Did it (would it) save *any* lives
The impression was that was what it was *supposed* to do, given Victoria Climbie was one of its initial justifications.
Let us just hope the *next* time someone gets the idea that some super-duper database is the answer the crisis de jour someone throws something (preferably something quite hard) at their head.
Let me write the *next* dead kid "Serious Case Review"
"There was a systemic failure by agencies to share information..."
"XXXX's death was preventable"
"Lessons have been learned"
And a few things that probably won't make it in.
"The social workers were more concerned about the effect a complaint would have on their career than weather the child was still alive."
"Making sure the paperwork looked right was *far* more important than actually checking on the well being of the child"
"Initial assessments are time consuming to do properly, although it is critical to deciding in how a case is handled. Still mostly no hard done."
"The threatening and aggressive behavior of the parents/relatives/family friends strongly suggested they had something to hide. But I was *really* scared of them."
I'm not sure what the definition of a "Serious Case Review" is given the average 7-10 deaths a week on the UK At-risk register. In principle shouldn't *all of them have one? I suspect it's along the line of "It made the TV news, we'd better look like we're doing something."
I won't mourn its passing. It *always* seemed to be more about a clean load for the NIR of the National ID card system and PNC II (fivein that the Police were to have access and record were to held till the "child" was 25).
Data bases don't save lives. Paid child protection and child welfare specialists doing their *job* should do that.
It seems to me that quite a few of them are not up to the task, and their managers are not up to the task of improving them, or getting rid of them.
Fail not so much for the DB, but the children who the *whole* system has systematically failed to the point of death, literally "Acceptable losses."