14/01/01 - Anna Climbie: When
the little innocents like Anna die
DR MARK PORTER
Sunday Mirror
HOW many more Anna Climbies have to die before
the authorities put their house in order? Eight-year-old
Anna's death should come as no surprise to the agencies
involved in her case.
They knew she was being abused, her case had been investigated
by both the police and social workers and she had been
placed on the Child Protection register.
Her tragic story will send shudders through those agencies
that failed to protect her and some face disciplinary
action. Heads may roll, but will anything change? Why
were her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao and boyfriend
Carl Manning allowed to carry onregardless?
Only a full enquiry into Anna's case will reveal the
true story but I can hazard a few guesses as to what
went wrong - the same old combination of laziness, incompetence,
poor communication, political correctness and shunning
of responsibility thatcharacterises most cases of mismanaged
child abuse.
Child abuse is common, with extreme cases like Anna's
representing the tip of a sinister iceberg.
Most are handled well by dedicated staff, but many
are not. All too often worried relatives, neighbours
and friends have to push repeatedly to make the agencies
act - it's a classic case of he who shouts loudest gets
the most attention.
But if, like Anna, you have no one to do the shouting
for you, your case can end up lingering in the bottom
of someone's pending tray where it will remain until
the next time you turn up in casualty with suspicious
injuries.
Lack of resources and overstretched staff is a commonly
quoted excuse when public services fail. The system,
and the staff who work within it, are under intense
pressure but, whatever the workload, the most important
tasks still need to be done, and whatcan be more important
than a threatened child? If child welfare agencies can't
act efficiently in cases like Anna's, what hope is their
there for cases further down the list?
The effectiveness of the seemingly chaotic Social Services
department in Haringey was neatly summed up by the lawyer
acting for Carl Manning when he told the jury that "if
you come across a child in need in Haringey, you'd do
better to call out the RACthan social services"
.
It's a scenario I am all too familiar with. I have
a worrying case of possible child neglect in my own
practice at the moment and, despite the involvement
of GPs, psychiatrists, health visitors, the police and
social services, little is being done toprotect the
children at risk. The bits are currently being picked
up by a loving relative, without whom I dread to think
what could eventually become of the children in question.
No one service wants to take overall responsibility
and act. The system designed to protect our children
seems, in this case, to have ground to a halt - with
little to show for its intervention than a pile of paperwork
whose function appears to be tocover the backsides of
all involved should the situation worsen.
So what's the solution? Well, either the current system
needs a rocket under it to get it working more efficiently,
or we need a new one- stop agency responsible for child
welfare.
A multi-disciplinary agency with real teeth, made up
of social workers, doctors, health visitors, police
officers and lawyers who are not afraid to put children's
welfare first.
An agency properly backed by legislation that allows
it to intervene without fear of public pillory or legal
retribution.
The agencies involved in child abuse, we doctors included,
are often too wary of getting involved in case they
have got it wrong - a fear that stems from cases where
they have been shown to be over-zealous.
The most infamous of these was in 1987, when dozens
of children in Cleveland were taken into care because
of supposed sexual abuse only to be returned later because
the pediatrician in charge, Dr Marrieta Higgs, was said
to have got it wrong.
Marrieta Higgs did get it wrong, but the resulting
furore has forced the pendulum too far the other way
and we are now in danger of "too little, too late".
A new streamlined child protection agency won't always
get it right but surely it's better to over-react than
do too little. I know which I would rather stand accused
of. |
