BBC: Rise in babies in care proceedings raises fears of unnecessary adoptions

[HH_Dad]

From the BBC today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c52e9k3998e7o

The most worrying extract being: 'Social workers are at the heart of the decision-making process as to whether a child should be taken into care'.

Social workers that - from the experience my wife and I had a few years ago - were still kids themselves. One we had (I won't name them) was early 20's at most, and these people are recommending taking babies/children off of families. It is quite unbelievable.

I am based in LA and shortly after our ordeal, Children's Services were rated as 'inadequate'. Yet these people have the power to do this.

Something is very wrong with the system.

Edited to remove location to preserve confidentiality in accordance with rules of use.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear HH_Dad,

Thank you for your recent post and your reflection on the BBC report on the significant rise in numbers of babies involved in care proceedings here.
I am Suzie, an online adviser for Family Rights Group replying to you today.

I am sorry to hear that you had a negative experience of children’s social care.
The BBC report draws on research from Lancaster and Oxford universities identifying a number of factors that may be contributing to this rise.

You have highlighted the role of social workers and explained that you found the youth of the professionals you previously encountered to be unsettling and an obstacle to trust.

Social Work England is responsible for ensuring professional standards in the social work profession. You can link to their website here and read the professional standards that each social worker has to adhere to here.

Family Rights Group regularly highlights current trends, research and areas within the children's social care system that are in need of reform. We encourage participation and contributions from parents, kinship carers and care experienced young people in these discussions. You can link to news and blogs on current work here. I hope this is of interest, and thank you again for sharing your experience and comments.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[HH_Dad]

Hi Suzie,

Thanks for pointing out where I can raise awareness of news stories elsewhere on the site. Just a couple of points I would like to address:

If by ‘negative experience’ you mean being incorrectly accused by a hospital of harming our then 14-month old son, arrested, thrown in Police cells, and then taken to court then yes, it most definitely was a negative experience of Children’s Services!

And with regards to the age of the youth ‘professionals’, I would not have had an issue with this if they had been honest, less judgmental – and trustworthy. But they told blatant lies about my wife and I. As I have stated before, I have names of the individuals involved and evidence of this.

I know several people that have had dealings with Social Services/Children’s Services for various matters (none quite as unbelievable as my situation) and no one (and I do mean no one) has a good word to say about them.

Our case lasted ‘only’ three months and ended when a leading Pediatric Radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital confirmed what my wife and I had been saying all along – that we had caused absolutely no harm to our son.

Interestingly, after our case ended, over the next few months we became aware of six other cases at the same hospital which all involved young (under 18-months old) little boys which had all either been thrown out of court or ended early due to the same hospital getting things wrong. Now was that just a gigantic coincidence, or was there something else going on?