The Abuses Faced by Children in the United Kingdom Essay

The Abuses Faced by Children in the United Kingdom - Essay ExampleThis research will begin with the statement that the story of capital of Seychelles Climbie may simply be seen as the story of two cruel adults, one innocent child, and a breach of trust of savage, unimaginable proportions. Entrusted by her parents in the Ivory Coast to her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao so that she could be given a better life in the United Kingdom, little Victoria sooner found herself in the hands of sadists --- Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning. When she died on 25 February 2000, she had 128 separate injuries on her body, cigarette burns, scars where she had been hit by a bike chain and mold blows to her toes. The investigation also disclosed that she was forced to sleep in the bin liner in the bath. And yet, it is also the story of institutions that have failed our children, a bureaucracy that has omit the most vulnerable members of our society, and individual officials whose individual omiss ions have resulted in collective negligence. In the hearings subsequent to the death of Victoria Climbie, it was discovered that she was seen by dozens of affectionate workers, medical practitioners, and police officers but all of them failed to either detect signs of abuse or failed to act on them until it was too late. The inquiry revealed that there were as many an(prenominal) as 12 opportunities were the authorities could have intervened but failed to. For example, when Dr. Mary Schwartz, a pediatrician, looked at Climbies cuts wounds, she dismissed it as scabies and sent her back plaza to her abusers.Police officer Karen Jones refused to inspect the home of the Kouao and Manning, where Climbie lived, because she was afraid she would catch scabies from the furniture. Bickering and backstabbing the child protection service in the Haringey area had also contributed to the misery to provide immediate and adequate answer to the abuse. Despite a major tell-tale sign, i.e., Victo ria was not enrolled in school, which is one of the indicators that an abuse could be taking place, amicable workers took the word of Manning and Kouao at face value and did not probe any further. Though Victorias abusers were eventually sent to jail and sentenced to life imprisonment, the arduous questions still remain. How could this kind of abuse so horrible and grotesque to a child of tender years have gone undetected? Is the system so decrepit, so shot full of holes that despite many warning signs and many opportunities to save Victorias life, she still ended up battered and dead, with 128 injuries on her frail body? And perhaps the most troubling question of all could this happen again? Dare we allow this to happen again? In response to the widespread shock and indignation resulting from the completely avoidable death of the eight-year-old child, an inquiry was conducted, headed by Lord Laming, who called the Victoria Climbie affair the worse case of neglect (he) has fore ver heard of. Notably, Laming found that the legislative framework was intrinsically sound,, the problem was mainly one of implementation. Health secretary Alan Milburn said, Victorias death was a tragedy. It is vital that all agencies dealing with children learn the lesson from this terrible case. The Laming report came up with several recommendations, including the following (Batty, 2003) The creation of a children and families board chaired by a senior government minister to devise policies and initiatives that have a bearing on the wellbeing of children and families. A national agency for children and families, led by a childrens commissioner, should be established to construe local services meet national standards for child protection and implement reforms. Committees for children and families should be established by councils, with members drawn from social services, education, housing, the NHS and the police. New local prudence boards chaired by council chief executi ves with members from the police, health, social services,