Where have all the social workers gone

Of course, every tragedy requires lessons to be learned. However small that tragedy is in the scale of human suffering it is huge for the individuals concerned.

But when the dust has settled, people sacked and lessons learned following the investigation into the murder (for that is surely what it was) of baby P in Harringey there will be fewer people willing to bear the responsibility of predicting when a parent will kill their child. At the moment 30,000 children are under the protection of Social Services departments. No doubt there are more children at risk who have been missed.

But when the current media hysteria moves on to the next object of public hate and fewer children are protected by fewer social workers then will The Sun, The Mail and the rest share the blame for the next, inevitable, tragedy?

And one thing continues to puzzle me. The figures seem to vary a bit, but my understanding is that somewhere in the order of six children are killed by parents each month. Yet the media have ignored these tragedies for their single fixation.