CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL LATEST!

New Labour, same old inaction.


The Laming enquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie published its report yesterday. As expected, it's a complete pile of shit. It suggests that closer co-operation between social services, the police and the NHS should be sufficient to prevent children being tortured to death - the same set-up that failed to save Victoria from a horrific death at the hands of her aunt. A Child Protection Agency has been ruled out.
Victoria, and other children like her, are dead because social services, the police and the NHS fail to consult each other or fail to listen on the occasions questions about child abuse are raised. All three institutions are grossly underfunded and under-manned and have grown dangerously ineffective under Blair's government. We need a dedicated child protection agency with a radical mandate and the manpower and the funds to make it work. Dumping the problem on over-streched public services won't do and has never worked in the past. What the Laming Report proposes is an often repeated penny pinching recipe for disaster. How many children have to die before these bureaucratic tossers learn that carrying on as if nothing has happened disguised as "sweeping changes" is UNACCEPTABLE??!!!