The news has been awash with stories of children cast to the dark forces of abuse by persons unknown, and not protected by the very forces such as the police, social workers, and other professionals that should be helping them.

They are now being offered support, mental health advice and have all the professional guidance needed, because as a nation we have been appalled that children should be allowed to fall between the cracks in this way. But this has taken close to a decade before the nation’s conscience has been pricked into action. Such abuse is unconscionable and will leave children growing into adults, that will require extensive use of the mental health services. As a society we all feel responsible that we have allowed this to happen, and will now be hyper-vigilant to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

As a society, we seem to learn retrospectively from our…