Lord Laming calls for “determination” in tackling child abuse

The BBC reports that Lord Laming, the head of the inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie’s murder, has called for “utter determination” in the fight against child abuse. The eight year old girl died in 2000 after being tortured for months by her great-aunt and her partner in north London.

The government report of 2003 can be found at www.victoria-climbie-inquiry.org.uk. 

More recently in March 2009, Lord Laming published his “Progress Report.” This is the government’s response to the shocking case of Baby P, as a result of which three people were convicted and sentenced to prison. So what does Lord Laming’s 2009 report hold for experts?  A number of recommendations were made but experts did come up as one issue of concern. Firstly Lord Laming said that the expertise of the professionals already involved with the child should be sufficient expertise and a national expert is rarely required to add weight to a case. Secondly Lord Laming also commented on what he perceived as an over cautious approach by professionals. He identified a tendency on the part of professionals towards justification and reassurance that all was well, rather than more objective consideration and investigation of what had occurred.

Now Lord Laming has spoken again about to strengthen child protection. Regrettably the tragic deaths of children at the hands of relatives, friends and strangers continue to make the news. Most recently we have the death of Khyra Ishaq who was starved to death by her mother and her mother’s partner.

In fact calls for action on child abuse and greater child protection have been a feature of the care system for decades. The deaths of Victoria Climbie, Peter Connelly (Baby P) and Khyra Ishaq are not isolated cases. It is thought that most local authorities deal with these kinds of cases, which do not always result in the death of the child. There are of course huge restrictions on reporting the abuse of children, which are in place to protect those children. Obviously where the child is dead, the reason for protecting their identity is less pressing. That in itself demonstrates the failure of the child protection system.  If society cannot protect the life of the child, it is even more unlikely to protect the name of the child. 

Where the case is serious, the local authority will generally commission a “Serious Case Review” in order to see what lessons can be learned. The Serious Case Review is then published in abridged and anonymised form.   A  Conservative spokesman on television recently said that a Conservative government would enable the publication of the whole of the Review. The writer does not think they will do that, it would mean the publication of the identities not only of the child or children but also parents, relatives, social workers all of whom have rights of privacy under the Human Rights Act 1998. Any kind of legislation would be wide open to legal challenge. As matters stand, it is difficult enough in a civil compensation claim to persuade a court to release the Serious Case Review. In the last such case, the writer had to undertake to the court to keep the Review in a locked safe at all times (which on reflection is not unreasonable).

Coming back to Lord Laming’s plea, these are words that need to be heard but one of the biggest problems with social care is the resources allocated to social workers to do their job. This is not a politically attractive subject. I fear we will see more such cases in the future.