Today, on World Children’s Day, Researching Reform is launching the Best Interests of the Child Review (BIC) – a complete review into children’s social care in England and Wales.
It is also launching “Children and their Families have Rights” – the first booklet to set out every legal right children and their families have when they go through child welfare and child protection processes in Britain.
BIC is parent-led and places children’s and families’ views at the front of its work. Our review has four main goals:
- Identify problems affecting children and families inside the social care sector;
- Offer immediate help and support to children and families impacted by these problems;
- Highlight the cultural, legal and social work practices creating or contributing to the problems, and share pioneering solutions to those problems and;
- Produce real-world, workable solutions to address problems, at little or no extra cost to the tax payer.
The review’s lead is Michele Simmons, a care experienced mother who lost her son to adoption but was later reunited. She now works as a groundbreaking researcher looking into irregular adoptions, and pioneered Section 20 consent forms for parents and children. As part of her work, Michele supports and helps other families who have been through, or are going through, public family law proceedings.
BIC also welcomes Simon Haworth, a lecturer within the Department of Social Work and Social Care at the University of Birmingham. Simon is a core member of the Parents, Families and Allies Network (PFAN), a parent-led organisation which aims to change children’s social work from being child protection and rescue focused to child rights focused in order to strengthen the family and the community.
The review’s website has a testimonials page which features comments from children and families who have experienced the system, and we will keep accepting testimonials from families throughout the review.
The review is not funded by any organisation, body or government department. Every team member for the review is working without financial compensation.
BIC will be holding an “Ask Us Anything” online conference, where attendees can ask us questions about the review. The conference will take place on Wednesday 1 December, 2021 from 5pm to 6pm.
Email the review team at contactbicreview@gmail.com to receive information about how to access the event. Please confirm you would like to attend the event in your message, and let us know if you are a care-experienced child or parent, social care stakeholder, government affiliate, academic, journalist or member of the public.
Links:
- Access the BIC website here.
- Read families’ testimonials here.
- Download “Children and their Families have Rights” for free, here.
- Listen to a short podcast about the BIC team here.
Researching Reform 
Great news! Good luck to all involved! 😀
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xxxxxxx
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A most desperately needed service. There is not only a lot to be done, but it is in severe adversity from the establishment.
It would be interesting to discuss your stratagy in detail with you at some point.
I already have admiration for Natasha and Michelle.
Best regards and voting for you.
Tom Dobbie
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Thank you for your support and encouragement, Tom.
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Thank you 🕊️🦋 Xxxx
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Reblogged this on tummum's Blog and commented:
Email the review team at contactbicreview@gmail.com to receive information about how to access the event.
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“BIC is parent-led and places children’s and families’ views at the front of its work. ”
That indeed is an encouraging start as all similar reviews and conferences to date have virtually ignored the views of children and families passing them over in favour of those of lofty persons calling themselves “the professionals”
Congratulations Natasha for actually getting your priorities dead right !
My own suggestions for reform are simple enough:- “Replace social workers in child protection by trained police and replace family courts by criminal courts to deal with child cruelty and neglect.That after all is how it used to be………….
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Many thanks, Ian, appreciated.
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Also, ensure the ‘professionals’ don’t lie or fabricate evidence especially when they mess up.
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Fantastic!! Well done to all involved.
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Thank you Kathryn, from Michele, Simon and myself.
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what about scotland many are suffering up there
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Hi Ann, the laws and policies are different in Scotland but BIC. would always be happy to share its formula and findings with anyone launching a review there.
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Yep!! Scotland has their fare share of corrupt S worker’s. I have been trying to get custody of my granddaughter for the last 2 & a 1/2 yrs, as her mother died when she was 5 months old, ( 99.99% sure it was suicide because this was the second child they took from her). They have totally destroyed my character, using the fact that I was in a abusive relationship (over 15 years ago) to discredit me. These people need to be held accountable.
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My experience of social care [edited] is of complete incompetence lies and cover ups to the highest level we took our issues right to the top with [edited] the head of service who made promises to us so we would drop our complaints only for social services to refuse to perform any of the agreed actions.
Every social worker we have had has blatantly lied to our about us and Evan went as far as informing the hospital we were agreeing to giving out baby up for adoption at birth when we did not resulting in the hospital trying to remove our baby shortly after birth.
Every document they right which they actually bother to give us always has errors in and incorrect information which they refuse to correct when rightfully challenged about it. They never give us the minutes to meetings as they are required to do we often have to make data protection request to get these which we should not have to. They pass there opinion off as fact in documents and refuse to change it Evan if you can produce evidence to prove they are wrong. They miss read important documents and refuse to except they are wrong when corrected. They also refuse to except evidence from you which goes against their views or opinions when doing assessment. I could go on for ever but to sum up they are corrupt and incompetent and should not be allowed to continue the job as they are more of a risk due to the many issues they refuse to correct.
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Thank you for your comment, and for your courage in posting. I’m so sorry to hear about what you and your family have been through. I have had to edit the comment because of reporting restrictions, but this kind of rule and law breaking happens far too much, and this is one of the key areas BIC is going to highlight and ensure the government acknowledges and addresses it.
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This is EXACTLY my experience with children’s social workers
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I know this feeling. Sadly, they are a law unto themselves. An overhaul of the system to stop such as this happening is long overdue.
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!00% true. I know where you are coming from as it is happening to me 😦
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“Produce real-world, workable solutions to address problems, at little or no extra cost to the tax payer.”
I have seen reports, mostly of the USA (where things are mostly worse) and Australia (where things are similar) which indicate that, if one takes a long-term view of the total societal financial costs, preventing corruption and ideological influence in the state’s family matters works out to be far cheaper. Bemoaning that doing things right costs more money is not accurate: getting it wrong costs not only in human misery but financially, too.
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Spot on …
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But aren’t there an awful lot of people making huge sums of money from the system just as it is?
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In terms of general child welfare, in the USA money almost certainly is a motivator: that’s how society is organised. In the most counties, I’m not sure that there are a lot of people making money until you look into specific areas like adoption and abortion.
Much of what is going on is ideological—the move to remove children from fathers (half-way complete) and mothers (started in earnest only in recent years) and place them under state ‘ownership’. Then there is the motivation of media, which leads to job prospects: taking a child away won’t (can’t) appear in the news, but leaving a child with abusive parents will hit the media big time, so the motivation is to err on the side of taking children away from parents. But a lot of it is sheer incompetence or overwork.
That overwork issue should not be ignored. Some months, a local authority has to deal with five times more child issues than on other months but a local council department can find it hard to justify staff even for the average numbers, leaving times when decisions have to be made with very little staff time available. Even the most capable people can’t perform well when so overworked.
I really wish solutions were as easy as blaming the profit motive, or writing off most judges as fools. But it is a lot more complex and I suspect big problems often arise from a combination of factors which individually would only be a minor problem.
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A huge subject indeed for reforms and one which I will send some focused thoughts in on as an Adoptee with shocking lived experience and a future from it of CPTSD .. Thanks a lot society by the way .. Thanks for the social insanity I had to bear falsifying my whole life..
As a child abused Adoptee (inside adoption) that did a 2021 survey of 95 UK Adoptees and 40% wanted “Revocation” (ending adoptee status) – it’s clear to me politicians want to ignore the sub group we are . I’ve sent the survey to the All Parliamentary Group for Adoption (Rachael Maskell MP) and the Children and Families Under Secretary (Vicky Ford MP then Will Quince MP) ..Not even an acknowledgements the survey exists .. Hah .. Typical .. I did not expect much though. Too old for that..
We are an important sub group though in reform changes because we show up the negative side of Adoption – without legal remedy – without even thought or adoption informed therapy services for our pains..Therapy resources for instance are mainly pushed at kids and Adopters (Adoption Support Fund) and the cut off for help from the funds is age 25 .. Most adoptees do not emerge from the dissociation it causes until later ..Many end up paying for private therapy or going half mad and using the NHS classified as “Personality Disordered” types ..
It’s tough accepting institutions are abusive to kids by the very institutional practitioners that push falsification of of identity creating numbed out pains of altered identities .. What a shame we become adults with a voice which was trampled out in silences when we were younger and so compliant.
I am looking for the following as a solution : A DIY method of getting to High Court with a case for Revocation albeit late in the day as an adult Adoptee but with a clear child abused story on a statutory declaration that I was child abused (sexual/emotional/identity senses) in many ways by Adoption ..I even have a therapist of 36 years I can get a report from ..
Screw the idea of paying high prices for Barristers etc … No way .. Working class people need better social methods and DIY methods of braving it and telling their story so as long as they have proofs of what happened .. So that’s my bottom line as an Adoptee who along with others needs an Article 8 case taking so I can rightfully “live as my chosen self and identity” …. Claiming back all of my real-birth-Self is important .. Even though I am damaged till I die ..
Everyone else can do that – claim their own identity status ! .. Gays and Trans people can be identity recognised but Adoptees with DNA proof of who they are still remain locked inside court papered over identities which is a travesty if you already knew who you were and a travesty too if you’ve been child abused and do not wish to bear the names of your Adopter-abusers.. Many adult adoptees too without being abused do not wish any more to have “adoptee-status” … It’s wrong for them and they feel it ..
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Thank you Paul, and the review will look forward to your submission on this important topic.
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Well most of what I can put is there but I will attach the survey and Suzanne who did the survey with me will likely do another with me .. We do need to repeat matters ideally because the systems we have are just so fortressed against us all .. It’s that bad ..
When you test democracy at Govt levels it does exist really it’s all top down and pretences of listening .. It seems one has to do exceptional things to get heard ..
Ps I have an icon now …. Jealousy over it is fine by me … Hahahha ..
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Just showing off my new rabbit icon .. It’s about time I figured out how to burrow into Wordypress soils .. The Rabbit has landed ..
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This sounds like a breath of fresh air with promising intentions.
as for what impact it will have on such a powerful corrupt SS system remains to be seen. the SS have in-house Law and Governance professionals who are paid to protect corrupt social workers and paid to dismiss complaints about them from parents. These LA Solicitors are just as dirty and corrupt as the social workers they protect.
i will happily give my experience of the rotten child protection system and how the family courts tend to believe just about anything the SS present in case files.not to mention how Judges turn a blind eye to false information that was proven to be false in their court. to me its nothing short of Organized Crime on a monumental scale.
The Tuam Scandal in northern Ireland is without doubt a mirror of the same rotten corrupt system in the UK.
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Thank you Keith, we will look forward to receiving your invaluable feedback once we start the submission process. Take care.
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Thank you Natasha, keep me posted please, and keep up the good work. it is and will be much appreciated by thousands of parents and children in the not too distant future.its all about lifting the lid, how ever difficult that may be.
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I will do.
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This is such great news and I would love to take part. Thank you Natasha. As a parent who has been taking part in the ongoing review of children’s social care I can tell you that Mr. Josh MacAlister didn’t even bother to attend the only session which was aimed at ‘birth’ parents. He must have had something more important to do that day which probably involved talking to ‘professionals.’ I can also tell you that in the first session, which involved all groups, we voted on questions so that the top few could be further discussed. Falsehoods in social work reporting received the second highest number of votes and so was discussed in depth yet has apparently ‘disappeared’ from the reviews findings.
We currently have a system in which social workers are free to make up the most outlandish untruths with complete impunity. It really seems that their only aim is the destruction of families. There is meme on facebook groups which shows a woman scolding a child with the words ‘If you carry on lying you will grow up to be social worker.’ Parents so commonly report that the social worker has lied that it does seem that those entering this particular profession must be in some way trained to be dishonest. Perhaps the job rewards dishonesty or maybe just appeals to those with a natural ability to lie with ease in the first place. Surely most human beings wouldn’t feel comfortable making stuff up in order to ensure a child will loose all who love them?
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Thank you for your comment, and for your insight into the current review. I’m saddened but not surprised. We’d love for you to engage with BIC, and look forward to receiving your submission when we start that part of the review. As you may have seen from the review website, we will be investigating dishonesty, fabrication, law breaking and human rights violations.
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Great news Natasha, I sincerely hope it goes well!! 🙏🏾🙏🏾
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Thank you LKL, appreciated.
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EXTRACT FROM BARNARDOS RESULTS PUBLISHED ON LINE
Results for 2018-19
Our total income and endowments increased this
year to £306.0m (2018: £304.3m) as shown in the
Statement of Financial Activities on page 41. Of the
increase, £5.5m came from donations and legacies,
£3.4m from our retail and trading activities, and
£0.3m from our investments, offset by a reduction
in income from the development and sale of properties
of £6.4m and a reduction of £1.0m in fees and
grants for delivering children’s services.
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At last a proper independent review.
I will be happy to submit my testimony how neuro diverse families are targeted and abused by social and nobodybu have approached in any formal position in social, council or my MP or even Ofsted, wants to admit and accept the serious abuse.
Not even SWE or LGO are capable of taking these issues seriously
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Thank you Rich, really appreciated.
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I hope you are contacting me?
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Thank you for your comment. The review won’t be able to reach out to everyone individually, but we will be announcing calls for evidence and would welcome your feedback. You can check the BIC review’s website to see when the review makes its calls for evidence, or subscribe to the site to get these announcements when they’re published. Many thanks. https://bicreview.com/
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