Taking a step back, is it worth asking what support the parents are getting, indeed what support is available for parents.
Speculation only, but a family with an unhappy 7 year old gender non-conforming child, financial problems, and perhaps other problems within the family or faced by family members. (A tough menopause even.)
In terms of available family support, almost signposts lead to Mermaids or their allies. And from them, potentially, to the good Doctors Pasterski and Webberley. So gender affirmation might be the magic bullet...as we all know ...better than a dead child.... Still an unhappy family, with a worried mum and troubled child but lots of people telling them they are doing the right thing.
Then you add to the mix, one or two very troubled toddlers. The father, as I glean from the slightly confusing details, was a social worker and is perceived to be level headed, and they need the money. Plus people are telling them they did the right thing with the older child, so are well placed to cope with a challenging foster placement.
One of these very young children: perhaps because of earlier trauma; perhaps because they want to fit in with their new family and siblings; perhaps because of failings in the foster parenting...who knows. We do know that gender non-conformity is a sign of earlier trauma, and it might be just that the parents are aware of the signs and quick to take affirmative action, simply because of the earlier support they have had.
But then the school, rightly alert to their responsibilities to a previously traumatised child in foster care, or a concerned GC relative, cause SS to look at the whole file with a different pair of glasses. The family lawyer up, hiring an "expert" and the council lawyer suggests that could be expensive, the case is not cut and dried and they could lose, and that money is better spend on helping other vulnerable children.
But the family push on. Why? Are they the actors or the puppets? Given they have apparently got financial problems, who is paying? Who found the expert? Who wants the precedent? Will other Local Authorities use this case as a bench mark in the future?
The court report suggests that the 13 year old is unhappy, and that the mum is showing signs of distress. Hey...go onto to the teenager board and do a quick poll of how an unhappy child affects the mental health of a mother. They possibly should not be fostering, but removing a child is different to placing a child.
Of course there could be parallels to David Challenor and the repeated parental concerns about the children's health. But equally could the fault lie with a wider society who provide lottery funding for Mermaids et al to deliver support to families with an unhappy child showing signs of gender non-conformity. Where do they go? If the child also shows sign of autism the NAS will direct them to Mermaids. Stonewall et al trained schools, social workers, etc will steer them in the same direction. Many therapists will advocate affirmative action only. Virtually none of our politicians are speaking out, Penny Maudant's promised enquiry seems to have hit the buffers, and the Lottery (ie us) has just given £500,000 to Mermaids to support such families.
There is a massive problem. I know two families with a ROGD child. Bright intelligent successful families who are able to do their own research and come to a watchful-waiting conclusion. (Which I think is instinctive for most parents dealing with many childhood issues. issues. You don't deny the child and cut off communication, but you cross your fingers hard and hope they grow out of it - especially when statistics suggest they will.) There seems to be virtually no support for these families. Schools, therapists, even their families and social networks seem to have drunk the kool-aid. You can share your distress about a child with anorexia, with say, your book club. ROGD is so much more unpredictable, especially in the same educated metropolitan circles.
Great that the TES is finally challenging the Allsorts-type doctrines. But until parents have a genuine choice between support from Mermaids type organisations and watchful-waiting organisations like Transgender Trend, which means equal funding, we will see more of these cases.
We can't just blame the parents.
Andrew Gilligan and the Mail are doing a great job of bringing the case to public attention, which may go some way to re-balancing the precedent set by the court (and thank you to the social worker or whoever, who alerted the papers to the case) but families need help before then.
Its a long time since I did one, but I used to write a mean funding bid. If there is anyone out there who feels up to providing "watchful waiting" family support I would be happy to work on a Lottery, or similar, bid. As I said, we can't just blame the families if we don't provide them with the support they might be seeking.