The uncaring side of state ‘care’

We may spare a seasonal thought for those thousands of children removed from their parents by social workers for no good reason who are spending this Christmas unhappily in state “care”, wanting nothing more than to return home to their equally unhappy parents.

I was last week sent a series of exchanges between one such mother who tried to send a Christmas present to her daughter, removed from her two years ago on, as I have reported before, quite absurd grounds.

Merthyr social services produced a brilliant parody of a bureaucratic explanation as to why this would be impossible. The chosen toy was “too expensive”, “dangerous” (even though it had been officially approved as safe) and not “age-appropriate” for an eightyear old (even though the packaging stated it is suitable for eight or above).

At a recent Family Justice Council Conference on Forced Adoption, chaired by Sir James Munby, our top family judge, one of the few contributions raising doubts about our “child protection” system came from the deputy chair of the British Association of Social Workers.

She said: “The policy imperative towards more and quicker forced adoption means we may well look back at this period in horror as we do now to the forcible removal of thousands of children to Australia in the Thirties, Forties and Fifties without their parents’ knowledge and consent.”

At the end Sir James commented: “The only thing I am confident about is that adoption as we will understand it and practise it in 30 years’ time will bear very little relation to adoption as we practise it today.” We can only hope he is right.