Trust comes first
by Celia Hannon
A leaked serious case review once again draws attention to the failings of Doncaster social services. The report from the Children's Safety Board is to be published this week and it will suggest that the brutal attack by two brothers on two boys in Edlington, which left one in a coma, were predictable and preventable.
When it is released the report will no doubt focus on the chain of events leading up to the shocking attack by the two boys who were living with foster carers at the time, but this case goes the heart of the long term problems confronting the care system. The brothers' family had been known to social services for 14 years. What happens to children before children enter care can be just as significant, if not more, than what happens after they become looked after by the state.
Research now gives us a glimpse of the true impact of pre-care adversity in the early years. One study found that upon entry to care 72 per cent of looked after children aged 5 to 15 had a mental or behavioural problem. Healthier level of emotional and behavioural wellbeing are strongly predicted by entry to care age 3 or under. The abuse and neglect which it seems the two brothers were likely to have experienced in their family will have played a key part in shaping their own abusive behaviour.
The care system did not simply fail the boys they attacked, it failed those brothers when it did not step in to protect them in their early years.
This case will undoubtedly spark another round of stories about a care system in 'crisis', at 'breaking point' and under-performing in all areas. But we should be wary of this narrative, because it will only serve to undermine efforts to improve safeguarding of children in the long run. The less we trust the care system, the less willing Local Authorities will be to act earlier and more decisively when children's mental health can be protected.
Penelope NIbb
It could be said that many of the problematic social issues regarding children leading to child protection arise from poor parenting. The DEMOS research carried out regarding 'The domestic politics of parenting' acknowledges that '...women continue to take greater responsibility than men...' for childcare.
The continuing expectation of society that women should naturally fall into the role of primary carer of children not only takes for granted the difficulties of being the main provider for dependents, and all that this entails physically, emotionally and psychologically, but completely overshadows the additional stresses caused by domestic violence.
Liz Mackean's report states that 'Their father was violent and their mother could not cope with her seven sons'. The mother was primary carer to SEVEN children! In addition her partner was violent. How was she meant to cope within that kind of environment?
Granted there appears to be fundamental flaws in the social system if the boys and their family had come into contact with the services many times previous. But what about the identification of pressures on the mother within such a situation. Domestic violence does not only include hitting, kicking and punching. It includes forced intercourse, commonly referred to as rape and equally commonly ignored as such if perpetrated within partnership or marriage. Domestic violence includes the practice of keeping a woman pregnant for as long as possible. This woman had seven children. What are the chances that, alongside physical violence, her partner subjected her to other such forms of abuses?
Instead of castigating women when their children 'turn bad' and flippantly referring to their partners as violent, would it not be useful to acknowledge that, as the primary carers of children, the relationships and environments of women should be as safe, balanced and nurturing as the parenting they are expected to bestow on their children?
This case flags up the need for more media attention and positive validation in regard to the pressures of women as primary parental carers. It also highlights the long-term impact upon children of violent fathers and the need for domestic violence to become a serious social issue to be discussed and acted upon politically and otherwise.
More responsibility placed on bad fathers and more action in making the lives of such unfortunate women, with whom they are partnered, less violent and more valuable would make a more positive contribution to the well being of children than extending the rods that are breaking the backs of already overwhelmed mothers.