I completely agree (not for the first time) with John Bolch at Family Lore about the Baby P case. Of course anything councils can do to improve child protection systems must be done – it must be done regardless of the Baby P case. But the truth is that no system can ever guarantee that it will catch child murderers before they kill. To some people, that may seem a hopelessly defeatist, uncaring attitude: it’s not. I suspect those who insist we must ensure this never happens again have not thought sufficiently about the difficulty of protecting children to this extent.

What can be done, though, is to shift the culture away from one that protects parents and their rights, towards one that leans towards child protection. That’s the kind of cultural shift that inquiry after inquiry has called for (and by the way, I never think an inquiry is the answer to any problem) but that doesn’t happen because it’s actually an extremely radical demand. It doesn’t happen because, if we really had a child protection culture of the kind that would even approach making sure there are no more Baby Ps, there would be an outcry about how the rights of parents had been curtailed. Does anyone remember Dr. Marietta Higgs? What about the Orkney abuse scandal? If you’re serious about this, either you realise it’s just too easy and glib to shout your mouth off about the failings of local government, or you take a clear stand about whether they should always err on the side of taking care proceedings, or always err on the side of leaving children at home. Most armchair critics want it both ways.

That’s why I’m reluctant to join in with calls that “heads must roll”. In part, it’s also because (perhaps as a former central government official myself) I despise the instinct that wants officials to fall on their swords to protect politicians. Councils, like central government, are led by elected politicians, and they should take responsibility for systemic failures just as much as their officials do. In part it’s because I think we are irresponsible in the extreme in the way we simply attack and scapegoat social workers, who do a job much more difficult than the ones most of us do, and who are neither well paid nor glamorised for it. In my view, before anyone is tempted to criticise a social worker’s “failings”, they should reflect on why social workers are not paid what footballers, pop stars or investment bank employees are paid (were paid, maybe, in the case of the City), and what difference it might make if they were. Actually, I’m tempted to propose a special £100 addition to the council tax for anyone who wants to have a go at their local social workers.

Finally, I must mention the temptation to scapegoat the lawyers involved, as in this distastefully personalised Telegraph article which somehow manages to imply that singing in a choir is shameful negligence contributing to children’s deaths. Of course, some people may think that because I’m a lawyer, I’m always going to defend lawyers. Not really true, but not an accusation you can ever satisfactorily rebut, so I won’t bother trying. The actual recommendations about legal services contained in the serious case review are either minor and bureaucratic – about filing, timescales and recording – or else fit in with my concerns about resources – saying it’s important that newbie lawyers’ work is checked and that sufficiently experienced lawyers are recruited. East to say, that last one; more difficult to afford.

If anyone’s going to criticise the individual lawyer who advised there was insufficient evidence to take care proceedings, they need to explain in detail, referring closely to the facts and evidence, why that advice was bad.

Oh, and perhaps it’s worth thinking about the child care lawyers, often underpaid women, who are giving good advice, often saying care proceedings are appropriate, every day. They’ll never get any public praise for that, or anything like the financial rewards that “funds” lawyers get (for what public benefit? – answers welcome in comments) but risk one day, when the tabloid mood changes direction, being pilloried as faceless functionaries too ready to snatch children from their homes.