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Q Are social services doing enough to protect at-risk children?

The shocking report about the death of two-year-old Ng Win-sum, who 'was bashed, kicked and slapped on a daily basis', details the horror for the child and the behaviour of the two adults responsible.

The parents were sentenced to long prison terms, but what about the responsibility of the authorities who allowed this child to go to a home which had rejected her for almost all of her short life? Did anyone visit and not see the evidence of mistreatment which led to her death?

Someone in the government said the Social Welfare Department was not to blame, but does it not have a legal duty to protect children in danger and does that not also include an assessment of risk?

What involvement did it have and did officers carry out their duties? Too often we have tragedies where the government departments have had involvement of some sort but their internal inquiries tell us nothing.

Yet we pay a lot of money for civil servants who, under the law, have certain duties. We should have a public inquiry, possibly chaired by a (retired) family court judge and joined by independent experts in child abuse.

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