We all have a duty to care for nation's kids

Nov 16 2008 Elaine C. Smith

MOST of us live in happy ignorance of the horrors that too many children endure.

But it was impossible to avoid the incomprehensible plight of certain young lives last week.

The stories of Baby P, Shannon Matthews and the terrible stabbing of two tots provided a horrifying insight into the suffering that some children are subjected to.

My instinct initially is to turn away and not read the gory details, especially those in the case of London tot Baby P.

The 17-month-old died in a bloodsplattered cot last August despite 60 visits from Haringey Council officials in eight months.

The details of this little boy's life and death are just too awful to bear.

I cried when I thought of what he was put through by those who were supposed to care.

His 27-year-old mother has admitted causing the brutal death.

She, her lover and her lodger will be sentenced next month.

They should spend the rest of their days in prison.

The social services in Haringey should also be brought to task over their bungling of the case, as should the doctor who didn't spot a broken spine in a 17-month-old boy.

Government departments alerted to this case six months before did nothing.

Social workers had also stopped monitoring the two tots stabbed to death, Romario Mullings-Sewell, two, and his three-month-old brother Delayno.

Their mum, Jael Mullings, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after their bodies were found at their home in Manchester.

It's too easy to blame social workers.

We want them to deal with the problems and people we ignore but as long as we do so the system will occasionally, and tragically, fail.

And we only hear of their failures, never of all the kids helped. It is alarming that due to the bad publicity and the difficulty of the job, there are hundreds of vacancies in the social work service that desperately need to be filled.

As long as the service is understaffed and those in it are exhausted and stressed, mistakes will be made and kids will suffer.

A damning report was made last week about Aberdeen Child Protection Services.

This sadly demonstrates yet again that we in Scotland are not immune to failure.

We all must be rigorous and vigilant when it comes to protecting children - and not just our own.

Maybe those who report benefit cheats would be better employed looking out for neighbours who are abusing their children.