Young mother wins damages against SS who unlawfully took her baby away after it was born

[spokette]

Absolutely the right decision imho. The cavalier bullying exuded by these people is obscene and it is about time they are bought to account.

That young girl needed support and considering that she herself has been in care, SS have failed her miserably.

Interesting that the last paragraph says that she is likely to be reunited with her baby in a special unit. Why wasn't this offered in the first place?

I think less paperwork would make things far more efficient, just as nurses, socialworkers or anytone in that field are completely overloaded with all sorts of paperwork...it's totally ridiculous, and the time could be spend much better actually working wiht the families...but of course the burocracy has it's reason exactly because societies become more willing to sue, etc...

Also, I wouldn't say that 100-250 K is a lot of money in such a field as social work...but I suppose it depends on teh general area and what is going on there...

£100k is NOTHING and neither is £250k in the context of social work budgets.

I'm not a social worker tho I work in a branch of social services - adaptations for disabled people. To cover the cost of adapting council owned properties in a mixed rural/urban local authority in Scotland with approx 9000 council houses, we have a budget of £360,000 or so. Approaching the end of the current financial year, we already have jobs waiting for funding enough to use up ALL of next year's budget and a huge chunk of the following year's budget.

The reasons for this are varied and not all of them are to do with increased demand - there are inefficiencies and I wouldn't wish to swear that we get the best possible value for money. Financially speaking, my service is but a minnow in the gigantic pond that is social work in our authority.

That said, in common with other Scottish local authorities, social work is not the largest spender - that would be Education - but it does come second. I'd guess that England, Wales and NI will have a similar situation.

this sort of thing does happen A LOT, Cod. some people may remember me banging on about a few months ago, and people then said to me, "There must be more going on than we know."

Anyone remember the case of Miss W and Baby E who had her baby taken off her IN THE STREET without a court order? Baby E is now returned to her familial home, after 12 months and at the cost of a very successful breastfeeding relationship. Anyone remember Fran Lyon? Anyone remember Janipher Maseko? And there are countless others who you won't remember because the secrecy of the family courts forbids them from stating their case, so the atrocities go on. And I feel justified in calling them atrocities, because what else do you call removing a newborn baby from its mother when its mother poses NO PROVABLE RISK to it?

The case of the 7 week baby who was so horrifically abused by her father was particularly tragic, I agree. But she had been seen by countless HCP's, who all agreed that the injuries were "normal". But then there was a case I was involved with (albeit very barely) where a child had got burned, and the burn patterns were considered "unusual" by a paed at the hospital, and they are now undergoing criminal investigation.

Whilst I agree that allegations need to be investigated, I'm not sure why they need to be investigated at the cost of breastfeeding relationships, at the cost of a tentative bond between new mum and newborn baby, at the cost (potentially) of a young life. The secrecy needs to stop now. There is a petition, so if you feel strongly, I will find a link, and you can sign it. Write to your MP's. Make a fuss. Because these families can't.

I didn't know about Miss W and Baby E so I googled and got this.

Kathy, yes that's the case. Baby E is the same age as my ds I posted a link to that at the time and people told me there must be more to it than met the eye.

There wasn't.

Thanks Kathy & TUD that's terrible isn't it?

I think people ARE slowly waking up to these atrocities (& no TUD it's NOT too strong a word)

The more we bang on about it the more awareness there is off these cases then slowly the wheels will turn.

You will see me posting here on MN like a cracked record about it. I did a LOT of research during the Fran Lyon case & have been increasingly appalled at what is going on.

i dont know too much about this subject but i dont understand how theses secret courts can be legal? how can it be right that you can be totally innocent and not able to attract attention to state funded kidnapping? i know in some cases the removal of the child is for good reason butif ss are happy that they are making the right decisions why does it all need to be secret, it just makes it look like they have something to hide.

i have also read that this is happening more frequently to meet adoption targets (newborn being much easier to place than older child) is this true?

Nancy they aren't "secret" as such but all afairs to do with them are subject to gagging orders so families cannot discuss the cases if they arew not happy with what is happening

but in other situations if the accused feels that there has been a miscarrage of justice they can talk to whoever they want, highlite their case, get better defence ect, why is this different

Social workers have an impossible job. They are policing an area that should never need policing IMO. But it does and they do what they can. And so much good stuff they do goes unnoticed. Having said that they have to be called to account when it doesn't. That's one sign of a responsible society.

It is thought that is so Nancy but obviously it is vigorously denied but targets DO exist

Hm, but isn't a major problem all those targets that have to be met, and social workers will feel very pressured to meet them...so, isn't that one of the major issues...and probably distracting social workers from just getting on with their job and interfering where they have, too....!

Whilst I don't think that Social workers will always be right to remove or not to remove a child, at the end of the day they are only human beings, under a lot of pressure, and realistically we all know that we only actually hear when things go wrong one way or another....and rarely hear when they are doing a good job....

Not excusing anything, but I think it's an incredible difficult proffession to be in, and what with everything, it really put me off going into Social work...

What strikes me is that everyone has formed am opinion on this case, i.e anti-social worker, when the actual details of the case are exceedlingly sketchy. I am not a social worker by the way!

i can understand that there are situations where it is best to be on the safe side and take the child from the parent, but only with the view that if they are wrong they will give the child back. i am sure iread of a case where the child/children had been taken from the mum, the dad wanted them to live with him but was told too late , they've been adopted cant do anything about it now.
now like i said im no expert on this at all and only really going on things i have read in the papers/on mn but this frightens the life out of me.

loobylooby, im certainly not anti social worker, some of the things they see must make their job bloody awful. i wouldnt want to do it.

one thing that isn't sketchy, however, is that SS broke the law.

Yes I don't think it's unreasonable to form an anti-social worker opinion about a case where a judge found they were acting illegally! It's not too much to expect them to act within the law, is it?!

the thing is...anytimes somehting like this comes up, people are all on about the nasty evil social workers...yes, they fuck up, they do...just as anybody...but a lot of the time they do what is in the best interest, or where at least they believe it's in the best interest...
it's not good enough that they get it wrong...but that is not necessarily the SS fault...more the Institutions fault...
And like I said, in the majority they seem to get it right, just that knowone but those closest involved will ever know about it...

looby a lot of us are NOT anti-sw but more (as 3and quite rightly says) anti the system that allows the bad ones to flourish whilst the good ones struggle on with the awful situations they cope with daily.

Any other profession self-regulates & uses researched based practice but not SW it seems.

i just cried reading that story about babe E and the mother, on the Victoria Climbie website. And that the SWs involved cited the young mother's insistence on breastfeeding her baby on access visits as evidence that she was not fit to look after her child. I am speechless. what exactly is the training for SWs I wonder? Certainly they are totally ignorant of the benefits of breastfeeding and the trauma to mother and child being pulled apart. Feel really, really angry now.

ruty, to beocme a Social Worker you got to do a 3 year degree...but, by what I read about the course (as I looked into maybe doing it) a lot seems to be about legislation, etc...and tbh, considering that midwifes don't really receive much training to do with breastfeeding, it would not surprise me at all, if that would be completely ignored in Social work studies...and tbh, I think in a lot of cases brestfeeding or not...really is not the main issues...Social workers do get trained to deal with a part of society where they have to asses the immidiate danger a child might be in, etc..., so breastfeeding or not, for them is probably not a main concern...obviously depends highly on the sort of clienteel they deal with!

My guess would be that the majority of the mums that a childcare social worker deals with will not be clamouring for membership of La Leche League.

I see what you mean 3andnomore, it is just that kind of ignorance becomes very dangerous when wielded by people who have power to divide a mother and child.

ruty, of course it is...but, really, as Highwater says, the majority of families that SS deals with in these instances won't have breastfeeding high on the list of priorities, will they....!

I have thought of somehting, earlier...and I realised that since I am working with youngsters with challenging behaviours, that come from broken down families, have experienced abuse, etc...and basically are beyond be able to be foster cared...and since reading their stories (i.e. their files)....I have become far more aware then ever and are far often more dubious about people and the things they do/not do wiht their Kids...and I suppose, that Social workers awareness will be even more hightened , and maybe that hightened awareness is why they misread a situation...

btw, though, I do believe that the system does have to change to make mistakes less possible...and that is both ways, i.e. Kids not put on the registre where they should be and Kids taken away from families where this is completely inappropriate.