A protection racket?

Barnet Council Website says the following about child protection (Click HERE for the full page) :-
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Child protection

Children at risk

In the Children's Service we aim to:

* Support families in times of difficulty. This might be because they have a child with a disability or their family is having difficult times.
* Support children to make sure that they are safe and looked after properly by their families and carers.
* Safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the London Borough of Barnet who are in need, and
* Promote the upbringing of children by their families.

There are a variety of ways to support children and their families. Following an assessment, the services that may be arranged can include:

* ongoing social work support
* attendance at a Family Centre
* help from Family Workers
* referral to other agencies, such as a psychology service
* shared care for children with special needs
* support from the Youth Offending Team.

Sometimes children have to be `looked after' by Barnet Council. If this happens we will work with parents and carers to ensure that they are fully involved in plans for their children.

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What struck me reading through the Barnet web page was how little it said about child protection. Given that the title is Child Protection and the sub heading is Children at Risk, there seems to be a complete aversion on the part of the person who put the page together to discuss the issue.

The Child protection page doesn't tell you what to do. You need to click on the Child abuse link. Five paragraphs down the abuse page, there is a telephone number and an email address (in standard type). Now I don't know about you, but I think that if you are searching "child protection" on Barnet's website (unless you are a saddo blogger like me) you have big worries about something. Surely the page should have a massive banner saying "If you have any concerns about a child at risk, call this number 24 hours a day". Rather than all of the waffle, as detailed above, cut to the chase.

If I'm worried that the alcoholic junkie next door (metaphorically speaking as my neighbours are lovely) is a threat to his children, I don't want him to be "involved". I want his children taken to somewhere safe. If he's abused them, I want him locked up. I want to know that serious action will be taken.

What made me think about all of this was a blog I read by an ex IRA terrorist - Anthony MacIntyre - who spent 18 years in prison. It made me think - what about you - (click HERE for the full blog) :-

There is little room for doubting the extent of professional negligence displayed by Sharon Shoesmith in her management of the child protection scheme in Haringey. The helpless and vulnerable were abandoned to the perverse designs of their tormentors. The Baby P case demonstrated that prisoners have a greater degree of protection than children at risk. It is inconceivable that someone detained in Belmarsh would be visited 60 times by professionals supposedly concerned about allegations of ill treatment at the hands of prison staff only for the prisoner to be later murdered by the same staff. And if, four days before he died, prison officers were to present him to professional visitors unconscious, his face smeared in chocolate, claiming that he was only asleep, it would be just as inconceivable that the professionals would walk away after a cursory wave.

Now am I drawing too much into a few lines of text on the Barnet Council website? Probably, but as a parent, I want to know that the council put the "at risk child" first. The website doesn't say that to me at all. I want to know that at risk children are afforded more, not less, protection than inmates at Belmarsh. Every so often, something happens and we have to re-examine the way we approach things and re-focus on what we are really meant to be doing. The Barnet Council Child protection website would be a good place to start.