Legacy of a Lost Life
On the fifth anniversary of the death of Victoria Climbié, David Callaghan asks whether the new child protection landscape can truly prevent a repeat of such abuse.
If she had lived, Victoria Climbié would now be 13. She was only eight years old when she was murdered in one of the most shocking child abuse cases this country has ever seen. In the five years that have passed since she died of hypothermia and starvation, much has been said and done.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the day Victoria's miserable life ended. Had she lived, she could have grown into a teenager her parents were proud of, with a promising future ahead of her in this country.
She would have learned how to speak English in addition to her native French and probably made many friends here.
Instead, she suffered the most unimaginable cruelty by her great aunt and the woman's boyfriend who were both convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2001. She spent her last days shivering in a freezing bath wrapped in a black plastic bin liner. The case still shocks hardened professionals accustomed to dealing with grim histories of child neglect and abuse.
So is there any aspect of this case we haven't considered? We have had one of the largest public inquiries ever staged in this country with 10 months' worth of hearings and 150 witnesses. It culminated in Lord Laming's report two years ago which led to a green paper, Every Child Matters, and the Children Act of last year.
The act changed the way children's services are organised and introduced a children's commissioner, and we now have a minister to ensure children's interests are represented in Whitehall.
We know there has been a huge amount of consideration of how professionals could have prevented Victoria's death, and there is no doubt they were not only fully aware of her presence in this country but also able to take her out of danger.
Their failure to do so has been well documented and the new child protection landscape designed in the wake of her death is the government's attempt to ensure the same kind of catastrophic mistakes are not made again.
But all of this has to be tempered by the knowledge that the professionals involved did not show common sense and failed to do many obvious things which could have saved Victoria.
Lord Laming identified 12 missed opportunities, which included an assumption that when Marie-Therese Kouao did not turn up to a meeting, that she and Victoria must have moved back to France where they had been before coming to the UK.
If people fail to do their jobs and the social worker involved, Lisa Arthurworrey lost her claim for unfair dismissal to prove that, then will any system be good enough? Even with a database containing information on every child in this country, which was also in the Children Act, there is potential for tragic human errors. If the data is not stored properly and used effectively, it could lead to more disasters, and that is assuming the system bucks the trend of government IT projects and actually works.
There have been serious child abuse deaths since Victoria's. Lauren Wright and Ainlee Lebonte both died in appalling conditions amid failures by professionals who could have helped them.
No doubt, and it is frightening to think about it, more children will die and could even be suffering right now.
This proves that even though as a society we have taken a very close look at ourselves and made many changes to the way we try to protect our vulnerable children, we must not relent.
We cannot protect all children, that is true. But the need for us to keep examining the safeguards we have in place is always there, and if we don't respond then our mistakes will deprive other children of the chance to grow up.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the day Victoria's miserable life ended. Had she lived, she could have grown into a teenager her parents were proud of, with a promising future ahead of her in this country.
She would have learned how to speak English in addition to her native French and probably made many friends here.
Instead, she suffered the most unimaginable cruelty by her great aunt and the woman's boyfriend who were both convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2001. She spent her last days shivering in a freezing bath wrapped in a black plastic bin liner. The case still shocks hardened professionals accustomed to dealing with grim histories of child neglect and abuse.
So is there any aspect of this case we haven't considered? We have had one of the largest public inquiries ever staged in this country with 10 months' worth of hearings and 150 witnesses. It culminated in Lord Laming's report two years ago which led to a green paper, Every Child Matters, and the Children Act of last year.
The act changed the way children's services are organised and introduced a children's commissioner, and we now have a minister to ensure children's interests are represented in Whitehall.
We know there has been a huge amount of consideration of how professionals could have prevented Victoria's death, and there is no doubt they were not only fully aware of her presence in this country but also able to take her out of danger.
Their failure to do so has been well documented and the new child protection landscape designed in the wake of her death is the government's attempt to ensure the same kind of catastrophic mistakes are not made again.
But all of this has to be tempered by the knowledge that the professionals involved did not show common sense and failed to do many obvious things which could have saved Victoria.
Lord Laming identified 12 missed opportunities, which included an assumption that when Marie-Therese Kouao did not turn up to a meeting, that she and Victoria must have moved back to France where they had been before coming to the UK.
If people fail to do their jobs and the social worker involved, Lisa Arthurworrey lost her claim for unfair dismissal to prove that, then will any system be good enough? Even with a database containing information on every child in this country, which was also in the Children Act, there is potential for tragic human errors. If the data is not stored properly and used effectively, it could lead to more disasters, and that is assuming the system bucks the trend of government IT projects and actually works.
There have been serious child abuse deaths since Victoria's. Lauren Wright and Ainlee Lebonte both died in appalling conditions amid failures by professionals who could have helped them.
No doubt, and it is frightening to think about it, more children will die and could even be suffering right now.
This proves that even though as a society we have taken a very close look at ourselves and made many changes to the way we try to protect our vulnerable children, we must not relent.
We cannot protect all children, that is true. But the need for us to keep examining the safeguards we have in place is always there, and if we don't respond then our mistakes will deprive other children of the chance to grow up.
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