Vulnerable children should be priority number one

November 17th, 2009

As if we needed a reminder, the horror of drug dependency and the shocking impact it has on children was all too apparent this week.

A report into child protection in Aberdeen yet again showed up the inadequacies of the system and made disturbing reading.

The consequences of failing to protect vulnerable children have been appallingly spelled out for us with the horribly impersonal label ‘Baby P’ now burned in our memories along with the names of the other children who have been failed by the system.

What is more depressing is the scale of the problem. The children highlighted may be just the tip of the iceberg and it raises a number of worrying questions.

If we can’t manage the children who have already been identified as ‘at-risk’, how can we be sure that those ones who have not appeared on the radar are going to be supported?

And if children’s services budgets are being cut at a time of increased demand for those services, how can we guarantee the safety of our most vulnerable children?

The needs of the children rather than the adults must be our first priority – even if it does mean taking children into care.

No one is advocating spiriting children away from their parents in the middle of the night and as we know, state care isn’t always associated with being best care.

But places of safety need to be provided in greater numbers through fostering and kinship care in order to meet the demand of children who can no longer live at home safety.

We need to get serious about the very serious risk that our most vulnerable children face.

Of course it will cost money and a lot of money at that.

But I for one would rather that society as whole shouldered the burden rather than innocent children paying the price.