Thread by @MartinBarrow

Josh MacAlister has publicly criticised child protection social workers for being overreaching and intrusive, institutionally biased against families.

His #carereview wants to halt the "runaway train" of child protection, which he blames for taking too many children and young people into care.

This is a huge call for a review which has been in place for just three months and is thinly staffed. But the direction of travel is clear. Social workers should back off.

For me, the danger of this rush to judgment could not be clearer. I know enough about child protection to understand that the biggest risk to children currently is that many are left in harm's way on the edge of care, or are not known to social workers at all.

I also know enough about how this works to have anticipated this #carereview outcome from the current series of Sunday Times articles.

Hell knows what frontline social workers are meant to make of this. I fear that hundreds of cases involving children at risk will now be filed under "too difficult."

Externally, so much importance is attached to the legacy and impact of Baby P, because the number of child protection cases has risen since then.

But this is to ignore the profound changes in society which have taken place since then. Those who point to Baby P assume everything else has stood still.

Ask any experienced foster carer. The children we care for now have suffered harm and experienced deep trauma that was rare a decade ago.

There's a political juggernaut that aims to undermine confidence in professionals and experts in public service. Not just social workers but also GPs, teachers and judges, for example. It is hard to compete.

When it comes to child protection, shifting the blame to social workers for what has happened over the past 10 years is as low as it gets.

This needs to be marked as a critical moment, coming just as we begin to understand and address the impact of lockdown.

I know a small number of social workers who have left their roles because they could not bear to walk away from children who needed their help. I don't know if they are typical, but I suspect there are many more.

Longer thread than I ever intended, but I find this particular proposal deeply troubling. Keep experienced professionals at bay, get the neighbours to step up.

Not how I intended to spend early Sunday a.m. But I read this article last thing last night and it has kept me awake for much of the night.