Aid Failed to Help Family

The aid failed to help the family, whose missing sons Julian and Ruben were found dead on Sunday. Since 2009 the family was known at Youth Care and especially the mother tried to raise the alarm. She feared for the welfare of her sons. This is shown from a reconstruction by NRC Handelsblad. A document of the Advise en Reporting Center for Child Abuse (AMK), shows that the mother reported abuse of the oldest son by the father, already in 2009 to the police. It also said that the mother, at first, didn’t want the father to be contacted because he had occasionally threatened with ‘family tragedies in media’. Safety Plan The family had already gone through several routes when another alert came in, in September 2012 at the AMK. The Youth Care Agency asked for an investigation by the Council for Child Protection and prepared simultaneously a safety plan for the family. In January, the mother filed charges of child abuse. The Council for Child Protection decided to place the children under supervision. The parents received the report on April 22, but the father told them on April 25 that he could not attend the meeting where the measurements would be discussed. On May 7, the day of the new appoint, his body was found in the forests near Doorn. Culvert Late Sunday evening the police announced that the bodies which had been found earlier that day, were the bodies of the brothers Ruben (9) and Julian (7). IN the culvert, the missing camouflage shirt and the missing straps were found. It is not yet clear how the bodies ended up there. Who is to blame? Micha de Winter, pedagogy professor at Utrecht University says, “The blaming starts immediately. The fact that more than ten agencies have visited the family suggests that child welfare, child protection and government are to be blamed. In this case, as with any disaster, we need to find out if anyone has been sleeping. I understand that an investigation has started by the Inspection Youth Care. The point is: imagine that all agencies have worked well, can you then prevent a dramatic ending like this from happening? I think that is an illusion."