Today's Radio 4 programme The Reunion focussed on the Victoria Climbie Enquiry. It was good to be reminded 17 years later of the harrowing story of this child's 10 months in London that led to her death. As Lord Laming said, "there were failures at every level of every organisation". Most of the discussion on the programme was thoughtful and helpful. However, as usual the discussion focused towards the end on making sure this doesn't happen again and there was passing reference to Peter Connolly. The Panel were asked if social work is better now at protecting children. There was a naive optimism in the Panel. Laming talked about meeting some inspirational social workers.

Although I agree on that point, the day after local government elections and heading towards a likely Tory victory in June, it is clear that many of the aspects that allowed agencies to fail Victoria are worse than ever. Social workers are amazing but are working under immense pressure with decreasing resources. Schools are left with monitoring families who 17 years ago would have been allocated to social workers. Bureaucracy and form filling takes even more social work time. With more rounds of local government cuts ahead, addressing child protection effectively will take more than inspirational social workers.