I was saddened to read this letter, dated 20 August 2007, on the problems being caused by the intrusive, interventionist and illiberal social care policies this government has introduced.

Wouldn’t it be better if social workers, teachers, the police, healthcare professionals and others in public service were empowered to build respectful, constructive relationships with their clients, and to exercise professional judgement to achieve positive outcomes, rather than being under the cosh of an inflexible, kafkaesque bureaucracy that often causes the very tragedies it’s supposed to prevent? Social workers should do social work, not politicians!

I wrote about the wholesale surveillance of children and families back in 2006.

Hat tip: ARCH blog (highly recommended reading, by the way).