately could lead to more tragedies such as the untimely death of baby P.

Excellent article. Just to let you know, but I hope it makes you feel a little better that not the entire population is buying The Sun's inflammatory, irresponsible, witch-hunt.

I took the liberty to quote a line or two from your article on Birmingham's Hagley Road to Ladywood website.

Here's the link to my article:

http://mymarilyn.blogspot.com/2008/11/blood-of-social-worker.html

if social services had taken their time to check the family out more carefully baby p would still be alive today

all social workers and their bosses from top to bottom involved directly or no should be sacked.You failed England.Mr. Brown should make sure they all go and never employ them in social services again.

All parties must take responsibility, ultimately the mother, boyfriend and lodger killed this child. I have worked in the NHS, albeit only as an administrator, in Child Protection and understand the kind of under-budgeting that goes on in these situations, everyone is overworked and under-appreciated, they are stretched to the limit, it was only a matter of time. I now work in the City for a top rank international bank. So I've seen both sides of the story. What staggers me more than anything, is that we can find billions to save backsides of fat cats but not enough budget to fund a decent service to this nations most precious asset, our children. This has inspired me to re-educate so I am hopefully in a position to do something about it!

Peter! I am only going to comment on one part of your "opinion" or as you call it RANT, The fact that you contradict yourself in the same paragraph gives me no end of concern regarding the state of our "Social Care Services" you say that you in the care sector are paid to do a job and if you do not do that job to the best of your abilility you should be removed from that position and also in your word's "GROSS NEGLIGENCE" they should be sacked, but PETER that was the whole point of the sun's CAMPAIGN they were not being sacked sharon shoesmith adamantly said she would not be sacking anyone concerned in this case, so i really beleive that your WOE IS US RANT and the way you say that if this campaign/witch hunt by the sun could stop people entering the care profession, then again i am very very fearfull for the state of our care services because if that isnt passing the buck i seriously do not know what is you should really, read your RANT and ask yourself am i in the right profession?

The Sun campaign is misguided.

The focus should be on the cause not the effect. The fact is that the child protection system is on its knees. There are massive recruitment difficulties. There is an acute shortage of native social workers who want to practice in child protection, is there any wonder why! Local Authorities now routinely recruit from abroad to fill the massive gap. Whilst there are some excellent non-native social workers the majority cannot understand, appreciate or relate to the underclass of our Society who are so often responsible for such tragedies.

In order to remove a child from its parents you have to have EVIDENCE. It is all very well, after the event, listing the catalogue of injuries suffered by this poor child but was there EVIDENCE that the social workers knew of these injuries before his death. In order to obtain a care order a local authority must prove that the parents have caused (or allowed to be caused) significant harm to a child. It then has to prove that it is in the child’s best interests to be removed. This is a relevant consideration given children’s experience in the care system. The only way of proving such harm is by producing medical evidence, showing that the injuries were non-accidental.

Police (unlike social workers) have got the power to remove children (temporarily – up to 72 hours) from their parents. If the Police were so concerned, why did they not exercise a Police Protection Order? Not only would this have removed the child from its parents but also it would have caused the local authority to instigate care proceedings. But lets not blame our beloved ‘boys in blue’!

It is not a social worker’s duty to visit a child and examine them for injuries. The health visitors can spot injuries and then refer the child to a paediatrician. They were equally involved in the protection plan for this child (no campaign against our darling nurses though). It is the paediatrician’s job to examine the child and raise the allegation that the injuries are non-accidental. Days before the child died the PAEDITRICIAN failed to examine the child and if she had of done, the injuries would (presumably) have been discovered.

Local authorities are chronically under funded and the government is obsessed with paper work (targets, form filling and star ratings) rather than case work. A good local authority is judged by its compliance to targets rather than quality work (the two things are not the same). The government has also placed another hurdle in front of local authorities bringing child care cases to Court. In July this year they increased the application fee from £150 - £4000! If that is not a disincentive to bring proceedings, I don’t know what is.

Social Worker’s cannot do right for wrong. If they act too quickly we have a Cleveland scenario.

The fact is that there are some evil people in this world. Unless Society as a whole is prepared to massively increase the funding of children services nothing will change. I wonder if the Sun would have achieved a million signatures if signing the survey also called for an increase in taxation to reach ‘Nirvana’.

Society must also be prepared to answer a fundamental question: Is it better to err on the side of caution (and remove more children earlier – with the inevitable risk that children will be removed from innocent, loving families) or continue on the current path and accept that their will be some tragic deaths?

hi i thing that what happend to baby p is bad and yes i think the social works should lose they jobs and it is not just that social works where baby p lived it is all social works all over the place should start looking at things the right way and start helping familys out when they need the help and when social works say they will help and they never give the help to them

Personally, I think any professional who saw Baby P during the time of his abuse and torture should be held accountable. That means all 60 professionals should be fired, never to work in an area of child related work again. Be it doctors, health visitors, social workers all who saw him and failed to notice what was happening to him should not be working in their respective jobs, and they obviously cannot do their jobs properly. Also, all who had a part in refusing Baby P to be moved out of his home middle and higher level professionals should also be fired, everyone who had a part in this unnecessary tragedy should be held accountable. If Gordon Brown and Labour do not do anything about it, I for one and I am sure thousands of otherwise Labour voters will either not vote or vote for another party.

i agree with every word of jaqueline marshall above .....one and a half million people who signed the sun petition cant be wrong ......shame on all of you who did not support them in their campaign......i see now sharon shoesmith has been " sacked" on full pay ?? where is the justice in that......

well all i can say is that 100,000 a year, suspended with pay no wonder theres money to do the job.

In the light of the events in the Shannon Matthews case and the reward put up by The Sun, will the gullible Sun reporters who could not see through the lies of Karen Matthews be sacked and will the editor resign?

No, thought not. One rule for hoodwinked reporters and newspaper editors, another set entirely for social workers.

I think it is a shame that "professionals" do not like seeing others in their profession brought to task. If the story in The Sun were about estate agents ripping someone off, social workers and the rest of the world would see it as fair game to name, shame and pursue the individuals until they were sacked and it would be fair play. But social workers, nurses and doctors seem to think they should retain their anonynmity when a poor defenceless child died because they were too busy thinking of home time, moaning about their wages, and wishing it was pension day. Please remember, no one forces anyone to do a particular job in this country, so when things go wrong and the public outrage is supported by the press, just remember a beautiful baby died here, not a social worker. If you can't take the heat ........

Can I ask where all these so called 'caring people' were last year when Baby P actaully died? It was reported in the press, it made page 4 in some papers and the biggest article I saw about it had no more than 10 lines, I asked my daughter what type of society have we become that a childs death can only make page 4 and no more than 10 lines when his back had been broken by his so called carer. The same week we were shopping when I witnessed a father physically attack his young son in a shop with a punch to the side of his head and hard kick to his thigh. I challenged the father and told him I would call the police and have him charged with assault and that I was also concerned if he abused his son in public what did he do behind closed doors. I recieved a mouthful of abuse and everyone passing decided I was a nosey do gooder who should mind her own business. I wonder how many of the so called caring people who read the sun and decided to sign the petition belonged to that same group of people who also smack their children and see it as their right as a parent? The facts of this case are not in the sun and nor will you ever find the truth in the sun, if they told me it was raining I would step outside to check first. The social worker doesn't have the power to take a child away not even Baby P. The lawyer made the decision even though the social worker had made her recommendations he be taken into care. The lawyer decided the so called carers hadn't crossed 'the threshold' I don't see anyone calling for his head. The people who make the life and death decisions are not the social workers but 99% of the time made by people who have never worked in child protection but number crunch funding. It's all about money, so from everyone's reaction to this tradegy they are willing for their taxes to go up by 10p in the pound so all children and young people in care can have a better life? Lets see the sun campaign for that. There is a Baby P case every week in Britain so lets see the sun print their names everyweek on the front page.

Mr Corser, I commend you for your bravery.

I've hated every moment of this Baby P case from the moment it dropped into the news in a small way, as others have said, and then the newspaper campaign. The day the first shots of the infant came out was a case in media manipulation. Each paper had the same picture. Each paper had its own variation. In some papers, the infant's eyes was a lighter shade of blue than others. In other papers, the hair was a different shade of blonde depending on the paper. Photoshop? You betcha. I don't recall the pictures of Victoria Climbie being tagged with words like 'cherubic' or 'angel'. Maybe it doesn't matter so much if it's a black kid dying, right Sun readers?

Social care is underfunded and ill equipped to cope with the demands placed upon it. For every child that suffers, the media outcry will erupt. For every child saved from harm, nothing is said. It is a thankless occupation.

Increasingly teachers are being asked ot look for signs of abuse. What teacher would dare suggest anything now? If they suggest something and the hcild and parents are investigated and found to be innocent, the newspapers will crucify them. If a teacher does nothing out of fear and a child suffers, again they might well be crucified. The simple fact of the matter is that this infant was murdered by two people who left a huge ounce of humanity behind. It is a failing of their humanity more than the actual system. Yes, the system needs to be changed but so do core human values.

I will not allow the Sun, a steaming shitstorm of a tabloid, to hold any moral high ground here. From the Belgrano to the disgusting coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, the Sun has consistently shown itself ot operate in a moral vacuum. I note that there seem to be many who bought the Sun in order to register their approval of the petition. Did the increased profits resulting from this go to any children's protection charity or did it simply line Rupert Murdoch's pockets?