whistleblower breaks her silence

Haringey Social Services have been criticised for failing to protect Baby P. Two baby boys are stabbed to death in Manchester by their mentally unstable mother, despite Social Services intervention. Aberdeen City Council are roundly criticised in a Scottish Office report for “failing to protect vulnerable children”. Little Shannon Matthews was taken into foster care following a false kidnapping and imprisonment, instigated by her own mum.

In the wake of such tragedies, it is easy to finger-point and apportion blame. Everyone does it, because no-one is willing to accept responsibility.

Karen Matthews was “a good mother” until she met Craig Meehan, we are told. Ms Shoesmith has adamantly stated that she will not be resigning over the Baby P affair, and neither will any of her staff. Social workers monitoring Ms Mullings decided she was capable of caring for her children (despite abandoning one of them at Manchester’s A&E) and closed the file. The McCanns left three under-fours alone in an isolated apartment, but the subsequent and continued disappearance of one of them is, apparently, the fault of the PJ and the lack of an Amber Alert.

At what point, exactly, did it become the “done thing” to waive all responsibility for our own actions? And at what point does the buck-passing stop?

Watch a small child caught red-handed, doing something naughty. “I didn’t do it!; she did it!; it’s somebody else’s fault!” Responsible parents teach their children to own up to their own behaviour – so why can’t grown adults accept culpability? It’s supposed to be learned behaviour, after all; like standing in orderly queues, or saying please and thank you. (Unless, of course, the adult in question was never taught the meanings and consequences of rights and responsibilities in the first place, in which case the parents are 100% responsible IMHO).

We live in a society that has increasingly, over the years, shifted away from the ideals of social responsibility, to the concept of people’s “rights”. We now have the spectre of obese people suing McDonalds because the burgers made them fat, although no-one actually forced them to eat there; the husband who has affairs because his wife doesn’t satisfy him; the spendaholics who are tens of thousands in debt because the bank keeps giving them credit cards.

Society is imploding, because no-one is responsible anymore. But to abdicate all responsibility, relegates us to the role of “victim”. And that serves no-one, least of all the victim, because it’s the quickest way to guarantee an unhappy und unfulfilled life.

Time to own up, claim responsibility, apologise and rectify our mistakes, and move on. If you are someone who wants more control in your life, then taking responsibility for yourself is a great step in the right direction. That’s what grown-ups do.

For Kate McCann, Ms Shoesmith, Manchester Social Services, Aberdeen Council, and Karen Matthews. Get a grip. Take control, take responsibility. Answer the questions. The truth will set you free.

Brilliant post!! Absolutely spot on!!

eddie wrote:Brilliant post!! Absolutely spot on!!

Viv wrote it!

pm wrote:

eddie wrote:Brilliant post!! Absolutely spot on!!

Viv wrote it!

Well it is good anyway!! Tell Viv well done

:Super:

Shoesmith should be kicked out

pm wrote:

eddie wrote:Brilliant post!! Absolutely spot on!!

Viv wrote it!

Viv is spot on with this.

Allstar wrote:Shoesmith should be kicked out

She should be put in prison with alot of the others covering it up

Whistleblower Nevres Kemal


This morning it was revealed that more than 60 local headteachers have written a joint letter in support of Sharon Shoesmith, the director of Haringey's Children and Young People's Service.

Ms Shoesmith has come under increasing pressure to resign this week from her position after the death of Baby P.

Her position was not helped by the revelation that a whistleblower wrote to the Government six months before the infant was killed, warning of concerns about the area's child protection services.

Former social worker Nevres Kemal claimed on February 16 last year that Haringey had failed to act on unconnected allegations of child sexual abuse.

Ms Kemal's lawyer said her complaint was "pushed from pillar to post" - suggesting Baby P's death might have been averted if it had been acted on.

Conservative leader David Cameron weighed into the issue, saying everyone appeared to be insisting procedures were followed rather than asking who was responsible and why they did not act.

Speaking during a trip to New York, Gordon Brown pledged to do "everything in my power" to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

He said: "I am determined that everything we do, the inquiries we are having in this case, reveal everything that went on.

"But I am absolutely sure that, like me, every parent in the country is outraged and shocked by what has happened and angered about what happened to that infant."

Haringey Council is the same local authority heavily criticised for failing to prevent the murder of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000.

[squote="Allstar"]Shoesmith should be kicked out [/quote]....she should be kicked out,charged with failure to recognise her duty of care to vulnerable children and her pension rights stopped.

THE brave whistleblower social services chiefs tried to gag today breaks her silence to reveal the shocking catalogue of blunders that led to Baby P’s death.

Nevres Kemal is the experienced social worker who was so horrified at Haringey Council’s shambolic child protection department she wrote to ministers to warn of an imminent catastrophe.

Nevres, 44, exposes how staff were taken on “team-building” jaunts to Barcelona and Dublin and blew £1,600 on tea parties at the Ritz. Back in their office, urgent files were piled high and ignored. Children like Baby P who needed the department’s protection were shamefully let down.

She reveals she warned children’s services chief Sharon Shoesmith she would have “blood on her hands” if urgent action wasn’t taken.

But instead of her concerns being taken up and acted upon, Nevres ended up bullied, ostracised and drummed out of her job. She then had to agree to an injunction by Haringey Council in a bid to keep her silent.

Six months after her fateful warning to ministers, 17-month-old Baby P was dead.

She said yesterday: “They tried to gag me but I don’t care. I knew something like Baby P would happen. It was just a matter of time. I need to speak out now for the children who still need care.”

Mum-of-one Nevres worked at Haringey Social Services from August 23, 2004 to March 19, 2007.

In that time she saw case files mysteriously vanish and vulnerable children left in danger as staff bickered among themselves, more concerned with freebies and love affairs.

A dedicated childcare professional, Nevres says her card was marked after she spurned advances from a lesbian co-worker.

“There was a clique,” she said. “The problem was that they thought I would join their club and I wouldn’t.” Soon she was part of a three-person team handling dozens of cases along with a social worker newly arrived in the UK and one straight from college.

She quickly realised the system was riddled with errors, with staff over-stretched – in stark contrast to the picture painted by under-fire Ms Shoesmith, who produced graphs and statistics at a media briefing to demonstrate her department’s supposed “three-star” performance.

Nevres said: “I used to walk in after lunch and there would be piles of cases on my desk. Whatever cases came up when you were on duty would be yours – there would be 10 or 20.

“Because we were short there were a lot of people working from agencies earning over £1,000-a-week but there was an attitude of ‘I don’t care’.”

Staff appeared more concerned with jaunts and the visit to the Ritz, just miles from Baby P’s home, but a world apart from his life of pain and squalor.

Nevres said: “Money was spent in ridiculous ways. I was refused money to buy boots for a football team I had set up but they spent hundreds of pounds at the Ritz. They were there having tea and cakes while all this was going on – it was absurd.”

Today, Nevres reveals a catalogue of errors to the Sunday Mirror and exposes other shameful cases of needy children failed by Haringey, where procedures were supposed to have been tightened after the scandalous death of little Victoria Climbie in 2000.

CASE A: THE SEVEN ABUSED CHILDREN

A family of seven children aged three to 16 were left to be physically and sexually abused for nine months before social services stepped in, despite Haringey social services being aware what was happening.

Child protection managers failed to have five of them checked by doctors.

Three months in to the case, Nevres was summoned to a secret meeting and told to take over. She said: “I was stunned to see no interviews had been carried out with the children. No one had asked them what had happened. I was looking through thinking ‘Where are the medicals?’ – medicals are fundamental in a case like this. Simply, no one had bothered. You need medicals first to assess the health of the child and also forensic evidence for possible prosecution.

“I emailed my managers thinking, ‘We’ve got to sort this out.’ But when I asked a lead nurse he said, ‘Oh no, not again. Can we not sort this mess out? This can’t go on.’ He threatened to take the matter to the ACPC – a child safeguarding board.

“By this stage I was starting to panic. I tried to get hold of the children’s doctor and she said, ‘I’m too busy.’ I had a letter from the hospital saying, ‘I’m sorry, we made an error.’ It was all bull****.”

CASE B: LITTLE VICTIM IGNORED

A little girl told her teacher she had been hit at home. The head called the parents and social services. The head had a meeting with the parents to tell them of the allegations. Nevres said: “This was an astounding case of bad practice. Of simply ignoring a child.

“After the parents met the head, the girl went home and retracted the allegation in a letter the following day. To my shock social services simply closed the case. The attitude was: ‘The kid’s retracted it. That’s all right. Next.’ I remember thinking, ‘It’s like Victoria Climbie all over again.’

CASE C: THE TEEN WITH LICE

A teenage girl known to Haringey for years went off the rails after her case was dropped. She was found pregnant, and suffering from headlice.

Health assistants refused to deal with her because of the lice.

Nevres said: “I was told: ‘Sort it out because no one wants to go near her. Go down there and do a pregnancy test.’

“Health professionals refused to see her because it was lice so it was ‘against their rights’ apparently. When I saw her the lice were running down her face. I cut her hair and asked her to sign a form saying she agreed to it. I took her to the hospital. She ran off and I had a call saying she’d complained I cut her hair. Instead of supporting me my managers put me in front of a disciplinary board.

CASE D: THE PAEDOPHILE SUSPECT

A man was arrested on suspicion of physically and sexually attacking his step-child. When he was released, he went back home and it happened again. And again. Nevres said: “He was just told, ‘Don’t go home. Don’t see the child.’

“Do you think somebody who does that to a child really cares if he is not sticking to what social services or the police tell him? It’s unbelievable.

“It was all about ticking boxes on forms, clearing things up. Not actually using common sense to sort something out.”

Nevres went on: “Some managers were truly wicked. I remember thinking, ‘It’s like Victoria Climbie all over again.’

“I was told by a manager, ‘Every time you raise you head above the parapet I get shot. For God’s sake, woman.’

“It was in everyone’s interests for me to keep quiet.

“I said to one manager, ‘Am I going to have to jump off the building? What is it going to take before someone listens to what’s going on in Haringey?’”

Eventually Nevres was taken in to see £100,000-a-year executive Ms Shoesmith. For an hour and-a-half she laid bare details of neglect and abuse ignored by social workers. She said: “I told Sharon Shoesmith what was happening but she said, ‘You don’t know what’s going on.’

“I said, ‘It will be on your head. You will have blood on your hands, Sharon. You really don’t run things here.’

“She smiled and said, ‘Thank you.’ It got to the point where they sacked me.”

But even after losing her job, Nevres carried on trying to warn of the disaster in the making in Haringey.

Six months before Baby P died, she wrote to Patricia Hewitt, the then Health Secretary, and three other ministers to complain about the shambles there.

Her lawyer Lawrence Davies said: “It was a matter of being pushed from pillar to post. Nothing was done.”

She took Haringey to a tribunal. But as part of a settlement she agreed to sign a High Court gagging injunction.

Nevres said: “Why did nobody listen to my warnings? Why was nothing done? The Government and social services knew the problems but they sat back and let this happen. I don’t care if the council try to sue me for speaking out. I owe it to Baby P.”

Haringey Council would not comment last night. At the time of the hearing they described Nevre’s allegations as “spurious and incorrect”.

kate.mansey@sundaymirror.co.uk

MsTaken wrote:THE brave whistleblower social services chiefs tried to gag today breaks her silence to reveal the shocking catalogue of blunders that led to Baby P’s death.

Nevres Kemal is the experienced social worker who was so horrified at Haringey Council’s shambolic child protection department she wrote to ministers to warn of an imminent catastrophe.

Nevres, 44, exposes how staff were taken on “team-building” jaunts to Barcelona and Dublin and blew £1,600 on tea parties at the Ritz. Back in their office, urgent files were piled high and ignored. Children like Baby P who needed the department’s protection were shamefully let down.

She reveals she warned children’s services chief Sharon Shoesmith she would have “blood on her hands” if urgent action wasn’t taken.

But instead of her concerns being taken up and acted upon, Nevres ended up bullied, ostracised and drummed out of her job. She then had to agree to an injunction by Haringey Council in a bid to keep her silent.

Six months after her fateful warning to ministers, 17-month-old Baby P was dead.

She said yesterday: “They tried to gag me but I don’t care. I knew something like Baby P would happen. It was just a matter of time. I need to speak out now for the children who still need care.”

Mum-of-one Nevres worked at Haringey Social Services from August 23, 2004 to March 19, 2007.

In that time she saw case files mysteriously vanish and vulnerable children left in danger as staff bickered among themselves, more concerned with freebies and love affairs.

A dedicated childcare professional, Nevres says her card was marked after she spurned advances from a lesbian co-worker.

“There was a clique,” she said. “The problem was that they thought I would join their club and I wouldn’t.” Soon she was part of a three-person team handling dozens of cases along with a social worker newly arrived in the UK and one straight from college.

She quickly realised the system was riddled with errors, with staff over-stretched – in stark contrast to the picture painted by under-fire Ms Shoesmith, who produced graphs and statistics at a media briefing to demonstrate her department’s supposed “three-star” performance.

Nevres said: “I used to walk in after lunch and there would be piles of cases on my desk. Whatever cases came up when you were on duty would be yours – there would be 10 or 20.

“Because we were short there were a lot of people working from agencies earning over £1,000-a-week but there was an attitude of ‘I don’t care’.”

Staff appeared more concerned with jaunts and the visit to the Ritz, just miles from Baby P’s home, but a world apart from his life of pain and squalor.

Nevres said: “Money was spent in ridiculous ways. I was refused money to buy boots for a football team I had set up but they spent hundreds of pounds at the Ritz. They were there having tea and cakes while all this was going on – it was absurd.”

Today, Nevres reveals a catalogue of errors to the Sunday Mirror and exposes other shameful cases of needy children failed by Haringey, where procedures were supposed to have been tightened after the scandalous death of little Victoria Climbie in 2000.

Good for Nevres Kemal!!

She's my hero and my idol!!! If only more ppl had the courage she had and made a stink about this and all abuse cases then less children would be abused!

Now what about the neighbours? They had to hear the child screaming day and night? What about the childs father? Did he not see bruises on his child when he visited him?

It makes me sick that people ignore the signs to make life easier on themselves!

This is absolutely disgusting that they sacked the only person who showed she cared for the children!!!

Isnt that what they should all be doing in Haringey????????????

They should all go to prison!

The buck stops with shoesmith and haringey. end of