THE chilling death of Baby P and the controversy surrounding the child’s care is something that hasn’t been far from our screens or newspaper pages in recent weeks.

It has once again highlighted holes in the social care system in Britain.

At Worcester Sixth Form College, health and social care students have been looking at the Baby P case, among others, as part of their caring for children and young people module.

“Looking at contemporary cases, such as Baby P, is really important,”

said Sue Cockrell, head of the college’s health and care department.

“It helps to give the students a real understanding of the topics they are covering, putting the relevant legislations into context.”

Baby P died last year after suffering 17 months of unimaginable cruelty. His hair had been shaved to the scalp and his body covered in bruises and scabs.

Physical injuries included eight broken ribs, a broken back and the missing top of a finger.

He had suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of his mother, 27, her boyfriend, 32, and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36, despite 60 contacts with the authorities over eight months.

The trio were convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child and will be sentenced at the Old Bailey next spring.

Inspectors sent into Haringey, north London, after the trial of those responsible for 17-month-old Baby P’s brutal death, identified a string of “serious concerns” about the area’s child protection services, which they described as “inadequate”.

In a 16-page report, handed to ministers last week, they condemned everything from poor record-keeping to a failure to identify children at immediate risk of harm.

“The case of Baby P has been really horrible,” said health and social care student Beenish Hussain, aged 18. “It has been really interesting to look at it and look at what went wrong.”

However, Beenish said the case had now made her reconsider a career as a social worker.

“The social workers have been blamed for the death of Baby P but I don’t think it was totally their fault,” she said. “Seeing how they have been treated has made me think again.”

Beenish and classmate Siba Gurung, 18, had put together a presentation about the Baby P case for fellow students on the course.

“I am looking at doing nursing as a career,” said Siba. “I think that having studied this case will help me in whatever career I choose though because I will have looked at the things that went wrong and how they can be put right.

“It has been interesting to look at all the different people that were involved in the case and how each one could have done more to help.”

Other students gave presentations on the case of Victoria Climbie, an eight-year-old girl who died in 2000 at the hands of her aunt Marie Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning, who are both serving life for her murder; the case of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man accused of imprisoning and abusing his daughter for more than 20 years, and a case of three children abused in Scotland during the 1990s.

The students studied the cases in depth, exploring what had happened to the children and how the authorities had acted in response.

“The students have been really fascinated by the topic,” said Teresa Custance, course leader for the Btec National Diploma in Health and Social Care. They have been looking at instances where children are taken in to care, the organisations involved and the issues surrounding child protection.

“Many of them were surprised that children are not taken away from their parents at the first instance of suspected abuse. It is a very long topic covering the whole year and is a mandatory part of the course.

“The students have to be aware of the signs and symptoms of child abuse, especially if they are considering a career in social care, which many of them are.”

Mrs Cockrell said: “It’s a very sensitive topic to cover but is really important. Sometimes students can become overwhelmed or it may raise issues within their own lives, in which case we have counsellors on hand.”

There are currently almost 200 students studying health and social care at the college, at AS-level, Alevel and Btec.

Other aspects of the course include nursing/midwifery, human biology, food and nutrition, ethics, social policy, psychology, sociology and complementary health.