THE state found itself in the dock alongside three young robbers at Sheffield Crown Court. For the judge in the case rightly condemned the care system as a 'poor parent' which simply replaced the defendants' dysfunctional families with an incompetent one.
The criminal careers of all three escalated while they were in care to the extent that once they were set out to fend for themselves in the world, they became a menace to other young people in the city, carrying out a total of 14 robberies, all of th
em perpetrated in highly public locations.
At a time when the media spotlight is shining with intensity on social services following the death of Baby P, we have on our doorstep yet another example of the failure of the care system into which society entrusts vulnerable and troubled children.
In the same way that a post mortem is delving ever deeper into the failures of Haringay Council in London, which so tragically leet down a baby in its care, we ought to be told what went wrong in the case of these three youths - and what is being done to ensure that the city's own system is taught how to be a good parent.
Organisation should question existenceTHE sound of the Burngreave stable door slamming is echoing in the wake of an escaping horse as the area's regeneration agency, New Deal for Communities, puts in place procedures to ensure it is better managed.
This comes after a string of failures and flops, extravagances and exaggerations over its performance in spending millions of pounds of public money.
No matter how its progress is portrayed, there is insufficient to show the money has been spent wisely so far or that its achievements are sustainable.
Rather than reorganise, which is actually implementing management protocols which the city council should have insisted on from the outset, BNDfC should be asking searching questions, not least whether it can justifiably continue in any form, let alone as a discredited organisation which is playing catch-up at a time when it ought to be displaying real achievements.
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FeaturesMore Rotherham newsMore Doncaster newsMore Barnsley newsCheck out the very latest on South Yorkshire's roads - including live traffic cameras on Sheffield's commuter routes - with our Traffic sectionLatest sport. The full article contains 405 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
