Thread by @Harr_Ferguson

A thread on #StarHobson and Social Work and #ChildProtection

On one level the public response of horror at the nature of Star’s death & apparent failures by social workers, police and medics to protect her is understandable 1/

But at a deeper level the blame & vitriol towards social workers in particular – inc some being spat at on the street - is misguided & will only make it harder to keep children safe. Highly anxious, defensive workers & systems are not conducive to effective practice 2/

Star, like Arthur, was fatally abused during the early stages of the pandemic & the reality that Covid & social distancing has made child protection harder must be faced. The research evidence for this is here. birmingham.ac.uk/schools/social… 3/

And I also discuss the effects of Covid here: theguardian.com/commentisfree/… 4/

Other reasons the abuse of Star was missed are likely to include cuts in resources, staffing & management problems in Bradford children’s services, as shown by @patrickjbutler theguardian.com/society/2021/d… 5/

Then there is the tactical concealment of the abuse by Star’s mother and step-mother, their manipulation and the fear provoked by working with a self-described “number 1 psycho”, which results in workers’ levels of anxiety becoming unbearable 6/

My sense is that encounters between social workers & the parents went on within what I call a hostile relationship & research shows these make children’s safety immensely difficult to achieve tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… 7/

Good organisational support and emotionally attuned supervision is crucial to helping professionals understand what they experienced & perceived when they were with children & to become clearer about the risks, what they did & did not do to keep children safe 8/

Research has shown how all of these factors come together in complex ways that result in children becoming invisible in child prot work academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/4… Appreciating this complexity is crucial to understanding ch prot & a more compassionate view of SWs. End.