Mick Hartley

The obvious answer to the failings of bureaucracy uncovered in the Victoria Climbie case: more bureaucracy:

The biggest shake-up in child protection law in 30 years was unveiled today to prevent a repeat of tragedies such as that of Victoria Climbie. The Children’s Bill gives all those working in the field – including police and social services staff – a legal duty for the first time to protect the young.

It will create a Children’s Commissioner for England, the first such post, to champion children’s rights and to conduct wide-ranging investigations. And it will completely overhaul the way local authorities deal with child protection, as well paving the way for an electronic dossier for every child born in Britain.

The Climbie case was a catalogue of the most grotesque blunders by all the official agencies concerned. This from a Telegraph report on the inquiry, from December 2001:

It is difficult to believe the extent of the cruelty inflicted on the defenceless, bewildered child by two bestial criminals who were supposed to be caring for her. But just as incredible, and almost as repulsive, is the extraordinary incompetence, blindness and stupidity of the officials who were supposed to be protecting Victoria.

For more than two months, an official inquiry has been questioning those officials in an anonymous block in South London. The inquiry team, led by Lord Laming, has sat impassively as it has heard social workers admit to appalling errors of judgment.

One social worker complained that the real problem was racism. Another made the same complaint – then withdrew it when questioned closely about the evidence on which it was based.

Two social workers from Haringey alleged that their manager ripped the final page from Victoria Climbie’s file on the day of her death. It was the note that said “no further action” need be taken on her case. (The manager concerned flatly denies that she did it, although she has no explanation for how the page came to be missing.)

The tone of the inquiry’s counsel, Neil Garnham, QC, has grown increasingly incredulous as he has asked for an explanation for the mistakes, lapses and blunders – only to receive the apparently unrepentant response that “I didn’t see it like that”, “it wasn’t my job”, “we didn’t have the resources” or “that was the accepted procedure”.

The failures were not limited to social workers. Doctors examined her injuries, and confidently declared that they had not been caused by abuse. When the doctors did suspect abuse, social workers appeared to be unable to understand what those suspicions were.

Police officers assigned to investigate what was happening to Victoria decided that no crimes had been committed – without even speaking to her. Rather than actually do something to protect Victoria Climbie, a child in desperate need of help, the police officer meant to look after her instead went to a seminar on child protection.

Social workers from three London boroughs were also supposed to be “protecting” Victoria. Although she was being tortured all but in front of their noses, and was twice taken to hospital for the injuries she sustained, they sent her back to Manning and Kouao. The only people who were able to recognise that something was horribly wrong with Victoria were those not trained and paid to do so: a taxi driver, a baby-sitter, a nurse.

How is it that the “specialists” were blind to what was obvious to people who had never taken a course in social work, and had never sat on a child protection committee? What had happened to make the “professionals” unable to perform the function for which they had been trained for years?

With more child protection officers, the outcome is fairly predictable. They will, of course, all have extensive training in diversity and will be able to spot racism at a distance of half a mile. They will also no doubt be alert to the dangers of Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy: a useful diagnosis should there be a problem which can’t be shoe-horned into any other category.

As Helene Guldberg wrote, in an article in Spiked-life from last January, looking at the recommendations of the Climbie enquiry:

UK health secretary Alan Milburn insists that lessons must be learned from the case of the murdered child abuse victim, Victoria Climbie, in February 2000. But the only lesson worth learning from this terrible case is that child protection officers have become so obsessed with finding abuse everywhere that they cannot see it when it is under their noses. And you don’t need a 15-month inquiry to appreciate that. […]

A number of adults who came into contact with Victoria, including neighbours, raised concerns about the child’s welfare and the likelihood of abuse. But the transformation of child protection from everyday acts of human compassion to an industry of professionals actively discourages people from intervening in situations themselves.

A climate of suspicion that encourages us to see potential abuse in every home, and see every stranger as a potential threat to children, can only undermine the spontaneous human compassion and contact that could have saved Victoria’s life.

It was not the absence of a highly visible, vigilant and centralised child protection industry that allowed Victoria to die a lonely drawn-out death. It was the lack of two basic human instincts: compassion and common sense.