to not understand why people how have children removed are not charged by the police

[Bogeyface]

Can someone explain this to me please?

I know of someone that has recently had a child removed due to neglect and lack of medical care. The child has a life limiting condition and the parents did not attend appointments and didnt get and administer the (free) prescription meds. Their actions have shortened his life, there is no two ways about that.

The other children are being removed but will go to a different foster carer so they will be split up :( This is due to neglect.

I was under the impression that neglecting a child was a criminal offence, so I dont understand why the parents havent been charged with anything. Is that normal? Surely the fact that the childs life will now be significantly shorter as a result of their actions should be punishable?

Professional experience, justmyview, by families/carers not just birth parents.

I am talking about requests for voluntary care not involving proceedings bb.

It is a request (demand) which I hear frequently (usually for teenagers), although not one which is granted unless the child is at risk of significant harm.
FC is NOT a resource used (contrary to these families expectations) to punish children.
A great deal of resources are targeted to creating positive change for children within these families in order to prevent inappropriate admission to care.

I do hope this law will address this.

the police rely on reports of crime. has anyone actually reported this as a crime to the police?

if no one reports a crime, then we dont know about it. to act on a crime it needs to be reported, otherwise how are we supposed to know? get the crystal ball out?
ss do not report every case they are on to police. not every child taken into local authority care is a victim of crime.

you are going on hearsay and gossip OP. gossip doesnt stand up in court.

IME vicar, police are always invited to multi agency strategy meetings when SS suspect a child is in danger of significant harm.
The also attend CP conferences.

Risk to who exactly though bb? Usually there is a lot of blame directed at these children for causing harm to their families/carers. The test for me is if they (adults) are prepared to follow advice to minimise any risk.
It is also difficult to get thee children to open up to anyone. They do not know who to trust.

Oh and as I said care proceedings are not involved in any of the cases like this that I have experienced

It's perfectly true that it would be a ludicrously risky thing to do. I heard of a case where the mother of a disabled child was advised not to collect him from respite care, because she wanted to make some sort of a point about how difficult it was looking after him and what it would cost the council to provide care on a longer term basis. It was incredibly bad advice because the council decided that she had abandoned the child and began care proceedings, and it was several months before she was able to get him back.

That would be fair punishment for them but what about the child?
A lot of these families know all they have to do is phone the child, make some promises and the child will return of their own accord!
It troubles me what message the child is getting from all this and I do hope this law will go some way to addressing it.

In many cases the Police will report the crime but it is up to the Procurator Fiscal (In Scotland) to decide whether to proceed with the case or not. They look at the evidence presented but often there is not enough evidence to proceed. It may be that these parents have been investigated for criminal intent but there is insufficient evidence to proceed. Maybe there is a case against them pending. How would you know?

I have read most of the thread buy haven't seen a response to posters asking about wealthy people using the fostering system as a 'free boarding house'. I have seen this happen in my experience as a social worker in a duty team, where parents turn up at the office with their stroppy teenager and a packed suitcase, and say that they have had enough of them and want them in care.

Often placing the teenager in foster placement for a short period of time is the right thing to do, but I (and many local authorities) have a strong view that the parents should be paying for, or at least contributing towards the cost of the placement, unless they are on benefits.

Thanks minunnimi, I was beginning to fear people didn't believe this happened - but it does on a daily basis in our office!

To clarify my comments about the rich and powerful.......
This behaviour is demonstrated across the socio-economic spectrum,but the rich professional classes are the ones to start emailing senior managers and putting in complaints against the SW's!

I have made the mistake of mixing up appointments, there is a physical medical reason and despite a Dr asking my GP in a letter to help me with this, nothing has ever happened to help me or my child. I expect you would want me imprisoned too OP?

NCRegular

I dont think you have read the OP properly. I am talking about deliberate and sustained neglect, including the with holding of medical treatment and medicines that have, over a prolonged period, resulted in the shortening of a childs life. Not missing the odd appointment because of a mix up on dates.

Unless you have done the same why would I want to see you in prison?!