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To go back on the original point - I didn't see the actual programme, but from what has been said here there would seem to be a case for someone (them again) reporting this case to social services (no, don't laugh).

I once had a case of a young lad who was doing OK at school but was a bit 'distant'. Then he started to be late in the afternoons, and after a couple of weeks came in with a badly grazed face. We had a chat and he told me that he had fallen off his bike - at 2am whilst cycling round the local estate! After a bit more chatting it came out that his mother was clinically depressed and had stopped looking after him (he was 12) and his 2 younger sisters. She was just lying in bed all day, almost comatose. He had taken on looking after the girls, and his mum, getting her giro, shopping and cooking. This included getting his sisters home at lunchtime and cooking them lunch before taking them back to school - no wonder he was late!

I got social services round, and they put proper support in place for the mother and the kids (they were eventually taken into care). They really had no choice.

I met him again, many years later. He had become a residential care worker, and I heard later that he was in charge of a children's home.

So, the only real way to get change is to follow the procedures and report all cases, whether you meet them professionally or as a friend or neighbour. It doesn't guarantee a happy outcome (I've seen so many social services ballsups) but it may eventually get one.

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Dick, what you describe is the kind of situation where a child 'slips through the net' (a large holed net, which is dependent on alert teachers/neighbours etc.)

If the people 'featured' in the documentary are registered blind, they would automatically be in touch with Social Services (in my experience).

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Oh, I agree with you there.

I've done it myself, got threatened on my own doorstep for it, and the child never really spoke to me again, (he wasn't allowed near me) but he told my son the beatings stopped.

Edit. The whole family was complicit in physical abuse of younger members.

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[quote user="Dick Smith"]True. But that shouldn't stop concerned others from making a phone call. In fact, the school has an obligation to do so if they feel the children are being exploited. It may come back to the children saying they are happy with the situation.
[/quote]

But how can an 8 and 12 year old say anything else, what else do they have to compare it to.

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