Don't blame social workers for the awful death of Liam Fee

Morning all. This week started with the unspeakably grim story about Liam Fee, the two-year old who died of a ruptured heart in 2014. He was abused by his mother and civil partner to such a degree that he had more than 30 injuries, including a fractured upper arm and thigh, which were inflicted on him over months and months of depravity. They were charged with murder on Tuesday.

The story naturally raised comparisons with the scandal of Baby P, Peter Connelly, the 17-month old who died in London in 2007 after similarly vile abuse. Then as now, the instinctive response of many people in my profession was: “Why was this allowed to happen?”. And from that question it is a very short journey to the condemnation of social services for failing to intervene.

I’ve recently become a father. My son was two months old yesterday. Parenthood adds a new dimension to the revulsion and horror such stories bring. But I couldn’t help feeling an older concern this week, at the swiftness with which we condemn social workers for not doing more.

Social workers have the hardest jobs of any public servants, or professionals, in Britain today. Caught between the worlds of criminal prosecution, education, and local administration, they do emotionally exhausting and usually thankless work, inviting public opprobrium whenever an awful case hits the news – but getting virtually no public plaudits for all the remarkable work they do saving and improving lives.

The desperate life and awful death of Liam Fee may strike some people as a tale of our times, and others as an indication of why social services aren’t doing a good enough job. The former may have some merit, but the latter doesn’t; and the sooner we stop blaming social workers for the depravity visited on some children in the confines of their appalling homes, the sooner we’ll actually be able to help these kids in a meaningful manner.

The other subject dominating the news is, of course, the EU referendum. Being The Independent, we’re trying to cover it in a grown up way with our daily series ‘The Big EU Question’. Today our man in Paris, John Lichfield, looks at what release from EU laws would mean for Britain. My sense is that while the result is too close to call, there is a growing sense of doom and desperation in camp Cameron.

The Prime Minister faces a huge challenge to his authority even if he wins. And it’s quite possible that even if denied victory in the referendum, Ukip and Nigel Farage will enjoy a surge in support. After all, losing the referendum on Scottish independence was the second best thing that ever happened to that party, who are now rampant in Westminster. There’s a clear lesson in all this, which is that referendums tend not to solve the problems they were intended to neutralise, and instead create new problems altogether.

Finally, today sees the return of one of the most popular features from the Saturday magazine in the old days of print: ‘Get the Picture’. I’m useless at these quizzes, but enjoy failing and then failing better at them. You can have a go yourself in our magazine section. I hope you enjoy that, and the rest of today’s edition. Happy Saturday.