Expectations of child services

fez

fez

Caporegime
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I was reading this earlier today and it broke my heart to think about the poor little boy alone, starving to death with his dead dad in the house with him.

No doubt child services will be hauled over the coals for this but I always question what we can do to avoid things like this. We have the idea that being with biological parents is the best place for children until they are truly horrifically neglectful. Adoption is a very hard process to go through for good parents and yet we have such a low bar for leaving children with the scumbags who neglect and abuse them. This was a tragic case but the mum didn't even care enough to realise her baby was dead for well over a week. There was no support network within that family that was checking in.

Child services are already stretched and dealing with horrible cases where they must know constantly that they are trying to do the impossible and protect children from the very people who should love them the most.

I don't know why but this particular case really got to me. Perhaps because I have a couple of 9 month old boys so whenever something like this comes up it just makes me wonder how anyone can be so cruel and callous as to neglect a child so much.

How do we have a system that both tries to keep children with their ****** parents but also knows when to take them away?
 

This was a tragic case but the mum didn't even care enough to realise her baby was dead for well over a week. There was no support network within that family that was checking in.
Do you know something we don't? How do we know the mother wasn't dead/in prison etc?

Are there other articles that explain this or have you assumed?
 
I heard this on the radio earlier and it's harrowing to think about that little lads final days.

There's not much point in speculating on how it's been "allowed" to happen until we get further details.
 

I was reading this earlier today and it broke my heart to think about the poor little boy alone, starving to death with his dead dad in the house with him.

No doubt child services will be hauled over the coals for this but I always question what we can do to avoid things like this. We have the idea that being with biological parents is the best place for children until they are truly horrifically neglectful. Adoption is a very hard process to go through for good parents and yet we have such a low bar for leaving children with the scumbags who neglect and abuse them. This was a tragic case but the mum didn't even care enough to realise her baby was dead for well over a week. There was no support network within that family that was checking in.

Child services are already stretched and dealing with horrible cases where they must know constantly that they are trying to do the impossible and protect children from the very people who should love them the most.

I don't know why but this particular case really got to me. Perhaps because I have a couple of 9 month old boys so whenever something like this comes up it just makes me wonder how anyone can be so cruel and callous as to neglect a child so much.

How do we have a system that both tries to keep children with their ****** parents but also knows when to take them away?

A LOT of assumptions here that have no evidence in the source you posted
 
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From here: "The boy’s mother, Sarah Piesse, 43, said she last saw her son before Christmas after a row with Kenneth".

Seems like an awful tragedy :(
Fair enough

Leaving your 2 year old son in the care of a 60 year old with a heart condition does seem pretty callous.

I don't think child services did much wrong here from the articles posted though.
 
Horrific. Irrespective of the dog whistle for child services, state of welfare, mother etc. This is just horrific and could happen to a lot of folk who live these kind of lives.

Leaving your 2 year old son in the care of a 60 year old with a heart condition does seem pretty callous.
Captain hindsight IMO. Not many plan to die.
 
Captain hindsight IMO. Not many plan to die.
No, but if you have a heart condition and are severely jaundiced, I would say being the sole carer of a 2 year old toddler is not ideal.

Jaundice is when your skin or the whites of your eyes turn yellow. It can be a sign of something serious, such as liver disease, so you need to get urgent medical help.

We don't know the full circumstances though
 
Surely this one is the police’s fault? They were contacted repeatedly and did not check when CS couldn’t get in.

Police can only force doors (without warrant) if they believe there is a threat to life, they believe a crime is being committed on the premises at the time or are "in close pursuit of a suspect who flees to a property" (or words to that effect)

If there was no genuine belief of threat to life, they cant force entry.
 
Police can only force doors (without warrant) if they believe there is a threat to life, they believe a crime is being committed on the premises at the time or are "in close pursuit of a suspect who flees to a property" (or words to that effect)

If there was no genuine belief of threat to life, they cant force entry.
They didn’t even do anything or turn up.

Surely not being able to get on contract with a young at risk child flagged by CS is a reason to smash the door down.
 
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They didn’t even do anything or turn up.

Surely not being able to get on contract with a young at risk child flagged by CS is a reason to smash the door down.
Man was estimated to have died not before 29th December.

Police first made aware on 2nd Jan

Would a child last even 5 days without water? He was likely dead by then, sadly.
 
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True but I bet you, like many people, have Life Insurance to help support your wife and daughter just in case it were to happen... You don't plan to die though.
Nope - and live 100 miles from any real family. So this has highlighted a real potential issue for me.
 
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They didn’t even do anything or turn up.

Surely not being able to get on contract with a young at risk child flagged by CS is a reason to smash the door down.

Of course but we dont know how the report came through from Child Services. Was it described as a child at risk or just have been unable to attend at a home? Who knows until the report comes out :confused:
 
Nope - and live 100 miles from any real family. So this has highlighted a real potential issue for me.

No offence (particularly as you seem to have noted it yourself now) but you really should have Life Insurance even just to the value of your mortgage to ensure your wife and kid(s) are secure in a home should the worst happen (even if they don't remain in it eventually).

I have LI and Crit Illness cover just to be sure.
 
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No offence (particularly as you seem to have noted it yourself now) but you really should have Life Insurance even just to the value of your mortgage to ensure your wife and kid(s) are secure in a home (even if they don't stay in it eventually) should the worst happen.

I have LI and Crit Illness cover just to be sure.
Yeah I know, just haven't got to it. Mortgage is too big, she'll just have to move. If I die at work tho, she'll be minted.
 
Surely this one is the police’s fault? They were contacted repeatedly and did not check when CS couldn’t get in.
The police don't tend to break down doors just because someone hasn't answered them, especially at a time of year when people are often out a lot.
The most the police will do unless there is a real, specific concern is look through any windows they can reach and try doors.

My father was known locally as "the guy with ladders and no fear of heights" (he'd be up them putting back roof tiles for the elderly neighbours for 20 years), and worked for a time as a traditional window cleaner, and in his time had had to call the police out because of fears for people that hadn't been seen for a time, going back 40 years to as recently as ~10 years ago the police were always reluctant to do anything unless there was signs of a problem, with the result that more than once he had conversations that went along the lines of "we can't break in, or enter without a warrant at the moment, but we're not going to stop someone else trustworthy looking through or going through that window up there whilst we watch".


This seems an utterly tragic case where chances are no one person or group was at fault, unless you want the police to start to be able to break down doors whenever someone can't be contacted.
 
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I think society is a lot more lonely at the moment..

If someone passes away and no one expecting them, then there's no one to sound the alarm.

My brother was living in a bedsit by himself, thank god he manage to get out into the street when he had his stoke else his remains could have been there for days or weeks, if no one was expecting to see him or receieve a call. and yes, I am partly to blame.

As a single person living on my own, If someone was to happen to me.. work may question where I was after a few days, my brother may pop round if I don't reply to enough of his calls/messages, the people that I see when I go jogging/gym/yoga may wonder where I am after a few weeks..

Another of brothers had to call the police to check up on his old friend as he didn't see him in the bookies nor the pub, thought he fell out with him for some reason and went round his house.. after a few days then he started to worry and sadly; Pat did pass away alone in his sleep.

But sadly there's some people that don't have the life structure or support network to check up on them.
 
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