I’ve been a social worker – don’t be too quick to blame us for tragedies like Bronson Battersby

For 40 years, I was a social worker around Yorkshire, and am relieved to be semi-retired, in a part-time managerial role – because the job has never been as hard as it is today.

Like the rest of the country, I was shocked by the tragedy of Bronson Battersby, the toddler whose body was found in a Skegness flat next to that of his father Kenneth, who had died of a heart attack over Christmas, leaving his two-year-old, who was known to social services, to die of starvation.

It’s a dreadful thing to happen. In her grief, I notice that Bronson’s mother has blamed social services for the death of her son, which, I think, might be a normal human reaction. When a tragedy happens, people tend to lash out at social workers.