The horrendous case of the father who raped and abused his daughters over 35 years almost defies belief,  yet it follows a steady trickle of other horrific cases – Victoria Climbie, Baby P, the Edlington brothers to name but some.   Every time there is desperate hand-wringing and a passionate pledge that this will never be allowed to happen again.    Yet it does, again and again.   Can it ever be prevented?

Not without a much more rigorous, and probably also more intrusive, framework of supervision.   Essential elements are that:

*  social work departments must be adequately resourced.   That means enough social workers (so that caseloads can be managed properly, not skimped), enough training (to deal with difficult and threatening situations), and enough funding (that is, substantially more than at present),

*  there must be clear and precise rules of conduct about how to deal with every type of contingency, even the worst cases.   That could include visiting the most intimidating families in pairs, and where necessary access was denied, calling in the police straightaway,

*  the most difficult and threatening cases should be dealt with by senior staff, or at least with constant reference to senior staff,

*  it should be understood that where these principles have been breached or broken down and an appalling tragedy results as in this latest case, those responsible – not just junior staff, but the managers and the safeguarding  children board -  should lose their jobs, not primarily as a punishment but rather as a signal that society will not tolerate culpable failure where it leads to such crippling of innocent lives.

Only if the resources are provided, the rules are rigorous and clear enough, and the sanctions against failure are powerful enough can we expect that terrible tragedies like this will be pre-empted.

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