In the paper today in Britain another story of child abuse by his parents?
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.
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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.
absolutely spot on!
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.
No amount of government can rule an unruly people. Without a personal relationship with Jesus a society can not civilized.
A vote against Jesus is a vote for the babyraper.
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.
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!
They are apparently too busy trying to stamp out spanking to actually address real abuse.
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.
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.
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!
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.
im afraid i dont agree with dgroundhog65. if a child does has lots of cuts, breaks and bruises then i would i have thought it was obvious the parent is not monitoring the childs activities enough, and should there fore have there child taken away for a short period of time for them to GET THERE ACT TOGETHER!
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.
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