I woke up yesterday to the news of child abuse in Rotherham. There was a modicum of good news in that in less than a minute I was able to down load the Jay report, print off the first 20 pages or so and start reading it. A good deal more sober and sensible than the headlines of most of the newspapers that I came across later in the day.
I offer a few thoughts.
First, central government must take its share of the blame. Successive governments have stripped local authorities of both authority and money and it is no wonder that things go wrong. A lesson that the Israelis have yet to learn in Gaza and elsewhere.
Second, I wonder how many decent and experienced front-line social workers will just chuck it now and take early retirement. Just can't take the strain and abuse any more; that from difficult clients is one thing, that from everywhere else is another.
Third, there is a bad whiff of inquiryitis about the whole thing. Well meaning people have been inquiring into child abuse in and around Rotheram since at least the start of the century. If all those well meaning middle management types had been deployed on the front-line instead of in front of their word processors, maybe we would not be in such a mess now. There have been outbreaks of the same disease in the mental health sector, where I have sometimes been given the impression that there are far more chiefs than indians. In acute cases we set up giant inquiries which spend huge amounts of money on lawyers and others; an even worse diversion of resources away from the front-line. We do need good management, very likely better management than we have now, but lets keep things in proportion.
Fourth, lets hope that the boys from Eton don't use this as an excuse to privatise child support services. There would be great confusion in the short term, bad quality & expensive services in the long term - but maybe some profits for their friends.
See http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1407/independent_inquiry_cse_in_rotherham.
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