Kevin Byrne of Unison (Letters, November 6) is blinding himself to the facts by suggesting the national resource crisis in social work and poor management on the part of Brighton and Hove City Council were the ultimate reasons for John Smith's tragic death.

Under-funding didn't prevent the social workers and health visitors visiting the McWilliams on numerous occasions during the months John Smith was in their care.

The fact these professionals were taken in by the tissue of lies spun to them by the McWilliams was, as Alyson Leslie's independent report points out, a simple case of human error - a tragic misjudgement on their part.

We have to face the uncomfortable truth that, like every other human being in every walk of life, social workers make mistakes. The difference is for the majority of us the consequences of these errors are not a matter of life and death.

I have a tremendous respect and admiration for the tasks social workers carry out in dealing with issues most of us would like to pretend don't exist and it is pointless denouncing them for this tragedy.

Equally, those such as Unison, who blame under-funding and management practice for the tragedy, are every bit as crass and insensitive as those who vilify the social workers for "not doing their job properly".

Laying blame at anyone's door isn't going to bring back John Smith. It is, ultimately, only by addressing the fundamental reasons behind the behaviour of the McWilliams that we will ever prevent another such dreadful incident.

-An employee of Brighton and Hove City Council