Mum pregnant with 13th baby, 12 taken by ss

[ChopsTheDuck]

here

Feel so sorry for the babies, being born under those circumstances. A case for enforced sterislisation if there ever was one!

I don't for one minute think they are fully understanding their sit, there's far more going on in terms of LD I would wager

I have professionally witnessed people with LD and a threatened removal being able tokeep thir child after sustained voluntary input through a charity (home start). Volunteers teamed up to provide daily visits and after 5 yeras reduced that to weekly with exctra support on specific stuff- worked a treat.

And you know what? HomeStart branches continue to go bankrupt. Stats I remember were that every £8 pent on HS saved SS £80 but nonetheless the one I worked for is now bankrupt and it's a sad shame

No doubt that Homestart is a great organisation for some families.

In relation to a parent with epilepsy, how was the s. 31 threshold met? Parental disability doesn't usually mean significant harm to children. Was the aren't unable to make arrangements to prevent their disability impacting on the child' safe care? Wouldn't there be a strong argument for the use of disability benefits to support buying in care to address any of the gaps?

I thought the 'rare genetic condition' was daily mail code for 'they are inbreds'

This is terribly sad but as many have said, not that unusual.

But on a medical level - surely this woman must be damaged by having so many babies in close succession - I'm not surprised she has trouble walking!

Normally the parent is conned into conceding that threshold is met.

wahwah I would guess that's exactly how it worked, seems right

Ptresumably the case was absed on the risk of parent being unconscious or fitting and nable to care- and the solution based on sbility to extract DP's for buying in purposes. IME getting hold of DPs is a painful and complicated procedure with a high failure rate though.

i dont understand. they neglected the first baby.

so all the rest were taken away?

'Conned into conceding' is a very strong statement about unethical practice from social workers, lawyers and judges / magistrates. You say this is normal?

I have seen a number of cases where the parents' lawyers persuaded them to concede threshold.

I have also been told by a social worker how he used to collude with parents' solicitors to work out how the parents should lose.

I would not, however, say that this is "normal".

The social worker came to me because he didn't think the system would fix itself.

Glad you're around to stop parents losing. Let's hope that's the same as children winning.

One of the problems with "the system" is that it is perceived that it is about winning and losing rather that doing what is best for the children.

In part that comes from an adversarial legal system.

Lots of people make lots of money for relatively little work, but the children suffer. (and the parents).

It is entirely possible for children and parents to "win".

Is it right to be discussing the legal details of individual cases here on MN? I am a bit worried about this.

Yes, one would hope that children and parents can 'win', but there are many occasions where parents and children's interests are not aligned.

In relation to making money from these miserable proceedings, perhaps this is one area in which you might have little criticism of Social Workers and their employers-this is a costly exercise for them.

HolyShitzu, I share your concerns, but a few powerful and vocal people bang on about 'the secrecy of the courts' as if it's a cover for ripping children from loving parents (esp. fathers) and before you know it the public prurience has been answered.

The secrecy is used to bully people into not talking about how their children have been abused by the state.

Happily the secrecy is being reduced. However, people have still been bullied this year for talking to me.

Oh give over. I don't think the State is that flipping organised. Lets face it, it can't even pick up dodgy expense claims from MPs in the heart of the 'State'.

Sorry, I am being a bit short tonight, but do you have a grand plan to protect children to your satisfaction? That might be a better starting point.

There are lots of ways of improving our current system. We need, however, first to recognise that it does not work properly.

Secondly we must recognise that bringing in Herbert Laming to look at his previous proposals is unlikely to produce new ideas.

So it's broken and Laming can't fix it. Can't see much solution in that.

I have posted a lot on fixing. Try doing some research.

Oh life's too short. Can't be bothered any more.

That's a really constructive approach, wahwah. All you've done is bitch, then when John has answered each of your points politely, you've flounced. Nice.

wahwah, your hostility is unwarranted and you sound bonkers IMHO.

Homestart is very good.

This is all very sad. Yesterday was the second anniversary of Baby Peter's death and we seem no closer to solving this problem.

There are still too many cases of SS under or over-involvement and children are suffering either way.

Agree that Homestart is very good. I intend to make full use of my local centre over the summer and next term. I was a bit worried that it wasn't for me but it seems under-used in my area and when my toddler is older I can get involved myself.

One of my friends is a social worker (and a mother of three) and while she agrees the system isn't perfect and can be draconian and scary, esp re accidental injuries, she says that neglect is horribly common and truly terrible for the children. It sounds benign, like the thing middle class parents are supposed to do - let them play on their bikes in the street, let them run around the garden instead of booking playdates and piano lessons, but really it means leaving babies to cry in filthy cots all day long, not feeding children some days, and then never giving them healthy food, not letting them out to play, ignoring them nearly all the time, not taking them to school, not washing them or their clothes, living in squalor, not changing nappies, which can add up to a living hell for the kids. She has kids on her books who have lived with families like this for a long time who self-harm, who take drugs and who kill themselves.