http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/86138 ... North.html


This shows how much power social workers have and how easy it is for them to abuse it.

This is a joke right?

This day is full of atrocious news.

Common sense and morals seem to have been selectively removed from the gene pool.

I have lots of criticisms of social services and child care is generally a waste of money considering how they destroy lives. Yes compassion seems to be irrelevant.

On the flip-side, my time in care was some of the greatest years of my childhood, so your mileage may vary.

Mark

Yes it can be better than some of the alternatives, but what is wrong with family even if they are up north?

I have no idea about the family in question so I'm not commenting on that, I was commenting against the seeming hatred for Social Services that this thread was possibly going to turn in to.

Mark

I think Social Services can do a thankless but majorly important job most of the time. Obviously only the bad and/or stupid cases get highlighted.

I find it hard to believe that the decision was made solely on the 'up North' aspect but then again the Aunt has now won the custody case.

Stupid decisions are made in all professions, I don't think that automatically means you can tar the whole profession with the same brush unless it's part of 'best practice'.

*lives in Yorkshire, as has strong Southern accent*

actually, nobody up here really gives a crap, ive certainly never received any abuse because of it. a few jokes and remarks about it from friends and classmates, but nothing that would constitute "isolation" by any stretch.

there mustve been something else to this case, no way that sort of discrimination wouldve been allowed otherwise. would it?

From what I've heard - I know some people who went into social work/counselling for the NHS and what have you - the major problem isn't 'social workers' it's generally a combination of lack of resources (there simply aren't enough of them) and bad management of the social workers (the ones they have aren't used most efficiently). The result is people get overloaded and when you overload people, mistakes are pretty much inevitable. Although in the case listed in the OP, that was just... well, lets call it 'naive'.

Course it doesn't help that social care is very much the poor relation generally and it's being hit very hard by the government's 'austerity measures' - a couple of friends of mine are effectively out of a job, even though they've done nothing but the best that could have been done under the circumstances. I am rapidly learning to utterly loath Cameron & co, which is an achievement given when they were (not) elected, all I had was mild disinterest.

Jon

Social Services are on a highway for a hiding regardless of what they do. They either do too little - in which case you get cases like Baby P turning up, or they do too much and you get stories like this.

This case involves a child at risk. If you’ve had any contact with social services, teachers, or schools, you will have heard about the various mechanisms in place to protect children. As soon as a child enters that system, information is supplied on a “need to know” basis. Even relatives and parents may be kept out of certain information loops. It’s how it is. In this case, we don’t know the full situation so really can’t comment without a hell of a lot of speculation. The reasons given may not reflect or include other reasons not to move the child up north.



That’s to be expected - so don’t act surprised. Hampshire Social Services won’t be able to comment.

Simple reason for that, Northerners are generally nicer people full stop

I have to agree, and have even lived up there as well. I have lived in London as well and that is very isolating even though it is so crowded.

I'm not sure I agree with that; London is full of lovely people.

My own suspicions are that:

• The stressful and ultra-competitive environment probably isn't conducive to being "nice"
• London has a higher than average concentration of businesses that attract tossers from outside London