Disabled mums having children taken away by Childrens Services

[beachhouse]

Are there any mums out there who have or are still going through the process of having thier children legally abducted by childrens services? I have a brain tumour and suffer numerous seizures because of that. I moved to Brighton 18 months ago and asked for a care plan to be put in place just in case I became seriously ill over time and was declined on several occasions. I lost my speech and had the left side of my body paralysed by one of these horrendous seizures in March this year and during that time childrens services were roped in by hospital staff and my 'cariing' father to remove my 3yr old and put him in foster care until I had fully recovered. I recovered from it but still haven't got my child back as promised! I had an EPO slapped on me while still unable to move or speak and have spent countless times attending court hearings and medical assessments. Weight loss is 4 stone since March! Now childrens services are trying to get me on Mental Health reasons because of the brain damage! I go to a group called PROUD on a Weds to talk to other mums who are disabled or thier children are and I dont 'feel tared with the same brush' by these parents which is great. People are very quick to assume that because my child has been legally abducted - I must have hurt him but thats not the case! No visits over Chirstmas to see my baby and the next hearing not until March!!! Please tell me if this seems like discrimination to you.

Sakura- do you not realise that most female SW are mothers as well, we don't need spelling out how life works.

Sw's do not decide on what can be funded, that is a government decision.

You cannot say that no-one is trying to change the system, most SW's are politically active and look at the student protests.

It is the general public that sit back and watch things happen, as long as they have a few extra pounds in their pockets per week.

All i was suggesting was that the parenting assessment should have been done by now, if it hasn't on the part of the LA, then they are at fault. But until the assessment is done no-one can say that a child should be returned, a child has the right to a quality of life, as well as the parent.

The saddest thing as a SW is bumping into an adult and have them said that they should have been removed because of neglect, which usually slips through the net.

There has to be a level of parenting capacity under the law. Otherwise you would have to awrd a stranger PR to be able to do the majority of the parenting at home.

Tempory foster care in which the childs feels secure can be the best solution whilst it becomes clear if the parent is going to need hospitalising again, which would mean emergancy strange short term fostering, them on to a different foster carer after 48 hours.

liBut the point is, Birds - that even if the child DOES need short-term fostering again - that should STILL be no barrier to the child being returned to it's parent with ADEQUATE SUPPORT IN PLACE.

If it requires a carer to be there a lot to support the disabled parent - SO WHAT?

And Even if it IS temporary FC - it shouldn't mean that the disabled parent is limited to seeing their dc for only 4 hrs a week. That is plainly RIDICULOUS. Even if it costs SS more money for supervising the contact. And why would the contact need supervising ANYWAY - if it was for hospitalisation, then the dc wasn't neglected or abused, and the parent poses NO RISK TO THE CHILD.

It all boils down to money - and what it means is that disabled parents aren't being afforded their rights towards being assisted in their lives, with parenting.

Money before disabled parents rights. Niiiiiiice.

Birds your statement

'Funds are not in place to support disabled mothers'

is wrong. I'm not sure what area of social work you work in, but I find it concerning you don't know that. There is legislative provision to provide support for disabled parents as part of meeting their health and social care needs, and this should be available in the form of direct payments. See this Direct Gov link for more information. It refers to the disabled person's right to have a health and social care assessment to determine the support they require. This includes support for parenting. Please note:

'Social services are not there to assume that you are unable to cope or that you will not be a good parent. Decisions about the support offered should focus on how to help you in your parenting role.

It's important to remember that your assessment as a disabled person/parent is about your needs. If you receive the right support, your child's needs will be met without the need for services from the 'Children and families team'.

Direct payments have been available since the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act of 1996. It has been mandatory to offer them to eligible people since 2003.

Beachhouse I very much hope that your situation is swiftly resolved and that you are able to get the support that you require.

I should note that the quote came from the Direct Gov website I linked to.

Whilst I feel for you immensly in this extremely unfortunate situation, I do agree that SS should be thoroughly checking that the situation now is safe for the child to return to - through medical and mental health assessments etc.

I can see how it feels very unfair to you but I wouldn't call it discrimination. Obviously we don't know all the facts to be able to make a more sound judgement of the case though. We would need to know whether any assessments have already been carried out, what the outcome of them were, what your doctors have to say etc.... there's lots of factors that are taken into consideration when assessing how you'd manage a very lively 3 year old now and in the future and what support could be put in place to help and how effective that help would be. They have to assess this before sending a child back home. I'd be very concerned if they did not.

I really feel for you but if no one else was willing to look after this child whilst you were unwell what did you expect to happen to him? I see how you are distraugt but I imagine they have to make sure that the situation is stable for your child on return to your home.

I don't think we know all the details and it's hard to comment. I rely hope things work out gor you and I wish you all the best.

OP I am so sorry for all that you are going through, and I just wanted to add my support.

I have also had dealings with Brighton social services, and I know that I should not generalise, but I found them absoulutly appalling, they did their utmost to have my DGD adopted.
OK my DD could not look after her but I could, but no they wanted her for whatever reason, (I presume to keep up their adoption quota).
I had to fight and fight for her, it was only when they told me that they had found a nice couple of gay men who wanted to adopt her, that I threatened to contact the media.
That certainly stopped them in their tracks.

So perhaps you could consider that OP, it certainly worked for me (and DGD).
She is now living happily with me.
I really hope that you get the same result, and sooner rather than later!

Good luck.