A demonstration in Worcester by parents who have experienced the family courts in England and Wales was held to raise awareness about the problems inside the child protection sector.
The protest was held this afternoon outside Worcester Crown Court, which holds the family courts for the city.
The parents wore masks at the protest to ensure they stayed within family court privacy guidelines which currently forbid parents from publicly revealing details about their cases in discussions which could identify them or their children.
Speaking to Worcester News, one of the parents at the protest said the guidelines were irrational and had turned the courts into secretive venues able to cover up and hide poor practice: “I can only see my children two hours a fortnight. But I can get arrested for talking about my case. Everything is done behind closed doors.”
“Hundreds of people support me but they’re afraid to speak out. They might get gagged and contact with their children might be stopped. We’re complaining about the courts and social services. They’re all together,” he said.
Another parent said, “These secret family courts are corrupt. There’s a hell of a lot of miscarriages of justice going on in these courts.”
Responding to the comments, Tina Russell, chief executive for Worcestershire Children First, told the news outlet: “Worcestershire Children First staff keep children and young people at the heart of everything they do and we take steps to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm where it is necessary.”
We understand at times people can be unhappy about the interventions of children’s services in their lives. Through our quality assurance programme we are always listening to and learning from the experiences of children young people, parents and carers and we use this information to develop and improve our services. Everyone has the right to express their view through peaceful protest and or use of the complaints process,” Russell added.
A growing number of family court judgments in recent years have revealed that children’s social care teams around the country are routinely breaking the law and trying to conceal malpractice.
Despite judges acknowledging these breaches, the family courts currently have limited powers to sanction staff who break the law in local authorities. Parents already under enormous strain and often deeply traumatised by ill-treatment inside the sector rarely launch claims against councils.
Many thanks to Tum Mum for alerting us to this development.
Researching Reform 
Grandparents too. I run the Worcestershire Grandparents’ Support Group and had I known about this I would have been there!
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Really proud of you all. More awareness on forced adoption is needed , thank you for helping tonshine the spotlight on it . Well done to all who attended.
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In my opinion, Family Courts are simply not fit for purpose. The only ones to benefit are the “professionals” running it. The families are processed & divided to generate money. The children are deemed collateral damage. Those “professionals”. then blame the parents for how the children end up thereby exonerating themselves from the trauma they caused when processing them
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Great work Tum and everyone who attended , I cant get a reply currently from the Children’s Secretary of State She’s not even in Whitehall and DOE well don’t get me started . Do you think they learned to write at school? Is that what the problem why they cant respond or are they just breaking there own laws?
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Secret courts are usually found only in Fascist and Communist states or in a few countries ruled by tinpot dictators;It is sad indeed that the UK should join such disreputable company !
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Well done! There needs to be a HUGE Protest in front of the barbarian RCJ and it should be televised so the bloody evil Judges can see for themselves how we feel. They are the major problem as they go along with cruel illogical ideas by corrupt councils and biased advocates to destroy innocent Families.
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‘All organisations providing services to children and young people must ensure that their staff and volunteers are safe to do so. MOST adults who work with children and young people act professionally and aim to provide a safe environment for the children and young people in their care, however, it must be recognised that there are adults who will deliberately seek out, create or exploit opportunities to abuse children.’ 😪
‘Everyone has the right to express their view through peaceful protest and or use of the complaints process,” Russell added.’
Not if the complaints process is flawed, which it is. Not if parent’s are put off escalating their complaint higher, lied to they cannot when there are 3 stages, not if when parent’s complain first verbally to the manager or manageress to get laughed off and humiliated on top of the bullying they’ve already received, not if different complaint outcomes are held on the consumer relation department’s of the council’s files stating complaint partly upheld but the parent’s copy does not reflect this, not if by the time parent’s go higher, a stranger who has never met the parent’s responds and therefore misunderstands the concerns incorrectly or deliberately so, not if also when it goes higher, the one who dealt with the complaint re-investigates themselves leading to a flawed outcome from said investigation, not if complaining causes social services to treat the parent’s even worse than they already did before doubling down on them 👀🤔
And – ‘we take steps to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm where it is necessary.”’ to do this would involve honesty and transparency including with the judge’s, instead of targeting the children to take them away and abusing the process the way it is done.
‘We understand at times people can be unhappy about the interventions of children’s services in their lives.’
It’s not the interventions as much as the way the interventions are handled so badly and to have the children and young people at the heart of everything they do, would mean been honest and transparent with the parents and the child.
That’s perhaps some of the reasons for the peaceful protests 🕊️🦋 Xxxxxxxx
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