Two young people

Victoria Climbié, an eight-year-old child from the Ivory Coast, lived in temporary accommodation with her great aunt and the aunt's boyfriend. After admission to hospital for suspected non-accidental injuries, Victoria was referred to social services but discharged to her aunt's care after two weeks. In the course of 11 months, Victoria became known to a further three social services departments, three housing authorities, two police child protection teams, a specialist centre managed by the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) and was admitted to hospital again for medical problems associated with suspected deliberate harm. She was observed by several people, lay and professional, to be fearful and ill at ease with her ‘carers’, who adopted an authoritarian and punitive attitude towards her. Shortly after a third hospital admission, Victoria died of hypothermia in circumstances described by the pathologist as the worst case of deliberate harm to a child that he had ever seen. There were 128 separate injuries to her body.

Lela, a 12-year-old West African child, lived with her aunt and partner on a temporary residence order, having entered the country illegally with the aunt two years previously. Previous child protection investigations of neglect and physical punishment had been inconclusive, with Lela strongly hinting at, and then retracting, allegations. One day Lela asked a teacher if she could speak to someone in confidence about her feelings. A worker from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) agreed to see her at school.