One Boy Dies, Two Lose Their Job

Title: Baby Peter social workers lose tribunal appeal

Subject: 17 months old Peter died from abuse, the social workers who were responsible for keeping tabs on him were sacked and thought it unfair

Web Address: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/baby-p-social-workers-appeal-723859

Date: 25 May 2012

Summary:

Gillie Christou and Maria Ward, the two social workers

Back in August 2007 young Peter Connelly, only 17 months old, died from sustained abuse by his mother. The child was known at the social services and despite having over 60 visits from the social service, the police and health professionals he died all the same. The social workers that were appointed to him made a serious mistake when they accepted the word of his mother when she said she could not visit because she was looking after a sick relative. This led to a 12 day period where the boy was off the radar, they did not know where he was or how he was doing while they were required to see the boy at least once a fortnight. Having failed to meet this requirement the judge found the verdict, that they were sacked justly, fair.

Opinion:

On one hand you could say that everyone makes mistakes. On the other, it was the life of a young boy. I also think that believing an obviously disturbed woman on her word is a very big mistake. Of course there were more things going on, the social service was under-resourced at that time. On one thing I think everyone can agree: no one wanted this to happen. So they did not do this on purpose, they at that time truly believed he was alright. This is also why they were not jailed I think, they were not guilty as, for example the lodger, of allowing the boy to die. They were 'just' sacked. I think it was fair they were sacked, they messed up big time and made crucial errors.