We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and thank our viewers for taking the time to read our posts, engage with the Researching Reform community and help to shine a light on some of the most important issues of our time.
This is also a period in which we invite you to remember those mothers and fathers who cannot be with their children this festive season, as they are being kept in state care.
In the ten years that we have been assisting families, we have never come across a parent or family member that did not love their child deeply.
If anyone doubts that reality, all you have to do is look at the way parents who lose their children to care behave once those children are gone.
Filled with the most awful pain imaginable, they fight to win their children back. They will tell you that they are prepared to do whatever it takes, but that being treated badly inside the system has made it impossible to engage with the people in charge of taking their children away. They speak calmly, and truthfully, but you have to listen first.
Perhaps the most telling signs of all, are an incredible grace and dignity in the face of their awful truth. Many of these parents go on to campaign for change, to help others going through child protection proceedings, and some even break the rules to show that the rules are broken.
Our thoughts go out to the parents and extended family members whose Christmases will feel empty and cold without their children at home. Please know that you are never alone, and that there are many of us out there, thinking about you and trying to make a change, for the better, with you.
Wishing you all a hopeful New Year,
Researching Reform xxx
Researching Reform 
And I wish a horrible , miserable Xmas for all those disgusting social worker baby snatchers who take babies at birth for future risk and for the cruel judges that back them up by rubberstamping their demands; Worse still are the treacherous shyster lawyers who betray their parent clients by gagging them and surrendering their precious children without any fight or contestation.
Meanwhile the fostering and adoption agencies declare millions of £s profits every year to reward greedy unscrupulous shareholders that include judges and social workers amongst their revolting and ever increasing numbers.
How do they all sleep at night?
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And a Merry Christmas to Researching Reform for the unwavering work that you do year after year.
Also, best wishes to all the Victims of the SS who will be feeling down this Christmas when instead they should have been enjoying the festive season with their much loved Children who are being held prisoners against their will.
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Merry Christmas to all.
And for all those who are living without their children, whether because of social services, an oath-breaking ex-partner who has your children, or because you have to dedicate your service to others this week, I wish you an especially calm and peaceful time and urge you to enjoy yourselves as much as you are able.
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In relation to “…remember those mothers and fathers who cannot be with their children this festive season, as they are being kept in state care [sic]”
Readers might be interested in reading about William Collins’ summing-up on the departure of Baroness Hale, she of the ‘equality is not about treating people the same’ statement and the architect of the 1989 Children Act, which has seen 90% those adopted from social “care” being enforced adoptions in which the parents’ consent is “dispensed with”.
William Collins is a leading gender and family researcher and blogs at The Illustrated Empathy Gap. http://empathygap.uk/?p=3163
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Wishing everyone the peace and success to get their children back… Who lost them….. It’s an awful feeling although I can’t fully imagine how it feels as this pain is bigger than a death sentence. My cafcass recommended once that if a care order is needed for my son without even knowing the fact that how much I care for my son. But that statement took my sleep away, my body and mind was frozen till next decision and I couldn’t feel ground under my feet…. The parents who actually lost them will never be able to recover from the pain even if they get them back… As they lost such crucial time which they could have spent with their children.
I have the biggest wish from God that they all get their children back….
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Merry Christmas Natasha. Thank you for your tireless work in shining a light on the dark world of the Care System.
It’s been a few years now & I have noticed especially this year that other voices involved in the care system are now resonating with yours. Finally others are seeing the negative effects on the children from such an inadequate, broken, soul destroying, misnamed care system.
The Care System is still is in crisis, breaking up families & setting kids up to fail in adulthood. Ofsted has its work cut out & I’m sure their thresholds are being lowered to cope with the level of failings up & down the country.
This morning I listened to LBC’s phone in on the care system & heard that care leavers represent 49% of the prison population. That is staggeringly tragic & an indication that care does not work.
Children were passed on from foster carer to foster carer, mostly out of the area they knew & were familiar with. Foster carers phoned in to say they weren’t listened to; children weren’t told of their rights & they weren’t listened to either; Social workers blamed lack of money & staff; Care leavers didn’t have the support they needed when in care, to deal with being taken into care and from the start they wanted to stay home, despite the problems & now they were leaving care with no one to support them.
Some noted the system is solely money driven, with foster carers raking in thousands weekly & only doing fostering because of the financial rewards. One care leaver was even paid “shut up money” by an alcoholic woman who was paid to look after him but didn’t. He was in his fifties & now a successful businessman but still emotionally wrecked by the abuse he received by those paid to look after him whilst in care. He was not alone.
The hour long programme was instigated because Anne Longfield the Children’s Commissioner for England was alarmed at the level of children in care increasingly being moved away from their families putting them at greater risk of ‘country lines exploitation’. Her report ‘Pass the Parcel’ was about 30,000 children living in privately run children’s homes living away from areas they know. Local Authorities are accused of being ‘recruitment sergeants’ for drug gangs who exploit the kids. One could liken what is happening to something similar, written by Charles Dickens in the Victorian era but that was so much milder than what is happening today.
It’s about time the system was radically changed to reflect the world we live in today. One that is supposed to be more enlightened & family oriented. Supporting families would go a long way in stopping children going into care & becoming just another failed statistic or a ‘Frequent Flyer’ which is the name given to the kids by the Police.
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Thank you for your kind, and deeply thoughtful comment.
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Merry Christmas to all of us who have Natasha to thank, for allowing us to comment & providing an outlet to voice our opinions & experiences of the Care System.
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