Like minimum alcohol pricing will the idea spread throughout the UK?

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/comment/stuart-walton-care-plan-sees-dystopian-future-arriving-early-1-2922270

This already happens though – at birth you have visits arranged by a ‘care worker’ (I think that was the term) – someone from social services (I think) who comes to see how you’re doing and then IME after the first visit, assuming it’s clear you’re ok, you don’t see for 6 months (or like us, actually never see again).

IME, they’re so busy that these people will always work this way – eg identify quickly people who might be ‘problems’ and focus on them. Not necessarily always effective (according to my SiL who was a social worker and knew many cases of seemingly happy middle class families who were very good at hiding the fact that they were anything but happy families) but that’s the way it goes.

And of course there is no opt-out. Any attempt to evade the System is considered reason for further suspicion…

This already happens though – at birth you have visits arranged by a ‘care worker’ (I think that was the term) – someone from social services (I think) who comes to see how you’re doing and then IME after the first visit, assuming it’s clear you’re ok, you don’t see for 6 months (or like us, actually never see again).

Midwives are responsible for immediate post-natal care following a birth. The Midwives hand over to Health Visitors, who take responsibility for early assessment of the child, including any health or developmental concerns. They also cast an eye over the social circumstances of the parent or parents, with a view to helping them access any support they might require. Social Services may be asked to provide further support, or may have had an interest prior to the birth due to family circumstances or other social needs.

Yes, services are targeted at people who need them most, but unless there is some kind of blanket coverage, how can we work out who those people are?

Where’s our resident tin foil hat man when you need him, he’d have the answer.

You said that like we have only one tinfoil hat man!

I’m with clubber on this, we saw them a few times when our nipper arrived last year and that was it. There was a slight sense that we were being assesed but judging by the way we were very quickly left to our own devices they seemed pretty happy with what they saw.

I must say I’m torn on this, on the one hand there is something about a state employee judging my suitability as a parent that rankles but on the other hand whenever a child slips through the cracks and the worst hapens (Baby P) the Great British public and press scream ‘never again’ and call for heads to roll so I can understand why social services feel like they have to be proactive.

The only way for this to work is for everyone to get the mandatory few visits, otherwise the stigma of geting visited would make the job almost impossible.

An update (Daily Excess content)

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/402716/State-snoops-checking-out-new-parents

A conversation from the bed next to ours when we were having our daughter:

“Now, you’re going to look after this baby, aren’t you Mary?”

“Because you remember what happened to the last one, don’t you?”

Social Workers are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Parenting is like driving – mine is excellent, it’s everyone else who is rubbish. I’ve got no problem with the fact that various people kept an eye on us to start with, just to make sure we were reasonably responsible people to be given charge of a vulnerable little person.

And I still remember the feeling of leaving the hospital and thinking “Are they really just going to let us walk out of here with this baby?”