As we enter the Christmas period we know that thousands of families across the UK who have children in care or cannot be with their children will feel alone and anxious. But you are not alone.
Researching Reform recently launched the Best Interests of the Child Review, which included the publication of a guide setting out every right children and their families have going through the social care system in Britain.
The guide doesn’t just outline all of your rights. It also offers you links to resources and support groups who are there to help. And we are here throughout the Christmas period if you need us, too.
So our message to children and families experiencing the child protection system is please don’t feel there is no hope, no lifeline for you. As well as remaining open throughout the festive season, Researching Reform can also put you in touch with other care experienced parents who run support groups and a range of kind and compassionate organisations who really want to help.
You can access, read and download the Children and Their Families Have Rights Booklet here, and you are always welcome to message us if you need us.
Researching Reform 
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/promise-love-affection-two-years-22523116?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
Spare a thought for neighbours this Christmas.
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There are no grandparents rights.
I wish what you say was true but my experience as a grandmother has been the opposite. When you are told something by social workers you have to accept what is said. You cannot comprehend that you are being lied to for reasons you may not know. Social workers should be transparent but they are anything but. They have their own agenda. It may be keeping the foster carers happy to keep them or use them as Guardians in the future. Foster carers may not want to deal with the birth family. It may be they simply don’t like the family. There could be many reasons but most won’t involve the child or birth family, A child doesn’t have the capacity to understand or make decisions that will ultimately affect him/her but the ones social workers make are designed to help them & foster carers & not necessarily the child or birth family.
We have all seen the failures of the social workers when visiting children with alleged abuse, serious problems ignored, dismissed or they felt others fears & concerns were malicious. I appreciate that signs of abuse may not always be apparent but in all the recent cases in the news, many peoples arms were aching waving red flags to alert them to no avail. They do seem to choose the softer options.
Those children who could & should be safely left at home & who would actually be better off for it. In fact, research in America has shown that children were better off without ANY intervention by social workers. If they weren’t focused on those children they may have more time to train to properly assess those parents who posed a dire risk to their children. To me, it’s clear they have no idea what to look for. In the aftermath when an investigation is held they say lessons will be learned but lessons are never learned because the focus is on the wrong signs. I would hazard a guess that social work training hasn’t changed for decades.
When a child is in care the birth family is ousted, unless it’s a temporary arrangement & that’s the plan from the start. Not all birth families are so wicked that social workers should deny their children/ grandchildren to them but they do. Do those social workers take responsibility for those children losing their real families? No! When they grow up & leave care, do they reintroduce the now grown child to their family? No! Wonder if they visit them once they leave care? When they might get into trouble? I think not.
Not much use having rights if everyone within the system rides rough shod over them.
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