Capt SpaceBat

Ed Balls’ announcement that a Social Services “Task force” is to be launched must be applauded, along with the debate as to when it is appropriate to place a child “in care” - one thing that does not appear to have been considered is the question of how safe is the system into which already vulnerable children are being placed.

With over-stretched resources trying to monitor situations where traumatised children are placed into confusing and alien environments, often with other children deemed to have been “at risk” from harm, how can we be sure that they will be any safer?

From figures released today, A total of 210 children in England have died following abuse; how many of these were already “in care”? Ofsted’s chief inspector Christine Gilbert said that not all of the 210 children who died after neglect or abuse were known to local authorities but seemed not to mention what proportion of this unknown number were actually “in the system.”

Also of concern is the question - as with the lack of follow-up support with discharged service personnel and the problems that has caused - what level of support will be given these vulnerable young people receive once they leave the care system?

Many “personality disorders” are considered by some to have a cause in some form of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - the traumata of prior abuse, removal from the family group and potentially later harm perpetrated make it hardly unlikely to find such children are just later seen as “troubled” only by their earlier abuse rather than any later depredations and the deep psychological damage caused is brushed aside and ignored. The provision of psychological services is already stretched to its limit.

The tales of horror detailing abuses within the care profession - and likewise within the public school system - should not be forgotten when placing children into what should be a protective environment, rather than unwittingly allowing the abuses to continue in other ways by other people.