The deaths of Victoria Climbié and Baby P shook this country to its core. They exposed failures that should never have happened—and change was necessary.

But in trying to ensure this would never happen again, the system has shifted in a way that is now harming the very people it was meant to protect.

A system built on fear, not balance

Today, many parents are no longer raising their children with confidence—they are raising them under fear of being judged, reported, or misunderstood.

A child falls and gets a bruise.

A parent misses an appointment.

A family lives differently to what is considered “normal.”

And suddenly, that family can find themselves:

Questioned

Monitored

Investigated

Not because harm has been proven—but because risk is suspected.

The principle that “the child comes first” was meant to protect.

But in practice, it has too often meant:

The parent’s voice comes last.

When culture is misunderstood

For many families—especially from POC and working-class backgrounds—this fear runs even deeper.

What is normal in one home is questioned in another.

Sleeping arrangements

Family structures

Discipline styles

Cultural traditions

Instead of being understood, they are sometimes:

Misread

Reported

Treated as concerns

This creates a quiet but powerful message:

To be safe from scrutiny, you must parent like someone else.

And that comes at the cost of identity, dignity, and trust.

Growing up watched, not supported

For young people, especially in deprived areas, childhood itself has changed.

There was a time when young people could:

Gather outside

Socialise freely

Feel part of their community

Now, many describe a different reality:

Being moved on for standing in a group.

Being stopped and searched on the way home.

Being treated as a suspect before being seen as a child.

Through the use of stop and search, dispersal powers, and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, everyday behaviour has too often been treated as a problem to control rather than a life stage to support.

At the same time:

Youth clubs have closed

Safe spaces have disappeared

Support systems have been reduced

Support has gone down. Surveillance has gone up.

When safeguarding fails the child

The case of Child Q is something this country cannot ignore.

A 15-year-old girl.

In school.

A place she should have felt safe.

Instead, she was strip searched:

Without an appropriate adult

While on her period

With nothing found

This was not protection.

This was a failure—by every system that was meant to safeguard her.

And for many young people, especially Black children, this case confirmed a painful truth:

You are not always seen as someone to protect.

Sometimes, you are seen as someone to suspect.

Weapons are accessible—but safety is not

There is another reality communities are facing.

Knives and weapons—while intended for legitimate use—remain accessible through shops and online platforms, despite age restrictions.

At the same time, young people are:

Stopped and searched

Monitored in public spaces

Yet incidents still happen:

In broad daylight

In busy streets

Without immediate police presence

In many deprived areas, people describe:

Waiting for help

Calling for assistance

Being told someone will get back to them

Sometimes, hours later.

This creates a dangerous and painful contradiction:

Communities feel over-policed, but under-protected.

The role of media: shaping fear and division

The media has played a powerful role in shaping how society sees families.

After cases like Victoria Climbié and Baby P, headlines focused heavily on:

Blame

Shock

Outrage

But too often, this came at a cost.

Parents were portrayed as failures.

Communities were stereotyped.

Working-class families were judged.

POC families were misunderstood.

These narratives have filtered into:

Schools

Communities

Professional decision-making

Where some children are now:

Watched more closely

Judged more quickly

Treated differently from the start

What this has created

Across the country, a pattern has emerged:

Parents feel afraid to ask for help

Young people feel targeted instead of supported

Communities feel judged instead of understood

Trust has been broken.

And when trust is gone:

Families withdraw

Problems go unseen

Systems fail again—just in a different way

Final words: 

A system out of balance

The intention was to protect children.

But the outcome has been a system where:

Parental rights have been weakened

Young people have been over-policed and under-supported

POC and working-class communities have been disproportionately affected

Support services have been reduced while control has increased

Media narratives have fuelled division, stigma, and bias.  Communities are now living with the consequences of decisions made in response to past failures—while still being failed in the present.

What we are asking for

We are not asking for safeguarding to be weakened.

We are asking for it to be balanced.

A system that:

Protects children
Respects families
Understands culture
Supports communities
Acts fairly and proportionately without bias

Because protection should never come at the cost of:

Dignity

Trust

Or justice

We call on the Government to take the following actions:

1. Restore balance in safeguarding

Ensure interventions are evidence-based, proportionate, and not driven by fear alone

Reinforce the importance of parental voice and family context

2. Address racial and cultural bias

Mandatory cultural competence and anti-bias training across social services, education, and policing

Clear accountability where disproportionate treatment is identified

3. Reform policing practices

Urgent review of stop and search powers and their disproportionate use

Strengthen safeguards around searches involving children, ensuring dignity and protection at all times

4. Reinvest in youth services and prevention

Restore funding to youth clubs, community programmes, and early intervention services

Provide young people with safe spaces, mentorship, and opportunity

5. Ensure equal protection and response

Improve police response times and visibility in deprived areas

Address the imbalance where communities feel over-policed but under-protected

6. Review accessibility of weapons

Strengthen enforcement around age restrictions and online sales

Ensure that prevention focuses not only on enforcement, but on reducing harm and access

7. Promote responsible and balanced media narratives

Encourage reporting that avoids racial, cultural, and class-based stereotyping

Ensure systemic failures are not overshadowed by individual blame narratives, including effectively policing individuals encouraging Racism via social media on News platforms

8. Improve representation in Government

Parliament must better reflect the people it represents—in background, experience, and reality

We need decision-makers who:

Look like us

Understand our lived experiences

Have faced the same challenges many families face daily

This includes greater representation of:

Working-class communities

Ethnically diverse backgrounds

People with real-life experience of the systems they are shaping

 A fair system cannot be built by those disconnected from the realities of the people it serves.

9. Commit to improving quality of life for all.

Policies must prioritise the wellbeing of all communities, not just those who are well-financed or well-represented

Every individual—regardless of ethnicity or class—deserves:

Safety

Dignity

Opportunity

A fair chance at a good quality of life

Final words

This is not just about policy.

This is about people.

It is about rebuilding trust, restoring fairness, and creating a system that truly serves everyone—not just a select few.

Because a government should not only protect its people—

it should understand them, represent them, and stand with them.