SCOTTISH Labour leader Johann Lamont has called for a public inquiry into the protection of vulnerable children following the death of Declan Hainey who was murdered by his mother.
Ms Lamont, making her debut as leader at First Minister's Questions, said: "We need to ensure the rhetoric heard in Holyrood reflects the reality of Scottish life. When the First Minister was asked about a tragic case two years ago, the death of Brandon Muir, he assured us that the system for protecting children was 'systematic' and 'strenuous'.
"But the reality wasn't good enough for Brandon Muir, or for Declan Hainey, or for scores of children whose names we do not know but who are suffering now.
"The reality is that, across Scotland, we have social workers overburdened and the inevitability of children who have been abandoned by their parents being abandoned by a system that's supposed to care."
She demanded to know "what the First Minister has done in response to this tragic case".
"I'm asking this question as a mother, there are mothers across the country asking the same question," she added. "These children are hidden to the system, and I'm asking what can you do? Can you have an independent inquiry to how the child protection system is working?
"If we can have an independent inquiry we can work together to challenge this most awful of circumstances that is happening in our communities and make Scotland a better place for vulnerable children."
Mr Salmond claimed improvements to the existing inspection regime had been made as the result of an inquiry "looking at tragic individual cases and seeing how that reflected on the system across the country".
He said there was "substantial evidence that social work departments, as a result of the inspections and re-inspections, are performing better than they were before".
But he added no politician could guarantee tragedies such as the Declan Hainey case would never occur again.
Mr Salmond said: "Johann Lamont, if she is asking for a guarantee that there will never be a tragic circumstance, that no child will ever be in that circumstance, I can't give that guarantee. No politician can."
However, he added: "If she's asking the question what has been done by this Government, then the systematic improvement in inspection regimes validates what has been done by the Government."
Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said early intervention was vital and urged an increase in the number of health visitors as the first point of contact for young families.
It later emerged that a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) could be held into Declan Hainey's death.
The matter will be reported to the Crown Office Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit.
It will then be referred to Crown Counsel to consider whether an FAI should be held.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article