A system eroded by austerity has been further stretched by the pandemic. The tragic consequences are all too plain to see
Something is going badly wrong in children’s social care, a system scarred by the names of murdered children. The deaths of Victoria Climbié, Peter Connelly and Daniel Pelka over the past 20 years prompted round after round of inquiries, reviews and reforms. But still the list of dead children grows.
In recent days and weeks more small lost lives have been added to this grim toll: Logan Mwangi, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, Star Hobson, Kyrell Matthews and Hakeem Hussain. Three of those children, Arthur, Star and Logan, died during the pandemic. The descriptions of their lives and manner of their deaths are painful to read.
Polly Curtis is a former Guardian journalist and author of Behind Closed Doors: Why We Break Up Families and How to Mend Them
