A Short life of “P”ain and misery

By Gizem Melek


Baby P’s short life again has come to the headlines, this time, stories about apologies from the Haringey Council and suspension of their employees.

Baby P died on August 2007 when he was 17 months old, even though he was on the child protection register and was seen by professionals 60 times in his last year, according to the reports of the BBC.

Consequently, why couldn’t they save the baby’s life?

Or, when should a baby be sent into care?

We know Britain has strict laws to protect children. However, the law couldn’t save Baby P.

This means, nobody was able to apply the law completely, because of some reasons.

The first reason might be there are a lot of officers in the social services. Thus, each of them has power, but none of them has the authority to give the last decision.

Negligence

The second reason might be negligence.

That means, they never thought this could end with baby’s death.

The third reason might be that social services are afraid of being criticized by the media if they take the baby from his parents. 

There have been a couple of resignations and suspensions amongst the workers of Haringey Council lately according to the reports on the media.

We know apologies or resignations will not bring Baby P back.

However, the important message is do the authorities learn a lesson from this issue?

Baby P case was not the first one and probably will not be the last one.

 

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