A new study published in the UK by Family Rights Group, suggests that cruel treatment of families by social workers is not only common but also affects the likelihood of positive outcomes in cases. The research concludes that social care can and should incorporate humane social work practices, even when the system is under pressure.

The report, “Stepping up, stepping down”, was co-authored by professors Kate Morris (University of Sheffield), Brid Featherstone (University of Huddersfield), and Katie Hill (University of Nottingham) and Dr Mike Ward (Open University).

The researchers collaborated with 20 families as part of the Your Family, Your Voice Alliance, which the report says is a national initiative seeking to “develop humane evidence-informed policies and practices”.

The report includes the views of 27 adults and 10 children. Over 80% of the families interviewed have been involved with welfare services for more than five years.

The study highlights inhumane and cruel encounters families experience inside the social work sector, and offers some heartbreaking stories shared by service users:

‘She saw me sobbing in reception and she walked past me twice and then said there were nothing wrong’ I said to the social worker I wasn’t prepared to leave because XXX was being sick, he was alone and somebody needed to be with him. But it seemed that nobody wanted to listen to what we had to say …It was horrible. All I wanted to do was hug him and I couldn’t hug him, I had to sort of hold him here because he was covered in sick; his clothes were covered in sick. It was crusted where they had not changed his clothes.”

“I don’t feel like she had any time for us at all. I didn’t feel like she wanted to listen, she had made her mind up before she had even got here. I think the thing is, because XXX’s dad has got a history of drug use and prison, she formed an opinion before she met me. I have never taken drugs and have never been in prison. What happened was she came into the meeting, a child in need meeting at school, and me and (my partner) had an argument. She sat there and said, “I was driving here today in the car and I was thinking, ‘shall I put this on child protection or shall I just kick it out? No, I think I will put it on child protection’ “. That is exactly how she said it, in front of all the other people. I thought, ‘How can you make that judgement on one…?’ She met me once. Then she has made a judgement coming to work in her car. That put me off her straight away.”

“They released her sedated after midnight without letting anyone know, she got attacked trying to get home, staggering around with the tablets and we didn’t know.”

The families who took part in the study were selected from the following services:

• A Post-adoption support project
• A Family Intervention Project focused on families with multiple problems including antisocial behaviour
• Three Local Authority (LA) Children’s Services working with highly vulnerable children and families
• A service working with sexual exploitation and abuse
• A support group for survivors of domestic abuse and their children
• A national advice and advocacy service for families whose children were involved with children’s services
• Two self-help organisations involving families with multiple needs.

There were five key findings from the report:

1. Services were multiple but scarce, fragmented and siloed
2. Constant reminders that resources were scarce produced barriers between families and social services, making positive engagement much harder
3. Not enough time spent with families and too many delays combined to create feelings of abandonment, resentment and misunderstandings
4. Interpersonal skills are deeply valued by families
5. Families are often left out of service design, and had negative experiences when complaining about poor service.

The report also offers five key messages from these findings:

1. Fragmented services leave families feeling demeaned, and need to be streamlined
2. Develop everyday practices that acknowledge poverty and the impact that has on family life and work with families to try to address their financial and economic needs
3. Demonstrate respect for families through good timekeeping and where timeliness is difficult, recognise that can also be the case for families
4. Utilise the knowledge of families to inform professional development and to support the development of humane practice
5. Involve families in thinking about the commissioning of services , and use the expertise of families who have experience of the child welfare system to develop and evaluate the services.

We are heartened by this latest research and thrilled to see this thinking entering the mainstream. Kudos to the authors.

Family Experiences In Photos, From Stepping Up, Stepping Down Report, October 2018.

Parents inside the family justice system have come out in support of a Crown Court judge who compared Barnsley council’s social workers to Nazis after their handling of an investigation left a vulnerable child traumatised.  The council forced the young girl to strip naked and undergo an invasive medical examination, weeks after her mother had committed suicide. Barnsley council also wrongly accused the girl’s father of sexually abusing her.

Judge Robert Moore told the court that the council’s “social services were like the SS of Nazi Germany.” Moore went on to say, “they’re literally the SS in their name, and their manner of working is somewhat draconian.” The father was being sentenced for harassing a teacher at his daughter’s school.

Families took to Facebook to voice their support for Judge Moore, in response to Barnsley council’s decision to raise a formal complaint with Sheffield Crown Court, where the judge was sitting at the time he made the comments about the local authority’s social workers.

One father wrote:

“He got it bang on, that’s exactly what social workers are… parents agree on this once they’ve been through the system. The Nazi regime means that no matter what you do, if they want your kids you lose… it’s how the Nazis were, so the comparison is real and there for all to see. It’s nice to see that a judge has finally seen it for that. He shouldn’t be persecuted, he should be hailed as a hero.” In a show of agreement, several posters liked and ‘hearted’ the comment.

Another poster wrote:

“What do they expect when they destroy loving happy family lives… with no evidence at all.”

A further comment read:

“Finally, a judge that speaks the truth.”

One Facebook poster accused Barnsley council of trying to censor the judge, while another felt that a complaint should be made about the council’s conduct, rather than the judge’s.

The news that a judge criticised child social workers during a hearing in the criminal courts is another blow to the family justice system, which has been struggling for over a decade to shed its negative image.

Families across the UK have taken to calling social services around the country, “The SS”, because of the way they are often treated by social workers, and the ability of social care professionals to remove children from parents so that they can be put up for adoption without the need to get parental consent. This policy is sometimes referred to as forced adoption, and is in sharp decline around the world. The majority of European countries now elect to get parental consent before placing children with adoptive families.

If you would like to see the end of forced adoption in the UK, please consider signing our petition asking the government to put a stop to non consensual adoptions and to launch a consultation on better alternatives for families and children in need of support.

A very special thank you to Jane Doe for this story.