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The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report

Submitted by Robin on Tue, 2009-03-17 13:39.

I would be interested to hear the views of those here on the latest 'Laming report' http://publications.everychildmatters.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/HC-330.pd...

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In quick review...

Submitted by Kerry on Tue, 2009-03-17 15:40.

It will take me some time to read the whole 93+page report, however I did, upon quick review, see the following statement: 

However, whilst the improvements in the services for children

and families, in general, are welcome it is clear that the need to

protect children and young people from significant harm and neglect

is ever more challenging. There now needs to be a step change in the

arrangements to protect children from harm. It is essential that action

is now taken so that as far as humanly possible children at risk of

harm are properly protected.

Perhaps this explains the latest article I read, courtesy of the BBC, "Father warns of abuse witch hunt".  A father whose children were sexually abused by a 19-year old put in their care states:

I am the father of the family whose children were abused by the young person placed in our care.

Unfortunately, recent newspaper articles and our TV interview, although containing largely accurate detail, have focused on the events themselves. This was never our intention. Our intention was that we could help everyone to understand our wishes in how we can best move forward to prevent this from happening again.

It is my hope that someone out there will now print or broadcast this short statement in it's entirety to get the real point across.

As a family we have had two months to try and return to some semblance of normality. We can't undo what happened to our children, but what we can do, is to try to make sure that this never happens again.

This is not going to happen if the public continue a witch hunt against social services, and continue to bay for the wrong blood.

The only way to move forward is to find out what went wrong and to see if failings in procedure, common practice or lack of training are to blame. This is especially close to our own hearts. Our family has in the past been victim to a knee jerk reaction by an employer seeking a scapegoat following criticism.

We have had to deal with the deeply damaging consequences of that decision. We do not want any more innocent individuals or families to be made to suffer as a result of this case.

To this end, the public should be made aware that social services is a large and complex organisation, with many, many departments under one umbrella. In this particular case, we know that the Adult Placement Service has already had to endure targeted harassment.

It should be made clear that to our knowledge, the lack of information that lead to this young person being placed with us, originated in other social services departments, and not within the Adult Placement Service.

What we ask is that however appalled you may be, sacking the boss, or anyone for that matter is not always the answer. It may be that procedures require complete overhaul, or more robust training be put in place in order for already strained staff to do their jobs well and for the right information to be in the right place.

Please, please, please, just let this investigation take its course. We as the victims, have every confidence that it will be conducted thoroughly and without bias, and indeed it is already being independently followed by the NSPCC to ensure just that. Please trust, as we do, that the right people will be held to account and will be dealt with accordingly.

Lastly but by no means least, we want to thank the Vale of Glamorgan police, particularly the CID who dealt with our case. Their sincerely caring attitude was commendable, particularly with regard to their interaction with our children. We really can't thank them enough for helping us through a very difficult time.

The placement of children

Submitted by Robin on Tue, 2009-03-17 17:38.

The placement of children and young adults who abuse younger children in the family they are placed with, does seem to be a common problem here in England and obviously in Wales as well. Again and again I keep hearing of this happening in situations where the family that the young person has been placed with, have not been advised of their history of abusive behaviour. Surely social services departments making placements have a duty to inform carers of any such history before such placements are made. Part of the Report deals with need for senior staff to be accountable for their actions and subject to disciplinary action and possible dismissal when such oversights are made. Where someone placed with a family in that situation abuses for the first time without any or without previous previous recorded history or signs, I can't see how social workers can be held accountable, It does perhaps point up the need for better supervision of all such placements

Job and Responsibility

Submitted by Kerry on Tue, 2009-03-17 18:21.

When it comes to child safety and child protection, there seems to be an on-going universal problem taking place -- follow-up investigations and visits are not being honored, for whatever reason people within social/family services want to give.

I tend to believe most people forget, this sort of large-scale neglect took place for YEARS (decades) in Children's Homes; supervisory neglect continues to take place in orphanages around the world, and now more and more people are beginning to see various forms of neglect is indeed taking place in foster-care, as well.  In fact, if you ask me, the more things change, the more they stay the same, with only more children getting hurt as a result.  (I should note, too, this problem  is not limited to the UK!)

The bottom line is simple:   Whether it be public or private, abuse-within-the-home is still taking place, making it more and more difficult to ask, "Who is to blame, and what needs to be done so this pattern in-care can change?" 

In other words, what good is the promise of a "new safe haven" if that experience turns out to be a bloody living-hell?  (Dare we ask, "Who benefits from negligent care ?") 

Meanwhile, amidst the many cries made by those within the foster-care-system, we are now hearing  desperate screams from AP's who find themselves overwhelmed with the neglected needs of placed children.   The blog piece, "Worrying", (written by  AP Brenda McCreight, PH.D.) gets it right about the state of child-care within the child placement system when she writes:

If we had access to appropriate services when we needed them then we could all manage quite fine and we could remain quite positive about adoption. If the policy makers understood that they’re going to have to fork out the money sooner or later ie it’s cheaper to provide effective mental health services and respite to an adoptive family while they still have the strength and committment to cope than it is to scrabble punitive alternative services together when the family explodes with no hope of repair or healing.  But so far, the policy makers don’t get it. They spend a fortune on adoption recruitment campaigns and then next to nothing to help us after we adopt.

[See, even adoptive families are getting angry because the help parents and children need is not being given when it's most needed.  What does that say to people?!?]

Governments can commission all sorts of studies and pay for all sorts of long-page reports written by a variety of different review boards,  but until real action is taken to ensure long-term child/family safety, all those written and spoken words mean nothing to yet another generation of people still needing real help.

(You know, the more I think about it, maybe it isn't the social workers that need to get sacked -- maybe we just need to get rid of all the lazy, corrupt greedy government workers/politicians, instead.) 

a question

Submitted by Niels on Tue, 2009-03-17 20:03.

An immediate question comes to mind: "why are children placed in other families when there is no history of abuse?" Doesn't there have to be maltreatment in order to place children?

I think placement of abused children in a family with younger children is asking for trouble. Certainly not all abused children become abusers themselves, but there certainly is a risk they will. When placement authorities don't inform adoptive/foster families about a history of abuse, they become an accomplice.

There does not seem to have be any abuse

Submitted by Robin on Wed, 2009-03-18 18:25.

There does not seem to have to be any actual abuse done to a child for that child to be removed from its family here in England. It seems that it is sufficient for a social worker to be able to convince a judge that there is a significant risk of abuse or harm if that child were to remain with its natural parents. Even the opinion that one or both the parents is not in the social worker's judgement intelligent enough to raise a child, is considered sufficient reason for that child to be removed from the parents and an adoption plan made. Even if the parents are in fact coping well enough with the help of other members of the family. At the same time we get cases such as the Baby P case where real abuse is obvious but no one seems to see a need to remove that child from risk of further abuse. Clearly the is a serious need for change in the way that children's social services are run here in England where the Report covers and I suspect in the rest of the UK as well

A family in my local area tried to sue the Local Authority for placing a child with a history of being sexually abusive to other children with them, without informing them of his history. I remember at one point in the proceedings the Local Authority were saying that they owed the abusive child a duty of confidentiality. Presumably they thought that duty of confidentiality outweighed the duty of care they owed to the family that they placed him with. Of course, that may simply have been an excuse that the Local Authority's lawyer came up with after the event

Once it is known that a child does have a history of being sexually abusive to other children they become almost impossible to place with a foster family or for adoption, but then perhaps those really are not the best alternatives for such a child

Here's the sick-twist to a "paid opinion"...

Submitted by Kerry on Wed, 2009-03-18 19:02.

A family in my local area tried to sue the Local Authority for placing a child with a history of being sexually abusive to other children with them, without informing them of his history. I remember at one point in the proceedings the Local Authority were saying that they owed the abusive child a duty of confidentiality. Presumably they thought that duty of confidentiality outweighed the duty of care they owed to the family that they placed him with. Of course, that may simply have been an excuse that the Local Authority's lawyer came up with after the event.

Ask the majority of foster/adoptive parents if they want to care for a child who has been sexually abused.  (What percentage of those potential-care-givers will say "no"?)

Now, ask how many children placed in-care were sexually abused by adults or other children.  (What percentage of these people will say "yes"?)

There is a confidentially clause, alright.... and I bet it's saved many paid positions.

 

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