The huge rise in number of children being taken into care

The toll of children being taken into care

By Liz Lockhart and Charlotte Fantelli

Ask any parent what their most treasured asset is and they will tell you it’s their children. Offer them an inflated price for their home or car and they will at least consider it but offer the world for their child and without hesitation the answer is ‘no’.

There are, as with all things, exceptions to the norm and, as responsible people, we all want what is best for any child. If a child is in any kind of danger it must be protected to the maximum, but surely there are ways of doing this which minimise the impact that it has on the child.

The latest official figures show that the number of children being taken into care has soared over the past two years. With an average of 800 children being taken into care each month, this represents a 41 per cent increase during this two year period and brings us to the highest level ever.

Briany’s Letter

A letter to Mental Healthy from a reader sparked grave concerns over the subject of children being taken into care and the way this happens.

Briany wrote to us last week – here is what she had to say:

I was taken into care at the age of 8 by a police woman.

I woke to find her standing by my bed. My mother said I had to go with her.

I related it to the political prisoners and Jews disappearing in the night in Germany. I wondered what I had done wrong. I asked when I could go home and was told maybe soon, maybe never.

There was a reason from the social services and police point of view that I was at risk, however, from my point of view I had a good home, was put in prison and eventually returned home. I felt like a parcel.

Not a day goes by when I don’t think about it. It sent me crazy for a while. I hated adults after this and lived in constant fear of being removed again.

I don’t think social workers understand the effects of taking a child suddenly into care when the child sees no reason for it. I was not being abused in any way.

I have never read any account from people this has happened to. The amount of time away is irrelevant, the action of others and the feelings of helplessness and anger are still there.

I would love to hear from others that this has happened to and the effects on them.

In subsequent correspondence Briany says:

It was the involvement of police that is disturbing, it’s the same as being arrested and being taken into custody. There are no easy answers but I feel that social workers are quite right in holding back on care orders, although this can result in disaster. I think it would help a great deal if officers could go in plain clothing when it is necessary to remove a child from their home and at some point to explain to the child that they have done nothing wrong. I expect there have been a lot of changes because this was in the fifties. There was no such thing as counselling back then.

I would like social workers and police to know the effects on a child of treating them like a parcel.

To this day Briany still suffers from panic disorder.

Two similar accounts

We wanted to help Briany by looking at the way things were done today, we hoped to find that since the fifties there had been changes in the way this was done. Unfortunately, we were faced with shocking news that was published in the Telegraph just this week.

Not only would the report suggest that things have hardly changed at all since Briany’s experience, rates of children being taken from their parents are at an all time high and rising at an alarming rate.

The feature included two family case studies.

The first family’s troubles began one morning when a hard working mother was preparing her two children’s packed lunches. The mother who works as an expert in a Law practice tapped her 11-year-old daughter on the arm with a roll of cling film when she kept interrupting her and then told the child to go upstairs.

The next day the child casually mentioned at school that her mother had ‘hit’ her. The school reported this to social workers who then took her into care.

The local council then paid £14,000 to have the mother ‘psychiatrically assessed’. A 235 page report was produced which found that she had ‘an undetermined personality disorder’. On the basis of this the girl’s nine-year-old brother was taken from the home. He suffered such a severe panic attack that an ambulance had to be called.

The second case is remarkably similar. A young mother of three took part in a charity walk and was accompanied by 6-year-old daughter – the oldest of her children.

Whilst on the walk the Mum stumbled and tripped over, pulling her daughter to the ground. This resulted in a small graze to the child’s arm but the mother took her daughter to the first aid tent.

The child continued to go to school happily over the next few days but when the mother tried to explain the small mark to a health visitor, social workers arrived, escorted by three policemen, to take all three children into care. (sorry Briany – not much seems to have changed)

The council then commissioned a psychiatric assessment which found that the mother was competent. A second report found the same. The social workers then paid for a third report which described the mother as suffering from ‘borderline personality disorder'.

It is reported that on these grounds, a court has now ruled that the three children must be put out for adoption.

There are so many similar stories that it made me want to weep.

Finding the balance

Just how many parents could find themselves in exactly the same circumstances?

Charlotte Fantelli (Mental healthy editor) comments: 'We know there are many cases where children need to be removed from homes where there is violence, abuse, drug taking or other form of neglect or abuse, and of course we must support the valuable service social services provide. However, there must be balance; after all we are not confiscating a persons belongings, we are talking about lives of children who will have to live with the scars of the decisions made on their behalf.'

A burglar can get out of prison by invoking ‘the right to family life’. A celebrity can be granted a super-injunction under the same right. Where are the rights of the children? There are very few family lawyers in this country and judges seem all to ready to ignore the rights of children as laid out in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Yes, we want vulnerable children to be protected but has this gone too far?

Editors note:

This article highlights the importance of putting the needs of vulnerable children first. We, the public have a right to know how our social services act in these circumstances, but what we do not know is the lengthy process that leads up to making these decisions.

Perhaps it is time to review policies and to further study the figures to see why there is such an increase in children being taken into care. What is most important is that when intervention is deemed necessary, the child is made a priority; stories of children being parcelled up in the night really is like something out of a horror story and these children will live with the scars for years to come.