Saturday 14 June 2008

Chutzpah - Modern UK Definition

The incompetent social worker sacked for failing to do her job in the Victoria Climbie case has had the cheek to complain about her treatment, now that the Care Standards Tribunal has decided that screwing up so badly that a child died in a freezing bathtub with 128 injuries is really no bar to social work:
The Care Standards Tribunal said it will allow Ms Arthurworrey to re-register pending an assessment of her mental health. It says her state of health has been affected by what she has been through.

Ms Arthurworrey says she was made a scapegoat by senior management at north London's Haringey Council.
In one sense, that's true - others up the chain of command should have been sacked too. But she was directly responsible for Victoria's welfare as her caseworker.
Ms Arthurworrey told the BBC: "This is probably the worst case of institutionalised scapegoating this country has ever seen.

"I'm now in this position where I'm expected to take responsibility for my team manager, the commissioning manager, the director of Haringey Council - a useful scapegoat for all.

"There were failings in Victoria's case. That's where my inexperience in child protection let me down."
I guess she'd have gone for 'institutionalised racism' if she could have gotten away with it. As she can't, she'll just have to invent a new phrase. But she isn't finished with the self-pity ditty just yet:
"It has destroyed my life and I've experienced great problems because of who I am."
It's destroyed her life...? Pardon me, but it's little Victoria that is actually dead. Her life was destroyed, and not metaphorically either...
"I don't actually believe that people understand the failings that were made in Victoria's case.

"I see Victoria as a child who lost her life prematurely, unnecessarily, at the hands of the people who murdered her, but alongside a system that was flawed and unable to protect her."
People understand the failings all too well. It was people, after all, not the so-called 'experts', that raised the alarm. People like her childminder, Priscilla Cameron, and the taxi driver Salman Pinarbasi, who could see with their untrained eyes what the 'experts' apparantly could not, for all their training.

If the system was flawed, it was because it was owned and operated by utter incompetents like Lisa Arthurworrey with her politically-correct training, and not by people like Ms Cameron and Mr Pinarbasi, with their common sense and humanity.

12 comments:

Will Williams said...

The system will stay as it was if those running it are not held responsible. She really is a a scapegoat

Anonymous said...

Except, she was one of the ones running it!

She was the caseworker - she didn't do her job. That others further up the chain failed to realise she was incompetent does not take away the fact.

Anonymous said...

Years ago, a friend of mine was hired by an Education College to assess the College's admission procedure for applicants for Social Work training. He reported to the Governors that their staff seemed to be admitting students who were themselves psychologically damaged, while rejecting the obviously sane, competent and well-prepared. The Governors sat on the report.

Anonymous said...

Another dreary and predictable diatribe full of the usual Julia M should's and should-not's.

Tell me, when you dare, what contribution do you make through your work to the betterment of others ?

TT

Anonymous said...

Tell me, when you dare, what contribution do you make through your work to the betterment of others ?

And what betterment did Ms Arthurworrey make to the betterment of others.
better off dead?
Better off allowing a bit of slavery in the name of 'racial harmony' and 'cultural differences'

This 'Its better to try and help and fail, than not try at all' is bollocks.
All jobs require a level of competence whether they are in the public/private/charity/medical of transport etc etc

This sickening 'I care..therefore I'm a better person' is just nonsense.

Its best to appoint people who can do the job.End Of.

Anonymous said...

"Another dreary and predictable diatribe..."

Feel free to stop coming by then, Total Twat. After all, it's not as if you add anything, other than a chance for everyone to have a laugh at your expense...

"...what betterment did Ms Arthurworrey make to the betterment of others..."

Oh, I expect she ticked a box somewhere on a list of vital 'indicators' for someone. That's all. The fact that she was useless in her job? Well, can't have everything...

Anonymous said...

If you write on here then expect to have your dodgy opinions questioned.

You're the one that pontificates about personal responsibility.

Blogs like yours add nothing to making anything in our country any better. All you ever do is have a cheap laugh and a poke fun at others. Its your right after all. You live in London. You are part of the chattering classes.

So I return this compliment to you and oh, what a rich vein of stupidity. and emptyheaded-ness I encounter every day.

I don't how many times I've asked you tell us all, what you actually do to support your ideas. I suspect, very little. Very little indeed.

TT

Anonymous said...

"If you write on here then expect to have your dodgy opinions questioned."

But you don't question them, Total Twat. You just make a ... well, total twat of yourself in the comments!

And who decides if an opinion is 'dodgy'. You...? Your NuLab fellow travellers..?

"Blogs like yours add nothing to making anything in our country any better."

Au contraire, my little dimwit. They expose the people like you who can't resist popping up to show their shallowness of thinking and urge to control any dissenting voices. It's like flies to honey. You do it so well... ;)

"oh, what a rich vein of stupidity. and emptyheaded-ness I encounter every day."

That mirror you have? Stop looking in it, tbh...

patently said...

Yes, Julia, she was the caseworker, but it is possible for those in authority to make it (literally) impossible to do one's job. Purely as an extreme example, if she was made the caseworker for more children than could physically be visited in a year, then there is no way she could discharge her responsibilities and no way that she should be held responsible.

I doubt that happened, but it illustrates one end of a spectrum. Somewhere along that spectrum she becomes less to blame.

Now, we don't know where on that spectrum she lay because we haven't seen the evidence. The Care Standards Tribunal has, and ha decided. If their decision is illogical then they can and should be criticised, but that requires an investigation of the evidence beyond just "Victoria died".

Anonymous said...

"...we don't know where on that spectrum she lay because we haven't seen the evidence."

The Climbie Enquiry did though. It found her to be at fault on 44 seperate issues.

I'm not too sympathetic to the 'But Miss, the other kids are worse than me...!' excuse.

Yes, others should have been disciplined or sacked, no doubt, but for this self-serving woman to launch a PR campaign (because that's what it is - see the article in the weekend 'Mail' for an example) to 'rehabilitate' her life while her lack of action abetted a child's murder is narcissitic behaviour of the worst kind.

Anonymous said...

Whoops! Sorry, meant to include the link.

Anonymous said...

Scapegoat or not - she didn't do her job well and no amount of excuse can bring the tortured to death Victoria back! I hope that she has to answer to God one day and be meted out similar punishment as the little girl suffered at hands of the most ghastly creatures