A father who has accused Worcestershire Children’s Services of unnecessarily removing his daughter from his care instead of offering her therapeutic support at home has organised a demonstration to protest against her adoption.

The demonstration came to the attention of Worcestershire County Council last week after the father placed posters around the area, some of which have been taken down by the council who said the flyers had been “illegally placed on the county hall campus.”

The poster said: “Have Worcestershire Children First taken your kids? Have they told lies about you? Have they used crystal ball laws to take your children (future risk of harm)? Have your children been forcibly adopted against your wishes? It’s time to stand up to this corrupt profit making organisation.”

Speaking to Worcester News, the father said, “Myself and other families across the country have had enough of the corruption.”

“The way things are conducted are shrouded in secrecy but we want to spread the word that we will not back down whilst our kids our ripped from their homes. We will not be silenced.”

A spokesperson for Worcestershire Children First told the Worcester News, “Worcestershire Children First staff continue to keep children and young people at the heart of everything they do and act in a professional and timely way to protect children from harm.”

Worcestershire County Council was given a grade 4 ‘inadequate’ rating in 2017 — the worst possible grading by watchdog Ofsted — after a catalogue of serious failings were identified by inspectors.

The council was inspected again in 2019 and received a grade 3, ‘requires improvement’ rating. In that same year, the council admitted that too many children leaving care were still living in bed and breakfasts. Ofsted said the number had not improved since the council’s 2016 inspection.

The council has said it is working through its five-year plan to have at least a ‘good’ rating by 2022.

Despite the council’s claims that its children’s services are professional and efficient, concerns by parents who reach out to the council for help persist.

Another father who tried to secure help for his autistic son told the Worcester News on 19th May that the council had told him he would have to make his son homeless before being able to access urgent support for his child.

The gap in care stems from a change in policy once a child reaches 18. Speaking to the newspaper, the father said, “Before he turned 18 he was under CAHMS and they were brilliant, absolutely amazing. They got him diagnosed and medicated and he had the most amazing councillor, but since being transferred to the adult mental health services it has all gone down hill. It is a constant battle now to get him the support he needs. They have undone all the hard work that CAHMS did with him and it is wrong.”

Following a request from the newspaper for information about the case, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and Worcestershire County Council said, “We can confirm that whilst changes to Ethan’s support plan are being discussed and implemented, all support is being planned from the family home as per the wishes of both Ethan and his dad at this time.”

The protest has been planned to take place on 17th September, from 9am outside Worcester County Hall.

Many thanks to Tum Mum for alerting us to this development.

Welcome to another week.

These are the child welfare stories that should be right on your radar:

• US Puts Pressure On UK To Hand Over Prince Andrew For Jeffrey Epstein Sexual Abuse Claims
• ‘I was a victim of sexual abuse as a child but I’m using my experience to help other young people’
• Paedophile headteacher Daniel Chapman at ‘risk of repeat’ offending

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• New children and education complaint decisions: Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (several family court complaints are included, note: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council)
• NHS England prepares to vaccinate children aged 12-15
• New Research: The effect of spanking on early social-emotional skills

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Regulator calls for debate on social media use after warning social worker for ‘anti-trans’ posts
• Happiness of British children declines in past decade
• Child mortality in England dropped significantly during COVID-19 pandemic

A new research paper about to be published in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law, argues that the pandemic did not create a hostile environment for children in New York City and that claims of undetected child abuse were unfounded.

The paper, entitled, “An Unintended Abolition: Family Regulation During the COVID-19 Crisis,” written by Anna Arons, an acting assistant professor of lawyering at New York University, suggested that the pandemic had made a strong argument for the abolition of New York’s children’s social services, and that one of the issues was that poor parents and families from ethnic minorities had been unfairly targeted by these services before the pandemic.

Another finding from the research, which was carried out in New York City and which analysed data from the pandemic with a follow-up 12 months later, was that there had been no rise in undetected child abuse throughout the five boroughs in the city.

The New York City Administration for Children’s Services’ Commissioner David Hansell, also agreed with the findings, and said it was just as likely that the pandemic was “a very positive thing” for children, many of whom spent more quality time with their parents.

The findings have led mothers in New York City with firsthand experience of the system there to lobby the government with an ambitious reformation programme to change the way the system approaches child protection.

The proposals include revising mandatory reporting of child abuse (which is not currently policy in the UK), officials being required to tell parents what their legal rights are immediately, and removing unnecessary and invasive monitoring procedures which cause trauma.

There is a very good article on this development published in The New Republic, which can be accessed here.

Anna’s research paper can be found here.

Many thanks to Simon Haworth for alerting us to this development.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Deadline looms for parents to update Child Benefit for 16 year olds
• COVID-19 vaccination: resources for children and young people
• Man Jailed 15 Years For Raping Numerous Children
• Woman accused of leaving toddler disabled after running him down and driving over him

Welcome to another week.

A family law barrister, with 15 years’ experience, said that the family justice system was unsafe for domestic violence victims, lacked transparency and left her traumatised, after experiencing her own contact battle as a mother through the courts.

The barrister, who chose not to reveal her identity in a Daily Mail piece published today, said her ex partner had made the submission for contact following her refusal to let their daughter have overnight stays with him because of abuse the mother had suffered by the father.

The barrister lost her case and is now appealing.

In the story, she says staff inside the system made her feel belittled, and bullied her, and that her allegations of abuse were minimised and dismissed while her former partner’s behaviour was described by the judge in her case as ‘inappropriate parenting.’

She told the Daily Mail, “My experience convinced me the family court is not safe for women and children who are victims of abuse. I was telling the truth, had medical and police evidence, and had done everything ‘right’. Yet I lost the case.”

The barrister told the tabloid she was now too traumatised to go back to work as a family law barrister.

While it is good of this lawyer to come forward and tell her story in order to highlight the poor practice and lack of awareness around domestic abuse, this is not the first time a professional inside the family justice system has ‘turned’ on the system after being targeted by it.

At least one female solicitor and one female social worker have come forward in recent years to criticise the family courts after having to go through the system as a service user.

What really concerns Researching Reform however, is that these individuals all worked inside the system for years — in the case of the barrister in this story, for more than a decade — and yet they appear not to have understood or cared to acknowledge and address the very serious gaps inside the courts while earning a living from that system.

Gaps, which by their own admission, deeply traumatise people when they are at their most vulnerable, and in extreme cases put the lives of children and parents at risk.

Anyone who has been inside the system for more than a moment can see very clearly that it is reckless with people’s lives – professionals inside the system shouldn’t wait until they are personally affected before advocating for change.

You can read the story in full here.

Many thanks to Dana for alerting us to this story.

A mother who said she was repeatedly raped and threatened by the father of her child has lost her appeal to prevent the father from being notified about care proceedings involving their daughter.

The mother, who told the court that their daughter was conceived through non-consensual sex (rape), said the father had threatened to kill their daughter unless she had an abortion.

The father, who is married to another woman, warned the mother in a text that if anything was said to alert his wife to the pregnancy, “you will see a very, very different side of me”. The father then blocked the mother’s telephone number, and has not played any role in his child’s life since.

Prior to the mother raising her appeal, a judge in the High Court ruled that the threats and perceived fears around the mother’s and the child’s safety were unfounded because the threats, several of which were published on social media, had not currently been followed up with any physical action by the father.

Judge Wood also said it was important for the child to know her father, because of her mixed-race heritage.

Concluding his reasoning, Wood said, “I am not satisfied that this is an exceptional case. I am not satisfied that the risk in this instance is of such an order that it cannot be managed, and appropriate measures put in place.”

You can read the judgment, which is relatively short, on BAILII.

A good summary of the judgment is also available on Local Government Lawyer.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Nicola Sturgeon urged to double Scottish Child Payment to help families at next budget
• Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for 12-17 year olds approved by UK
• 3.1 million children in England going to school with polluted air, new analysis shows

As part of our image of the month series, this month’s featured artist is Paul Brian Tovey.

Paul is an adoptee who was abused by his adoptive parents, and now campaigns for adoptees to be able to revert back to their birth identities as a legal right.

Channeling his pain through his art, Paul’s drawings are unique, poignant and very beautiful.

The featured image on Researching Reform’s banner is called Going Home Key, but we are also adding a gallery of several other paintings by Paul, below.

You can follow Paul on Twitter at @PaulWal56321013.

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