The Minister sets "adoption targets"!!

parents to fulfill those targets !!

CAN THIS BE TRUE ??

ADOPTION TARGETS DO VERY MUCH EXIST !!!!

BBC News January 26  2007 - Babies 'removed to meet targets - Babies are being removed from their parents so that councils can meet adoption targets, MPs have claimed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6297573.stm

More than 20 MPs have already signed an early day motion deploring the taking of babies from their mothers not for their welfare but simply to enable social workers to meet their government adoption targets.

EDMDetails-

http://www.local.dtlr.gov.uk/research/beacyr3/adoption/07.htm

WHY DO THEY DO IT? 

"Surely",I can hear you say "British Justice is the finest in the world,and I just cannot believe things are as bad as all that" and then you add "Social workers take up that profession because they want to help people , so how can I believe they turn into the sort of monsters you portray?" "Why on earth would they do the sort of things you say they do?"Well, if your child has a tragic accident,do not expect comfort or sympathy from social services! Expert instead a merciless attack and the removal of your other children !

Daily Mail November 23, 2006 - A DEVASTATED couple had a child taken away by social workers as their 20-month-old son lay dying in hospital. Tyler Black, who had fallen into the family pond 24 hours earlier, died the day after the other youngster was removed. The coroner attributed no blame and sympathised with the parents for what he described as a tragic accident with NO suspicious circumstances. The social workers however still refused torestore the surviving child to the grieving parents ! 

Mother wins fight to get her baby back Scotsman.com by SHAN ROSS, 15 Jun 2006 Corellie Bonhomme now happily reunited with her daughter Fifi after the sheriff's ruling. Picture: Colin Templeton Social workers condemned after newly born child was taken from mother Woman was in last stages of giving birth Sheriff rules social workers action as 'wrong' A SHERIFF has condemned social workers who removed a newborn baby from her mother only minutes after the child's umbilical cord was cut. Two social workers and two sheriff officers entered the birthing suite as Corellie Bonhomme went into the final stages of labour. Immediately after her daughter, Fifi, was born, they took her away after obtaining a sheriff's order giving them permission to take custody. Key quotes He said Ms Bonhomme's long-running dispute with social workers in Camden had led to the authorities in Scotland taking the baby into care unnecessarily. He also criticised the way Fifi was taken. Commenting on the incident in the birthing suite, Sheriff Ross said: "Fifi was removed very soon after birth. It was not clear to me why that was necessary. She was in hospital in the secure care of the staff there. There was no evidence that Ms Bonhomme was intending to leave precipitately." He also questioned Dumfries and Galloway Council for basing the Child Protection Order on "extremely contentious" English proceedings. Sheriff Kenneth Ross Mother "I was in the throes of labour, quite dilated and about to deliver. My back was bent backwards, the head was sticking out and I was just about to push the rest of the body out. I raised my head and saw two men and two women walk into the birthing room." - Corellie Bonhomme Story in full: http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=877002006 also your comments

In common with the majority of civil servants social workers feel that "the State knows best".They have gradually convinced themselves that huge numbers of single mothers or parents  who have been abused while "in care" or by their partners,or who have  learning difficulties,a low income,or a lack of routine just do not have the requisite parenting skills!A dirty and untidy house, a disorganised way of life ,or even simply a hostile attitude to social workers is usually enough for them to remove children from their parents .Often without consulting medical opinion they conclude that a parent has inflicted an injury that could just as easily have been a routine accident ,or worse still they have accused thousands of mothers of deliberately causing injuries to their children to gain attention for themselves!They believe that it is in the interests of these children to place them for long term foster care or adoption with families better equipped to fulfill the children's material and/or intellectual needs! The result is that  large numbers of largely healthy and happy children have been abruptly removed from their homes and transferred to the care of complete strangers!

"And what about Victoria Clmbé " I hear you cry,"and other children who have been brutalized or even killed by their parents ?"Well ,Victoria was not with parents, SHE WAS IN THE CARE OF SOCIAL SERVICES !! They allowed her to stay with with "carers" .Victoria was covered from head to foot with bruises,cigarette burns, and had obviously broken bones.No medical qualifications were needed to prove the sort of brutality she had certainly endured .She was however callously left to die in agony;maybe because social workers consider that children who have been physically or sexually abused are not really as suitable for fostering or adoption as those from poor but happy homes. These social workers,prefer the easy risk free routes so they tend to avoid the dangers of being assaulted by the brutal type of parent and pass on to easier targets ! In any case the sort of mother who comes weeping into court to beg for the return of her children is not usually the type of person who would physically injure her child or allow others to hurt it;Cruel parents who physically mistreat their children almost never come to the family court and would rarely oppose any plans for fostering or adoption if any were made;

"Surely" you say, "A concientious social worker who found after all that there was no good reason to remove a child would then leave it where it was ?" Well, have you ever heard  local goverment officials admit that they have made a mistake?Not often I'm sure! And that is where the trouble begins....Not with the error but with the cover up and the determination not to lose face and to be proved right in the end.The initial assessment must always be proved right whether favourable to parents or not and only evidence favourable to that initial conclusion is noted .Anything unfavourable to SS conclusions is usually discarded.The call by Tony Blair to increase adoption figures and the setting of adoption targets by local authorities has further exacerbated the situation as social workers are motivated more by achieving adoption targets than by helping families to stay together,With these targets in view social workers tend to come to a swift opinion of the parents they visit,and if that opinion is unfavourable they try very hard to maintain that opinion against all opposition.To this end they collect all the evidence they can to support that opinion,discarding any evidence that tends to criticise or undermine it .

Parents who resist are usually labelled " in denial" "suffering from personality disorder",or even "paranoiacs!"The worst sin the parents can commit is to persist in asserting their  innocence! The " social service thought police" supported by the family court judges usually insist on "confession" before any question of restoring the children or even arranging regular contact can be considered. The same process is seen in the family courts if parents fight to retain their children.Social workers ,keen above all to be vindicated, fight to win their case so that the welfare of the child is often lost in the overwhelming desire desire to WIN at all costs!

Social Workers always try to escape responsibility by saying "the courts decide so it's ,not up to us", but of course the judges rarely refuse care orders or adoption placements when social services request them.They treat social workers like police whose word is always to be preferred to the parent's if there is a conflict. Judges have publicly admitted that usually they "go along with social services" as the "safest option" but probably it is really because they feel that to refuse would be taking a risk for which they could be crucified in the press if disaster followed! THESE COWARDLY FAMILY COURT JUDGES ARE THE REAL VILLAINS ! Many family court judges should themselves be punished .THESE RENEGADE ESTABLISHMENT JUDGES SHOULD BE SENT TO PRISON for authorising the snatching of newborn babies at birth from mothers who have never harmed them but who chose "the wrong man" to father their babies!  A jury would in most cases come to conclusions and consequently verdicts quite opposite to those of the judges as they would be for the most part very reluctant to remove children for such hazy concepts as "emotional abuse" or worse still "risk of future emotional abuse",and there would of course be no risk of a comeback for a jury if a single mistake was made. 

All over the world there are famines ,random killings and genocides.Unfortunately in this country there are hundreds of cases of child abuse by parents, but also by fosterers, social workers,and paedophiles working in children's homes!

BBC News Bradford - May 22 2006, Foster carers abused young boys - A gay couple have been warned they face lengthy prison sentences after being found guilty of sexually abusing young boys placed in their foster care. Ian Wathey, 40, and his partner Craig Faunch, 32, were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of a series of sex offences against the boys. BBC News

 Friendly neighbours who had lived peacefully side by side for years in Kosovo and in Bosnia suddenly turned on each other savagely slaughtering  babies and young children .It is a sad fact that seemingly normal ,decent people can very often be persuaded or tempted to perform extremely cruel and horrific deeds .It should not therefore be too hard to understand that the desire of social workers (who are certainly no exception) to be proved right ,more often than not outweighs the welfare of the child .The secrecy of the family courts and the gagging of aggrieved parents who are unable to protest to the media when they lose their children combine to facilitate wins in court for social services and losses for parents !  

In Spain,France, Italy,and most of the countries in Western Europe children are only forcibly separated from their parents when they suffer extreme physical violence or sexual abuse.Professionals from European counties are horrified when they see social workers and secret courts in England taking young children and worse still new born babies for such spurious reasons as "risk of emotional harm" . This concept just does not exist on the continent.Children simply cannot be removed from their parents unless a crime has been committed. Separating children from their parents for past behaviour in different circumstances many years ago is considered a violation of the Human Rights of both child and parent The UK was condemned  by the European Court in the case of p,c,and s, for actions considered "draconian" and the UK was fined.Unfortunately the UK family courts still largely ignore human rights and parents are strongly advised to consider pursuing their cases in the European Court when all else fails. 

There is of course also the money racket that really oils the wheels of the SS adoption and fostering machine,and all the official figures,and government statistics supporting claims made in this section plus other details of these horrors can be found in my "introduction section". 

150 years ago very young children worked in factories and went up chimneys.We look back in horror nowadays and wonder how our great grandfathers let such things happen.I believe that future generations in the UK will take a similar view when reading about the family courts of this era in Britain.Nevertheless such things did happen in Victorian Britain, and the horrors in the family courts that you read about in the papers are equally true at the present time.

Extreme Power can corrupt even the nicest people and it is no exaggeration to say that in many ways social workers certainly have more power over selected individuals than any government minister! Social workers can and do get emergency protection orders on the flimsiest pretexts  (suspicion of devil worship for instance!) and on allegations against parents that frequently have no foundation.No evidence need be presented as simple allegations by social workers or anonymous "referrals" are nearly always sufficient. Conveniently there seems to be no penalty if subsequently the allegations against parents (who must be absent and are not allowed defend themselves at this stage) prove malicious and false.

Judge Condemns Council Staff

Daily Mail, Saturday March 18, 2006

Social workers 'took girl from her family on a whim'
By Steve Doughty - Social Affairs Correspondent

SOCIAL workers took a nine-year-old girl away from her family for more than a year on a whim, a High Court judge said yesterday.

They embellished facts, told untruths and misled a court after deciding to take the girl into care on the spur of the moment, according to a judge.

Social workers decided the child's mother suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy - a condition which is said to make a parent wish to harm their child, Mr. Justice McFarlane’s Judgement revealed.

They did not consult a doctor about their assumption until the girl had been living in council care for three months.

He said he suspected one social worker of a 'malevolent and unprofessional motive' and said the attitude of he council bosses who defended her and her colleagues was 'astounding'.

The judgment said that shortly before the girl was taken from her parents for 14 months, a council meeting on the case had noted: ‘home and care good. Mother and child have good relationship. Detrimental to move.’

Sometimes the Social services behave so outrageously that it is too much for even the most "SS tolerant" of judges in the family court .However,the clearly wronged parents in a case like the recent one portrayed above, still took a year to retrieve their daughter and nobody was prosecuted for perjury or held in contempt for misleading the court !

 Once the order is granted the social workers can demand a police escort to break into the parents house (often in the middle of the night) to drag the children away without giving any reason for their actions!Alas once the children have gone and are "twin tracked" for fostering and adoption it can be very hard indeed for parents to retrieve them.No politicians have powers like these and it is just human nature that powers this great will be abused and used to achieve the social worker's target objectives rather than the reunification of the family and the welfare of the child.

The only way to improve the present situation is to bring in some or most of the reforms suggested on this site and similarly on the "fassit"site .

    

 

REFORMS

 

1. SECRECY
More than 200 MPs have called for the abolition of all secrecy in family courts;
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=29194&SESSION=875 . There should be no gagging orders on parents who should be free like rape victims to waive anonymity and go to the press with their history, their identities, and their complaints (including details of the court proceedings, the witnesses who testified, and the judgement) if they believe their children have been unjustly taken. These children are routinely advertised for adoption like pedigree dogs by social services in magazines "Adoption UK" etc., on the internet www.ukkids.info etc,and even in the Daily Mirror! All with full colour photos, first names and birth dates, allowing easy identification by the neighbours! The secrecy exists to gag protesting parents not to protect the identity of the children and should be scrapped! Also abolition of "jail with no public hearing" (a parliamentary question revealed that more than 200 persons were sent to prison in secret last year by family courts!).

2. HARM & RISK
The notion of "emotional harm" is a vague concept impossible to either prove or disprove and should be scrapped. Most important of all however is "RISK". Parents and children are split up, and in effect punished not because of anything they have done but only for what the “professionals” think someone might do in the future! Perfectly happy and healthy children are declared to be at risk of harm at some time in the future by social workers and hired "experts" (psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists and the like!) who base their opinions very largely on the reports from social workers which are always so thoughtfully provided for them! Parents are asked how they can possibly know better than these highly qualified (and very highly paid!) professionals! In fact the answer is both simple and financial. In the Louise Woodward case for example, top experts disagreed about a possibly shaken baby but each expert gave evidence for the side that paid them!! Some supposedly “top experts” like Professor Meadows, Professor Southall and Dr Marietta Higgs, caused literally hundreds of children to be legally kidnapped on evidence based on their crackpot theories that have now been thoroughly discredited! In any case, the experts hired by social services always tend to take the side of their social service or family court paymasters so children and worse still, newborn babies, are then sent for adoption. This is said to avoid any more risk from parents who are naturally angry and upset that their children have been removed and who can then be declared to be emotionally unstable. A result as unjust as it is absurd! Would any genuinely loving mother be able to remain calm and cooperative with those who had taken her children or worse still, her newborn baby?
On the continent in France, Spain, Italy etc. children are only taken from parents if they have suffered severe physical harm. The concepts of "emotional harm" and "future risk" quite rightly do not exist there! Children from these countries are only taken if a parent has committed or at least been charged with a CRIME against their child. "NO CRIME NO CARE ORDER" should be the rule also in the UK. The simple fact that "other children from the same mother have previously been taken into care" should no longer be considered an adequate reason for removing children, and ESPECIALLY NEW BORN BABIES from parents. Circumstances can and often do change, and it is wicked to ignore such changes. To take a baby from a mother of sound mind who has never in any way caused it harm must be a CRIME (as an article in The Times clearly states). Every completely blameless mother in the UK is at risk of having her baby taken at birth because the father has merely been "suspected" (not charged or convicted) of some violent incident in his distant past. "Too bad you chose the wrong man to father your baby and he/she will now be adopted by strangers" the distressed mother is told!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article759348.ece The perpetrators should be punished!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6297573.stm

3. JURIES
Decisions in contested cases in family courts THAT INVOLVE LONG-TERM FOSTER CARE OR ADOPTION must be decided by jury. Any burglar or other criminal facing a possible 6 months or more in prison has the right to demand a jury so why not a parent facing the loss of a child to adoption? In effect a life sentence! A jury would be less likely to "rubberstamp" demands of social services than "establishment judges", who inevitably take what they often describe as "the safe option" and agree with highly-paid experts who foretell that children are at risk of emotional harm! It is very rare that any judge will restore children or babies to parents against opposition in court from social services. THESE JUDGES ARE THE REAL VILLAINS AS THEIR JUSTICE SHOULD PROTECT THE WEAK NOT OPPRESS THEM. I believe (like The Times article) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article759348.ece that these establishment judges commit a wicked crime every time they condone the taking of newborn babies from sane mothers that have never caused their babies harm. At Nuremburg after World War II the Nazi judges were condemned to prison as criminals and many of our family court judges deserve the same fate. Most of the decisions that now divide children from loving parents would be decided quite differently by a jury! This would soon reduce the number of cases brought by social services before the courts!

4. CONTACT
Telephone contact must never be forbidden between parents and children. Letters and conversation between parents and children must NEVER be censored or restricted by the social service "thought police". Frequency of contact visits between parents and children in care should be decided specifically by a court and NOT left to the discretion of social services who sometimes use their discretion as a weapon to subdue "difficult" parents.

5. NEGLECT
Parents accused of neglect that has not endangered the life of the child (absences from school, dirty or cluttered house etc.) should be given a written warning to put matters right, and a chance to do so before children can be taken.

6. ADOPTION
The Government’s own research in 2001 already showed “concern that the needs of the children were being overlooked because of the struggle to meet adoption targets” http://www.local.dtlr.gov.uk/research/beacyr3/adoption/07.htm .The first step should be abolition of "closed adoption" i.e. where the baby or child is given to new parents whose names and addresses are wrongly kept strictly secret from the birth parents. As a second step, abolition of forced adoption, i.e. when a parent who has not been convicted of any crime that might affect the child opposes adoption in the family court.
Adoption targets and large government rewards for achieving those targets (under public service agreements) should be scrapped. Kent got £21million(!), fosterers get as much as £400 per child per week, Special Schools up to £7000/week per child, adoption agencies around £18000/placement, lawyers as much as £50,000 per case, "experts” up to £4000 for a 3-hour interview with a parent. Without these rewards, social workers and others might be more motivated to keeping families together instead of splitting them up! Over 60,000 children are in care and more than 3000/year are adopted, of which over 700/year are taken after hearings contested by distraught parents who nearly always lose! These figures are extremely disturbing. 20 MPs from all parties have signed early day motion 626 deploring the way social workers take babies and young children into care NOT for the benefit of the child but to meet the adoption targets set by the Government.
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=32301&SESSION=885

7. WITNESSES
So-called "experts" and "professionals" should no longer be allowed to make "prophecies" and "risk assessments" in court but should confine themselves to what has happened not what might happen! Gypsies often claim to foresee the future using a crystal ball and maybe one or two actually do have a gift of sorts! What is certain is that social workers, and their hired and very highly paid psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists do NOT have that gift and these so called "experts" and "professionals" should stop demanding that the courts authorise the removal and possible adoption of babies and children purely on the basis of their unreliable future predictions! It is incredible that in the UK families are ruthlessly split up NOT for events that have happened but for events that so called "experts" think one day might happen! As already stated the Louise Woodward case demonstrated the fallibility of "professionals" when the most distinguished experts in the country disagreed about a "shaken baby" case. Each expert by hazard testified in favour of the side that paid their fees! "Experts” that are selected by social services or by "the court" unsurprisingly almost always end up by deciding that the hapless parents are "in denial" suffer from "paranoia" or have a "personality disorder" simply because like many journalists, from The Times, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail, broadcasters of programmes like “The Real Story” and thousands of other people, they see social workers as "childsnatchers" rather than kindly helpers devoted to the public good! No more forecasts of "risk" from hired experts should be considered in family courts. Parents are rarely allowed by their lawyers to call their own "experts" and if they represent themselves they cannot afford to. Most legal aid lawyers are widely known as "professional losers" because they collect large fees for simply advising parents to give up the fight. They almost never win cases in the civil family courts as they rarely call all the witnesses and often forbid parents to say anything in court at all!! Parents should be able to testify and to call their children, their family doctor, and other family members as witnesses. According to the UN convention on children's rights, to which the UK subscribes, children capable of understanding the nature of a court have the right to testify in proceedings that involve them, and the right to an undisturbed family life including contact with their siblings .These rights are normally completely disregarded by the secret UK family courts. Both parent's human rights and their children's rights should be respected at all times. Hearsay and recorded or video material should no longer be allowed as evidence in family courts.

8. EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDERS
These must be abolished as parents have no opportunity to oppose them or defend themselves. The police have authority (police protection) to remove children they believe to be in danger and they alone should decide if any immediate danger really exists.

9. ADVISOR A McKenzie friend (parent's lay advisor) should be allowed to present the parent's case and cross-examine witnesses. This clause is doubly important when parents have been refused or are not eligible for legal aid. Such a person would usually stand a better chance of winning a case for parents than most of “the legal aid lawyers” (PROFESSIONAL LOSERS) who collect huge fees for advising hapless parents not to fight social services but to go along with everything they say. Parents have no need for lawyers to do that, but how those legal sharks must laugh as they cash in! Parents who represent themselves and who wish to appeal should be supplied by the court with a copy of the judgement within 7 days so that they can put the appeal into court before expiration of the time limit

 10. ACCESS
A parent who loses custody of children to an ex-wife, ex-husband, or ex-partner should have an enforceable right to such contact as the court awards. If such contact is denied or persistently prevented by one parent the court should warn the offending parent that if there is any more refusal to obey a court order for contact then the court will transfer custody to the parent that has been deprived.

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