Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died in the most horrific of circumstances at the hands of the two people who were suppose to be caring for him- not at the hands of social workers!

The headlines this morning read: 

"Did they learn nothing from Baby P?; inept authorities" -The Sun

"Why didn't they save Arthur" - Daily Mail

How can social workers give children the support they need if they do not have the funding and resources to do so!

I have worked in frontline child protection and it is not a desirable or particularly healthy environment for anyone to work in.  

Social workers spend less than one third of their time actually working with the vulnerable children and families they are assigned to. The rest is spent on bureaucracy.

Imagine we had enough funding to recruit more social workers to lower caseloads and implement all the early intervention, family therapy and adversity support needed to really assist these families. Instead we suffer burn out, stress and basically tread water to give all of our cases the bare minimum needed.

Local authority social workers pay has fallen by a fifth since 2009.

Rishi Sunak's spending review pledged an extra 1 billion for social care yet this comes after 10 years of austerity and is a drop in the ocean, social workers pay remains frozen and approximately 4000 leave the profession every year. NHS workers deserve all their recognition for providing vital services at this difficult time but ALL public sector workers should be recognised.

I am asking the government to sit up and recognise how desperate frontline social services are and to provide the necessary funding to give children and families the help they need. 

I am so sorry this has come too late for Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. This beautiful boy has been let down but now we need to help the other young children at risk of such horrendous treatment. 

Please sign and get the government to open their eyes to make this change happen.