USUALLY when there is a child protection disaster, it turns out that most people did nothing and the poor mite that died, or got beaten senseless, didn’t stand a chance.

Shannon Matthews was, thank goodness, not beaten senseless or murdered.

But she was kidnapped by her own mother, Karen, in a plot to get some reward money and brought up in squalor.

And plenty of folk – teachers, neighbours and police officers – DID try and warn social services about the family.

But they may as well have spoken to the cat, as try and make Kirklees’s social services do anything meaningful to take care of the unfortunate Matthews children.

According to the very optimistically-named Safeguarding Children Board, who published their report this week, no one could have foreseen that Karen would pull this kidnap stunt.

Kidnapping, no.

However, as we can see from all the reports, it was far more likely that Shannon and her siblings could have ended up the victims of abuse or possibly suffered from neglect.

Neighbours were reported as claiming she used carrier bags and even tea-cloths for nappies; reporters who visited remember large amounts of drink in the place, and a mother who appeared to be obsessed with sex.

Yet Kirklees and its Safeguarding Children Board said there was “little leeway” for them to remove the Matthews children before the kidnapping of Shannon.

Shannon was officially at risk for six years before the kidnap. Her mother was accused of “failing to protect them (her siblings) from contact with individuals who posed a risk of physical and/or sexual abuse and not ensuring they went to school”.

Karen had seven children by five different partners and while that isn’t always an indicator of domestic trouble, in this case it most definitely was; Social Services identified that Karen’s revolving door partnerships interfered with her ability to care properly for her children.

Director of Kirklees council’s children’s services Alison O’Sullivan says the abduction was an “unusual, unexpected and challenging event”.

Instead of seizing upon this as a heaven-sent excuse for what happened, O’Sullivan and her hapless colleagues should be thanking their lucky stars that they didn’t have a tragedy on their hands.

But while they irritate me with their excuses and their whitewash report, it has to be acknowledged that it actually isn’t their fault that so many people like this exist, that the law is so ridiculously accommodating to the Karen Matthews of this world.

It’s not their fault that we shower welfare on workshy lowlife like her, who have never had a job in their lives and who regard the benefits paid to help their children as “my wages”.

It’s not the social workers’ fault, either, that their brief has changed from chivvying-up the feckless and helping those who have genuinely lost their way, into pandering to people like Karen Matthews.

Harsh? Only if you consider the feelings and “rights” of these people as more important than the safety and happiness of their children.

That’s the choice. Let’s hope we are finally brave enough to make it.