Maria Colwell had been in care five years following a period of general neglect and low standards of attention and nearly all this time she had been brought up by her aunt. While Maria was living with her aunt, her mother remarried and had children. In 1971, East Sussex County Council agreed on a plan of re-habitation, Maria’s mother’s application to discharge the care order and recommended that supervision order replaces it. After a refusing to return home to her mother, Maria was found 13 months later severely undernourished and with multiple bruises from the beatings from her stepfather. During that 13-month period, Maria had been visited by many health and welfare workers who had failed to spot the signs of abuse and neglect. As a result, in the enquiry aid, it helped support by media reports especially in the papers which gained the attention of the public. This lead to the social work profession being viewed as too soft and easy-going. Following this the gentler family approach to child neglect which had been prominent since 1948 was called into question; in the new era, child protection was to become public …show more content…
Jasmine died in July 1984, aged 4 after being beaten by her step-father. Her step-father had previously received a suspended sentence for child abuse. During this time, Jasmine and her sister had been in the care of the Brent Borough Council and lived with foster carers for six months. They would then return home on trial basis to their parents. The enquiry report gave 68 recommendations its main concerns being social workers were overoptimistic regarding the families they were working with, the report also stressed that too much emphasis was put on the rehabilitation of Jasmine and her sister. In this respect evidence to suggest the likelihood of further abuse was ignored. This enquiry immediacy and impact on policy and practice with new draft guidelines setting out recommendations for improving inter-professional coordination in child abuse work they also went on to change the term child abuse to child protection. Social services were also given the responsibility for the coordinating a child protection register. Which then changed the focus of social services to protecting children and placing the rights and needs of the parent