Damned if they do, and...

Who'd be a social worker? What happened to Baby P is shocking beyond belief, but to what extent can the local social services be held responsible? If you stop to think about it, social services can never be proved to be right, they can only ever be proved to be wrong. They may say "If we hadn't intervened, such and such would probably have happened to this child", but the key word there is "probably". No-one can ever be certain what would have happened. On the other hand, if they fail to intervene and something bad happens, then it's there for all to see. It really is a no-win situation, and whilst it is possible, probable even, that they made mistakes, this rush to lay the blame solely at social services' door is both unjust and unfair.