Child protection

Either we don't protect children enough, or we leave them open to damaging abuse.

The Victoria Climbie inquiry has shown that whole armies of professionals were not able to prevent her torture and death. In the end it was neighbours who were the most effective, but even they could not prevent a terrible murder. Lord Laming's report now calls for a whole host of new measures to make professionals such as police, health workers and social workers better equipped in such cases.

But the opposite side of the coin is revealed by the appeal of Sally Clark. She was convicted of killing two of her own babies and yet now the Court of Appeal has quashed the conviction after new evidence has been brought to light. Imagine what it must have been like to be imprisoned for killing your own children and knowing you were innocent. Full marks to her friends and family for continuing their support. It is only their tenacity that has brought about eventual justice.

What these two cases reveal is that we can't get child protection right. Either we become a police state which is over zealous in our intrusion into family life, or we become too lax and allow vulnerable children to be abused.

The reason I put it like this is that I do not think that tightening professional procedure or changing the law will ever prevent these disasters. Of course, we must do all we can in this direction. The Government and the professions should implement all of Lord Laming's recommendations. But the law and professional codes of conduct will always remain very blunt instruments indeed for ensuring the safety of our children.

The trouble is that the sufferers in all this are families and children. The danger is that we become too intrusive in family life and that we become over protective of our children. To overprotect children is almost as bad as not protecting them enough.

One of our problems is that we imagine that legislation can take out all the risk in dealing with the problem of child abuse. We imagine that, if the law were sharp enough, we would not have such abuse. Or we imagine that, if social workers did their job properly, the problem would be solved.

My own view is that this is naive. Yes, we should do all we can to protect children, but we will never have a foolproof system. Children are exposed to risk and always will be.

Jesus said that whoever harms one of these little ones it would be better for him to have a millstone fastened round his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea. We must make the proper nurture of children our highest priority, but this can never be done in a risk-free way.

Michael Williams, Vicar of Bolton Parish Church