The Tory paedophile scandal (with Labour to follow) will dwarf that of the Savile affair if it is shown that senior political nonces were let off the hook as part of an establishment cover up. There has been no sign from senior Tories, as they express their faux outrage and shock, (having known all the stories for years) that they will deal with this. The grim truth will have to be dragged out from them.
As I pointed out yesterday the media and political establishment have known for years about the rumours now spread widely across the internet and have at best turned a blind eye to protect “their own” or at worst actively engaged in a cover up. You can read that piece HERE.
Thus with perfect irony I read a House of Commons Select Committee Report out today on Child care which, believe it or not, seems to call for more children to be taken into the “safety” of State care homes.
It starts with a concern that older kids are pushed out too soon or that kids of illegal immigrants are not taken into care because they are illegal but goes on to state:
“On neglect, the Committee found evidence that children are left too long in harmful situation. To encourage earlier intervention, it calls for better training for all front-line professionals in child development and the long-term consequences of neglect.
On older children, an urgent review is needed of the support offered to this group in order that services can be re-shaped to meet their needs. Ofsted should monitor and report on the provision made for this group by local authorities, taking into account the views of the children themselves. Practitioners must demonstrate greater willingness to look beyond behavioural problems and recognise signs of neglect and abuse in teenagers.
More needs to be done by central and local agencies to raise awareness amongst children of the nature of abuse and how it might affect them, and to encourage self-referrals.”
So trying to get this straight. The sort of Social Workers who so badly let down Victoria Climbie and Baby P ( and none of who got fired) and who have already intervened in a scandalous way in taking kids from normal parents ( as described by Christopher Booker HERE. ) will now seek to shuffle kids into care homes at an earlier stage.
Had I a shred of confidence that those who have been guilty of abusing kids in care in homes in the past had all been exposed and punished I might take this semi-seriously but the record of social services in recent years has been so shockingly bad that even then I would have my doubts.
It is irony that one year long enquiry finishes with these recommendations just as it emerges that another year long enquiry costing £14 million into serial abuse in the same sector in North Wales appears to have been a total farce.