We need to change system to protect our vulnerable children

CAN systems change?

When you read the report written by Geoffrey Shannon and Norah Gibbons about the deaths of children entrusted to the care of the State, you have to hope they can.

Children died because a system existed that simply had no room for their individual needs. They died because agencies and organisations within the system — and people — weren’t able or willing to work with each other. They died because the system and its people had different views about what constituted good practice, or even basic practice. They died because the system, and its leaders, were simply not accountable.