Suffer little children?

Vernon Coaker, the Minister for Children, Schools and Families, has his work cut out unravelling the law after the New Labour knee-jerk Childcare Act 2006 gave another fright to people. Everything this government does is well-intentioned it seems, but with added doses of control freakery and self-preservation. In response to the two policewomen who found themselves entangled in New Labour legalisms, he repeats the mantra that they (the government) wish "to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children". If only that were so. I fear he left out the first three prerequisites - avoid being sued, cover up your mistakes and get as many people into the data net as possible.

In this particular case, it strikes me as being absurd that "interpretation" of the law is so badly handled. Did it never occur to these New Labour apparatchiks to ask simple questions like how would Ofsted interpret this law if implemented. Obviously not. Nobody spotted the glaring misjudgement of it all. To suggest that "reward" in such cases means something akin to running a childminder's outfit is plainly daft. And it is also plainly daft to suggest that uncles and aunts are any less likely to be a perverted danger to children than a work colleague that is "trusted implicitly". In fact, the opposite is statistically true.

Leanne Shepherd, one of the police officers, said, of the visit by an Ofsted inspector, "I was shocked when she told me I was breaking the law." Just like most other people in the country. But every New Labour law on social interaction needs to be gone over with a fine toothcomb. Leave nothing to chance. Control freakery gets the better of them everytime. Common sense goes out the window.

And children get to suffer in the long run!

Posted in: child protection,childminding,Vernon Coaker