Human casualties of an unequal society | @guardianletters

Steve Mort, head of the college exactly where Ann Maguire was fatally stabbed, rejected the use of metal detectors in schools. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Photographs

Polly Toynbee is correct that profiteering from residential childcare is at the excessive finish of outsourcing (Now troubled young children are an investment chance, 13 Might). It is also the at sharp finish of social inequalities.

Proportionately, twelve times more youngsters in the most disadvantaged 10% of little neighbourhoods are currently being looked after in care than in the most advantaged ten%. As social inequality in childhood is predicted to expand, this gap will increase also. Inequalities in kid safeguarding interventions are not just about parenting skills, just as well being inequalities are not just about life-style selections. Care-house earnings reflect the human casualties of an unequal society.
Paul Bywaters
Professor of social perform, Coventry University

• I am confident I can’t be the only a single who contrasted Norman Lamb’s response to the publicity of abuse in an Essex residential care property – when he suggested higher use of CCTV monitoring – with that of Steve Mort, head of Corpus Christi Catholic college in Leeds, where the fatal stabbing of Ann Maguire occurred, who rejected calls for metal detectors in schools (Report, 29 April).

Lamb, the minister for care and support, stressed there have been hazards in relying solely upon CCTV to guard towards abuses. He explained relying on this measure to develop a excellent culture and compassionate care could fail entirely.

However, the emphasis on both surveillance or believe in-primarily based approaches is important. Techniques based mostly on surveillance reinforce unhelpful electrical power differentials and are frequently applied when believe in has not been established or has broken down. Risk-free and compassionate spaces require to be co-created with mutual respect and cooperation (Steve Onyet, between other individuals, has written and spoken about this.) Psychologically wholesome environments support folks to turn into and give the very best they can. We have a selection.
Gillian Bowden
Clinical psychologist, Norfolk

Human casualties of an unequal society | @guardianletters