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Arthur

In kind of vaguely related news the dickhead American parents who bought a gun for their 15 year old kid who immediately used it to shoot-up a school have been caught after going on the run (Sky). Some humans are just batshit crazy IMO. We should be thankful most of ours don’t have access to firearms. I hate to think just how many kids have been murdered by some prick shooting up a school by now. Has to be well in the high hundreds if not thousands.
 
Whatever you do, there may also be catastrophic cases that squeeze through the net. But if as a society we want to mitigate these cases and/or reduce their number, we need to pay more taxes. There are too few social workers to manage cases safely. Likewise nurses, doctors, carers, police, legal aid solicitors etc in their areas of work. If you are going to underfund services, you have to live with the consequences. Personally I don't like it, but in England at least I am not in the majority.
 
If you are going to underfund services, you have to live with the consequences.

Agreed. So much comes back to a lack of democratic accountability and a top-down government-imposed regressive low-tax economy that benefits the most wealthy. The government also need to own the mentally ill who freeze to death in doorways at night in their hundreds each year. This is the price for the politics we allow in this country.
 
Most often, it's not the housing itself, but the people housed in them.

I was making no judgement as there is to my understanding no correlation between this kind of systemic abuse and wealth, or the lack thereof. I was just countering the suggestion it was an upmarket area. It certainly doesn’t give that impression based on footage of reporters outside the house etc.
 
I was making no judgement as there is to my understanding no correlation between this kind of systemic abuse and wealth, or the lack thereof. I was just countering the suggestion it was an upmarket area. It certainly doesn’t give that impression based on footage of reporters outside the house etc.

I agree, this kind of abuse isn't necessarily wealth dependent. There are complicated issues in this case - Stepmother in new relationship with Father, Mother in Prison etc.
 
It can cost up to 25k per week to house a very damaged and difficult young person. There are 55 cases at anyone time chasing around three secure beds on any given day. Offshore companies are buying up existing independent children's homes and starting their own. They staff them with people mostly on the basic wage, with little training, sweat them for profits and move the profit offshore. The staff can’t cope with the frequent abuse and physical aggression and leave. The children rarely get to form a trusting relationship because as soon as their behaviour is too much trouble, the homes terminate the placement often with 24 hours notice. Some children can move placement 8 times a year, the for for profit homes don’t give a toss because there is always another LA willing to pay £25k a week because they have no choice.

The LA’s flogged off their children's homes a couple of decades ago because it was cheaper to pay someone else to house children. Short term gain which is now bitting them in the arse.

The system is totally broken.
 
Most often, it's not the housing itself, but the people housed in them.
It has been known for years that living in areas of multiple deprivation residents will have reduced opportunities in education and employment, will suffer poorer health and earlier death, live in poorer housing and be subject to higher crime rates.

Child abuse deaths are highest in such areas also.
 
It has been known for years that living in areas of multiple deprivation residents will have reduced opportunities in education and employment, will suffer poorer health and earlier death, live in poorer housing and be subject to higher crime rates.

Child abuse deaths are highest in such areas also.
Sad but true. I've a friend who is a judge, he says the people who come in front of him are almost universally poor, uneducated, unwaged, mentally or physically ill, and so on. He says that he spends more time worrying about the social aspects of what's gone on than the actual event itself.

In this awful case the boy's own mother is in prison for homicide of her partner, seems like the poor sod fell out of the frying pan of one violent parent into the fire of two such.
 
On the news reports for this case I heard that a child dies from similar abuse about once a fortnight in the UK. How does that compare with other countries?
 
While Solihull is, for the most part, an affluent Borough it also contains Chelmsley Wood which is one of the most deprived areas in England. I doubt Arthur lived in the leafy suburbs...
you are indeed correct , i guess i was meaning that such a borough should have the resources to employ adequate staff perhaps ??
 
This really is appalling , How can any 2 people do this to a defenceless little boy
They both deserve eveything that happens to them in prison once the inmates find out who they are
I struggled to call them human beings , Out and out low life scum , Makes my blood boil.
 
I share the general revulsion... obviously.

I have to say though. In my experience, the 'system', sets up tensions between practitioners which can lead to disaster.

Whilst still working as a Career Adviser, I met a girl of about 15, in a school for children with Moderate Learning Difficulties. During our conversation, she made a 'disclosure', which I found very disturbing. So, I approached her Form Teacher and asked if he knew about this issue. He immediately went into 'shut down', insisting that he could not discuss this stuff as it was 'confidential' etc. It took me a few minutes to get this clown to realise that it was no longer confidential as the child herself had told me, and that I needed to know whether the school was aware and whether appropriate action/referalls etc., had been taken. "Why do you need to know?" was his reply. I could have choked him. "Because if YOU have not taken appropriate action..then I NEED TO!!! I AM ALSO RESPONSIBLE!!" The penny finally dropped and he confirmed that appropriate action had been taken and the child was subject to a Care Order etc.
That sort of jealous 'ownership' of information, combined with 'Professional One Upmanship'. is a part of the systemic problem.
 
The LA’s flogged off their children's homes a couple of decades ago because it was cheaper to pay someone else to house children. Short term gain which is now bitting them in the arse.

The system is totally broken.
But as I recall, there was plenty of abuse and cruelty in many children’s homes, whether run privately or by local authorities. I’ve no doubt that under-funding is part of the problem, but it’s not as if everything was fine in the past.
 
I share the general revulsion... obviously.

I have to say though. In my experience, the 'system', sets up tensions between practitioners which can lead to disaster.

Whilst still working as a Career Adviser, I met a girl of about 15, in a school for children with Moderate Learning Difficulties. During our conversation, she made a 'disclosure', which I found very disturbing. So, I approached her Form Teacher and asked if he knew about this issue. He immediately went into 'shut down', insisting that he could not discuss this stuff as it was 'confidential' etc. It took me a few minutes to get this clown to realise that it was no longer confidential as the child herself had told me, and that I needed to know whether the school was aware and whether appropriate action/referalls etc., had been taken. "Why do you need to know?" was his reply. I could have choked him. "Because if YOU have not taken appropriate action..then I NEED TO!!! I AM ALSO RESPONSIBLE!!" The penny finally dropped and he confirmed that appropriate action had been taken and the child was subject to a Care Order etc.
That sort of jealous 'ownership' of information, combined with 'Professional One Upmanship'. is a part of the systemic problem.
I wonder if things might have changed a bit since then, though, Mull. And, to be honest, it sounds like that particular teacher was a bit of a muppet. It’s a good anecdote, and there’s probably more of a germ of truth in it, but it serves to let the real people responsible off the hook: those who have starved social services and social care of funds for decades.
 
This really is appalling , How can any 2 people do this to a defenceless little boy
They both deserve eveything that happens to them in prison once the inmates find out who they are
I struggled to call them human beings , Out and out low life scum , Makes my blood boil.

Emma Tustin, the wicked step-mother had her brief complaining to the Court during the trial about her treatment from other prison inmates. Apparently, she has been threated and inmates have thrown salt at her (Arthur was force-fed salt by her and his Father). She obviously doesn't like it when such treatment is coming at her.
 
but it serves to let the real people responsible off the hook: those who have starved social services and social care of funds for decades.

Certainly not my intention to do so. I too place the bulk of the blame on those who persistently underfund Social Services and others. It's just that as far as I know all professionals who come into contact with young people or vulnerable adults have a duty to act if they become aware of 'safeguarding' issues, but certain professionals seem to think that they are the sole guardians of information.
Also there is still a potential conflict between the necessary exchange of info, and the requirements of the Data Protection Act. As I recall, certain Police authorities failed on pass on info about Huntly, who perpetrated the Soham murders. Their stated reason, or at least their excuse, was that they didn't want to breach Data Protection regs. Even if they were only using it as an excuse after the fact, they were misinformed about the workings of the Data Protection Act. The act places a duty on people to share information in order to prevent criminal activity, or harm.
 
Data protection is a common scapegoat, and it’s completely wrong. It’s what I do for a living, and there’s no way data protection has ever got in the way of sharing data for this sort of purpose. It gets the blame, though, because people don’t want to address the real issues, such as the sort of muppetry you encountered.
 


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