Drug dealers as young as nine & kids surviving on toast – I’ve been a social worker for 15 years and Britain is broken

CHILDREN as young as nine dealing drugs, two-year-olds living off toast and 45p packets of noodles and suburban homes being used as a front for organised crime amid threats of rape – these are just some of the shocking realities faced by the country’s social workers.

There’s around 40,000 kids under the care of social services in the UK, and one social worker, who asked not to be identified, says life for the most poverty stricken and vulnerable younger generations is bleaker than ever. 

Earlier this week, Arsenal fan Kelyan Bokassa, 14, was stabbed to death on a bus in broad daylight, and it was revealed the youngster was on his way to Woolwich Town Hall in south east London to meet his social worker at the time of his death on Tuesday afternoon.

His mum, Mary Bokassa, 50, revealed her son had lived on the streets in London for a year where he was groomed by gangs and “exposed to drugs“.

She said: “We had to move around and he was in care, he was there for four years with no progress. I begged for contact with my son.”

Kelyan’s killers are still to be caught.

Here, our social worker who has 15 year’s experience in a large northern city, says social care must be given a huge cash injection to improve services, and reveals some of the startling situations she faces daily.

THERE are kids as young as nine joining gangs, the average age to be recruited is around 12 or 13 – I call them the forgotten children. 

Often they come from a chaotic background, their mum has had difficulties, be it addiction, domestic abuse, or unemployment. But I don’t blame the mums, they’re fighting impossible circumstances and doing their best. 

But there is a knock on effect for their children. They feel disaffected, with no stability. Or they’re the most vulnerable children and in care. 

Gangs prey on these children, they groom them, offering a sense of belonging and safety.

They lure them in and give them drugs, then tell these young children they owe them something or ask them to do them a favour, and before the children know it, they’re caught up in drug running. 

They will also get them hooked on drugs to keep them dependent, usually cannabis, the hard drugs are reserved for selling. 

In social services we have specialist teams to try to get them out – but it is so hard.

The social worker will try their best to see them three times, they’ll try to build up a sense of trust and belonging. But the rest of the time the child will be hanging out with his gang who will undo all the work. 

It feels impossible. And the police give up on the children, kids can be missing for a year and there’s no national outcry about it – they are forgotten. 

For most people buying a new winter coat for their child is a simple transaction. But the other day I bought one and felt wracked with guilt and worry. 

I’m painfully aware how many children will be going without essentials, who will be freezing cold, living in bleak conditions in a house with no carpet and only the thinnest blanket for warmth.

It’s worse than ever for those children in our care. It’s a job that haunts you day and night because of the horrific experiences some children endure.

Targeted crimes

One of the biggest problems in our city is the stranglehold of organised crime.

Drug dealers target vulnerable women, particularly single mothers and then move their operation into their house – it’s known as cuckooing. 

They’ll spot them anywhere from the shops to the pub and make their move, grooming them for months.

There are kids as young as nine joining gangs, the average age to be recruited is around 12 or 13 – I call them the forgotten children

Social worker

They’ll offer chippy teas for the kids, top up the gas and electricity and make themselves indispensable. And then the ‘favours’ start, ‘can you just store some stuff for me’ or ‘can you son just pop this package round’.

The dealer has no compunction about blackmailing them with threats of the police or worse. I had one woman in floods of tears as a man had threatened to rape her teen daughter in front of her if she tried to stop her kids couriering for him. 

They also target kids directly, so many youth centres have shut down.

And of course the kids are then involved in the drug world – it tends to be white children as they’re less likely to be stopped and searched by the police.

The dealer will progress from the kids running the drugs, to giving them some and getting them to deal to their friends.

Kids on drugs

We have children as young as nine who deal, ten-year-olds smoking cannabis and 13-year-olds hooked on ketamine.

Currently the drugs of choice for dealers are heroin, pink cocaine, ketamine and cannabis. You can get anything within minutes from just a single phone call. 

If we find out about it then of course we can help, but most women are too terrified to report the dealer. Some of the mums welcome the added cash they so desperately need, or are struggling with addiction issues themselves.

Gangs prey on these children, they groom them, offering a sense of belonging and safety

Social worker

It’s easy to be judgemental until you’re in their position. I’ve seen thousands of mums and I can count on one hand the number who genuinely don’t care about their kids.

They love them fiercely but many are living below the breadline, in horrendous debt, some have addictions to drugs or alcohol and others are the victims of domestic abuse or have mental health problems. 

Others have been brought up in the care system themselves, they have no knowledge of what a family unit should be like, and they’re left floundering.  

But even though they do their best in the main, the squalor that some kids live in is appalling. You can smell the neglect as you walk into a house, it’s a mix of old smoke, unemptied bins and faeces.

Harsh conditions

Often the floors are bare, there’s no curtains and there might be a three-year-old strapped in a pram in front of the TV eating wotsits, in a sodden nappy.

The mattresses are bare, with just a thin blanket to keep them warm. Often the toilets are unflushed and filthy with excrement on the seats. 

The cupboards are empty of food, or stacked with 45p packets of noodles.

We have children as young as nine who deal, ten-year-olds smoking cannabis and 13-year-olds hooked on ketamine

Social worker

Mums are frequently drug addicts or alcoholics – I’ve been offered a glass of Baileys at 9am – and yet we do everything we can to keep children with their families and help and support them as despite everything children do better with their mums.

Removing kids is a last resort though there was one occasion when I visited a house and the mum was in the middle of a psychotic episode meaning the children were in danger – so we removed them immediately.

I can empathise with women who drink – it’s an escape from all their stress and worries about where the next meal is coming from and alcohol is so cheap now and it aids sleep. 

Social workers often end up paying for a gas and electric top up or take round food or clothes – we’re desperate to help as much as we can and make the lives of these families a little bit easier. 

Our hands are tied in many instances and that’s because there’s so little funding.

We’re under pressure to get people off the books as we’re so inundated with new cases.

We’re supposed to see families every week, but it’s impossible when you have 50 families in your case load.

Referrals come from various places and often it’s schools that pick up on issues at home.

Kids are fiercely loyal to their parents, but sometimes they don’t even realise their situation is ‘wrong’.

Like the seven year old who fell asleep in a lesson and when she was asked why she explained it was because she’d simply been up all night looking after the baby.  

Domestic violence

Children witness all manner of things they shouldn’t – in many of our cases domestic violence is involved. But women don’t report it as they’ve lost faith in the police to be able to help them.

There are no places in women’s refuges, they don’t want to be moved across the country away from their family and friends.

So they choose to stay and take the batterings. And I know that in many instances they’re right, the police won’t step in.

I called them once as I was so worried for a woman’s life – the policeman said ‘he hasn’t killed her yet, so we can’t do anything’. 

‘I couldn’t get out of bed’

My work is unremitting. Without a massive cash injection into the system it’s only going to get worse – the powers that be can’t seem to understand that prevention is key, picking up cases early helps enormously, but we’re chasing our tails, we can barely cope with the very worst cases.

Many of my colleagues are off sick, through trauma or stress. I’ve been chased down drive ways away from appointments and threatened, a female colleague was attacked by a woman in her house and needed hospital treatment. 

I wake up in the morning with a knot in the pit of my stomach, not knowing what I’ll witness and yet if I don’t do it, who will? 

I was signed off sick for three months a couple of years ago. It was triggered by talking to a woman whose kids had been removed through domestic abuse. She was so devastated, she was being battered and was too frightened to get help. I woke up the next day and just couldn’t get out of bed. 

But I went back, as I’m so driven to do everything I possibly can. But I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to withstand it.