JUST four little words, but with huge significance. When a child has been killed or seriously injured at home, they are the answer to one of the first questions asked. “Known to social work,” the reports say. Well, there you have it.
Except, of course, you don’t. You don’t have an explanation. Those four words tell you almost nothing about the circumstances leading up to this terrible outcome.
After the fact, suddenly everyone’s a child protection expert. Every armchair social worker has the insight to determine which children are at greatest risk of harm, which adults are lying and which ones are telling the truth…
Read the rest of this column at thenational.scot
Published in The National on August 23 2019.
