After a very busy week and mulling over what I am about to write for sometime that the truth is not always as it seems. What I mean by that exactly are the huge amounts of cases popping up all over the place some old and some new complaining about social services taking their children.
What worries me the most is that they all seem to come together and believe in each others stories/cases. Some even manipulate the media when telling their stories and hiding their paperwork. The main breeding ground for this is facebook and the internet in general. I know of many cases which on the surface may make you think these people have suffered terrible injustice ( many do) but what they do not expect (or like) is when you dig a little deeper. Some are quite happy to show others their paperwork, some ‘doctor’ their paperwork to hide the truth and some simply do not show their paperwork at all.
I am very worried to say the least about real child abusers penetrating the network of people who have come together for support and advice. I am extremely worried about people who jump on the bandwagon of protest and use these help groups as a scape goat , these parents/people are also able to manipulate others into backing them up and offering help to those who are at risk of losing their children or trying to get them back.
Whilst I appreciate that people should unite in support groups and highlight some of the dysfunctional goings on in social work and family court my fear is growing for innocent parents and children who are contacted/befriended by those who have deserved to have their right to look after their children taken away from them..
I have heard and looked into a case where a couple were accused of pedophilia against their own daughter they are amongst many that have protested their innocence. However this particular couple went onto meet others and involve themselves in their lives. It soon became apparent that the couple concerned were very strange, caused great trouble and there is a saying ‘if the shoe fits’. After much more information the shoe did fit yet this couple and others still continue to be-friend people and involve themselves in vulnerable people and their children’s lives, mess things up even more and put the children at even more risk!. I cannot stress enough that if you have a case that is live by all means seek support but try to seek advice but keep people at arm’s length. If there are children still at home be VERY CAREFUL and do not invite people into your home or involve your children in any way either via internet or face to face meetings. Beware of Wolves in sheeps clothing!
On another note I am excited but nervous to be meeting Holly and Phil on the this morning programme on Monday 28th June regarding my story. Understandably the research team have done various checks and research into my case slightly more than the reporters do for newspapers. I am completely fine with that and I think reporters should do it more by attending hearings in court so the readers cannot stipulate that ‘there must be more to it’ when children are taken into foster care.
I will be highlighting my campaign to have the children’s act 1989 adjusted to allow parents who are at risk of domestic violence from another parent/partner to keep their children with them in care proceedings. This is very easily done as in America where barring orders and support packages are put in place to ensure the person who is the risk is kept away from the home or place where the children and the non abusive parent reside. This will give the non violent parent breathing space and can then under go various help/support to break the cycle of being abused. Currently what happens is that the children are taken away from the non violent parent, which if anyone knows about the dynamics of domestic violence leaves the victim in an even more vulnerable position emotionally and physically. Then social services make demands to do assessments in order to get the children back the woman (in most cases) are set up to fail, even to the point of going back to their abusive partner because of their emotional state and where the abuser then gets his foot back in the door!. The Children’s act does have barring orders in them but social services tend to make up various reasons why the court should not use these orders and prefer to take the children into care, why? to feed the adoption market? social workers should not be able to assume the barring orders will not work until they have tried them!
If barring orders were automatic I have no doubt that over half of children taken due to DV would stay with their family and not have the trauma of foster care or worse adoption. This would save the government loads of money!
My experience and opinion is ‘strike when the Iron is hot’ they are talking about automatic barring orders in criminal cases of DV (I think its 2 weeks) so why not do it with longer time scales in care proceedings and let the DV abuser be the one who has the assessments and proves they are no longer a risk.
No wonder society is breaking down because there seems to be zero tolerance concerning the way families parent in Britain. Keeping families together helping them learn to be better parents and showing children how important it is to look after and care for each other they will inevitably grow up with this notion and pass onto their own children.
Social workers would also be wise to remember that it is inevitable that parents will loath them and hate them to the point they want to kill the social worker who took their children and is writing reports about them. Who can blame us? Unfortunately until the British government have the brains like Australia to split social services into two departments so the social workers who take the children into foster care do not have to work with the parents who want them back (vice versa). Maybe then we will see a big decrease in parents complaining about vindictive social workers who are hell-bent on lying and setting parents up to make sure their children are not returned home, a regular cause for removal and adoption is non co-operation (wonder why?). This I feel is the most shocking thing about care proceedings and family court, it is very demoralising , frustrating and causes loss of faith in the system as a whole. It also makes you question why do social services want the children to stay in care so badly when they resort to making things up? The answer lies in my first couple of sentences, we are in fact all only human with feelings that cannot sometimes be denied or put aside.A person can and will do their very best to bring you down if they do not like you or because you simply do not like them…
*UPDATE* Apologies i did not get to the blog earlier but due to OFCOM regulations i was unable to do my story on the this morning programme, however it is hopeful for a future programme when we can smooth out the concerns of OFCOM of any possible future compaints (probably) by government departments under section 1 ‘protecting the under eighteens’ http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/protecting-under-18s/
Good Luck for Monday hun!! xx
Women & children have no right to be safe , it is a smoke screen.When acting as a MKF I have read you seek ,ring the police they use it against you .
Damned if you do and damned if you don’t !
the children ACT is just that an ACT
Nice article Angela, who are you having a dig at?
Angela, I couldn’t agree with you more, when I first started out on this journey some 4 years ago, the cases that came to me asking for help were 100% genuine, and 100% got their children back, now though like you say I find myself agreeing more and more with the professionals and the courts that the families did require state intervention.
Evereyone has a skeleton in their closet, some bad one and some not so bad, sadly when you find out the parents have not been 100% honest with you and you put 110 % into helping the family only to be shafted from a great height, you start questioning your own judgment, you end up asking yourself many, many questions.
Sadly like you say the likes of facebook, the likes of the media attention, the band wagon seekers will always be there.
I have spoken to many parents quite recently, some past cases and some present, they all tell me they have Joined in Sam Hallimonds Class Action, well, I know for fact some of the people really caused the problems themselves and caused the situation where the SS had to intervene.
I know theres many genuine cases out there who really need our help, wasting time and valueable resources on the wrong cases really makes it harder to help the trully innocent. I have been seriously deflated lately, seriously contemplating giving it up all together, what kkeps me going at the mo is thinking that why should the minority spoil it for the majority.
I hope you have a good time With Holly and Phil, they will look after you tremendously, treat you like a queen, enjoy the day and hope some good comes out of it, just one point though, the childrens act 1989 does not protect the children rather it protects the state from any wrong doing
They should have Barring orders for people like my ex, But they dont, Its easier for them to take your kids off you, I was very lucky my son did not go into care he stayed within the family, It did not make it any easier for me to see him, At one stage i never seen my son for 2 years, This has permanently damaged our relationship forever The court case went on for nearly 11 years, Imagine how much money that cost to the taxpayer??, If a barring order would have been in place on my ex it would have saved a lot of trauma money and time, But no they family courts have to do things arse way round just to make someones life who is difficult just that little bit more difficult,
a beautifully written article, very clear, cool and non-emotive language, accurate fact-finding. i hope you will submit it to papers to print because it will be hard to find a more eloquent spokesperson for the domestically-abused.
I got my son back thanks to you Jerry, And i will always be grateful, You helped me and Jack a lot. x
Clare, thats what I am saying, your case was 100% genuine, the efforts we put into getting Jack back was all down to you, Parents get their children back, I only make sure things are done right and help parents along the way to achieve their goal
They should have Barring orders for people like my ex, But they dont, Its easier for them to take your kids off you, I was very lucky my son did not go into care he stayed within the family, It did not make it any easier for me to see him, At one stage i never seen my son for 2 years, This has permanently damaged our relationship forever The court case went on for nearly 11 years, Imagine how much money that cost to the taxpayer??, If a barring order would have been in place on my ex it would have saved a lot of trauma money and time, But no they family courts have to do things arse way round just to make someones life who is difficult just that little bit more difficult,
+1
The biggest load of shit have ever heard!! This women lives in a bubble of me myself and i. She has got what she set out to do, look after her children, so why does she feel the need to carry this on??
I think it is commendable when someone follows a cause and doesnt shut up about it. Society is lazy. Angela is doing what most people can’t be bothered to do and fortunatley for the people she is supporting, she has the intelligence to expose injustice. These days, too many people’s actions are focussed on getting a result to gain something for themself. Angela is fighting for a much bigger cause than her own. The world needs more Angelas.
Angela, some people can’t stand it that you have a voice and have survived the courts & life. As for debt well the system creates a debt culture and living on the run with children does not come cheap as these comments ……….
Angela, these two are just SATAN’S workers, you only have to read what they have written to confirm this, especially seeing another woman laughing at a mother not seeing her child, only EVIL does this. Debt, I would have robbed a bank to save my children if I had to.
The comments from Billie and Fiona have just confirmed everything you have ever said about them, shame on them.
Your an inspiration to others in your situation, something they will never be.
Angela i am so happy for you that you escaped all this that was going on in your life. I may have to do the same thing but like most these people are out to destroy innocent families lives. Your blog has given me the strength to go ahead if i need to even though it is a scary thing to do.
I am glad and so happy for you that you had the strength to do what you done. Some of the people on here who are causing you problems are just jealous that you done what you did for the sake of your children. I hope that you continue to be able to get on with your life and enjoy those precious children of yours that you saved from the injustice here in the uk.
Wow, great writing Angela, keep it up
Angela,
The Dramatis web site now has a page devoted to the subject of children being removed from the victims of DV.
You can find it at;
http://www.dramatis.hostcell.net/WILE/wile.html
It is built using your name as a marker but extends the subject with research and history from the US (particularly about New York State).
There is a quote at the bottom about Women’s Aid that many will find shocking.
The page will be updated with additional material to hand already in the coming months.
Note that much of the material was submitted by a former English social worker, which suggests that at least one professional is concerned about the current environment in England & Wales.
Additional data from yourselves or any of the Blog subscribers – particularly those with documented case histories that can be publicly discussed will be most welcome.
Kind regards
Rachel Livermore
everything works the way it works for a reason they dnt take kids away from their parents for no reason, if the child may be at risk they check the way things run before taking actions, and it is so easy for any parent to turn round and deny child abuse guilty or not there are many ways parents try and plead their innocence but if they are doing sum thing wrong they will lose thier kids there is always hard evidence
Danny you sound like a social worker that has been brain washed during training or suffering from cognitive distortion via multi agency opinion and/or pressure. You need to be on the otherside of the fence and please believe that injustice does happen in the 21st century, it is a warning for society to conform to our governments and power fat cats.Britain still has its dark secrets just as it did in the 1950′s regarding forced adoption. Society needs to be educated not torn apart and by laws,regulations and punishment set by governments. Our children are our future, what do you think these children are going to grow up like carrying the emotional trauma of being separarted from their birth families? the same as those who were taken from single mothers 40 odd years ago..this costs government money by way of hopsitalisation,medication,imprisonment/crime, addictions,court action and so on..for both birth family and children lost to the system.Especially children thrown back into the system due to attachment disorders (like my own son) due to not being able to cope with separation..need i go on? this social experiment or whatever the Childrens services and courts are trying to achieve will cause more damage than good.
and Danny you obviously do not know much about family courts..hard evidence is for criminal courts, family court there is no evdience specifically needed it is based on opinions,possibilities and probabilities. Care applications if done in a criminal court would be reduced by tens of thousands, mainly innocent parents would not have their children taken away! considering most applications are done with no criminal convictions to kick start them.
Hi angela well said some people do not know wat goes on in these secret courts unless they have been through it themselves as myself has done but here is proof social services were involved and i was worried i would have to ge my kids away from the uk but they gav me a golden report this time and are no longer involvd but the proof is when they took my older two children just because i was young and on my own so danny their is your proof that this does happen nearly every day funny how i till have my two younger children afte ss being involved again and them not interested in me or my kids due to a neighbours lies. But my oler two have been adopted and were behind my back so face facts danny it happens i know ive been there done it and me haveing my two younger ones is proof in itself of the kidnapping of chilren in this country.
Hi Angela,
I thought I should add my comment here to tell people that what you are saying is very true, there are a minority of parents out there who have quite rightly had their right to parent taken away. Since we have been re-united with our son, we have been unfortunate enough to come into contact with some of those more undesirable parents. This article sums up perfectly what I have been feeling recently about some of the people who have come to us for help. What a really useful piece of writing. Keep blogging Angela!
Mark
Mark i am so happy that you and your partner have got your son back. I have been reading up on your story and i would just like to say i know what you were going through like i said above i lost my two older children through forced adoption behind my back under the circumstances that i could not be found even though my solicitor and ss knew i was at the address i am at now. I did end up haveing ss involved again but i beat the sods this time after saying to the sw on my case that they illegally kidnapped my eldest two boys. Sure enough i didn’t hear anything for 3 weeks and this was dureing a core assessment but before the core assessment was supposed to finish i received a letter from ss saying that they had no concerns and realise that now it is maliciousness on the part of nasty neighbours. But there is proof in my case that children are being kidnapped by the state. As i still have my younger ones even though i am still on my own but last time they used me being on my own against me and took my eldest two i havent seen them now scince my eldest was 2 and my youngest was just 5 months. They are now 11 and 9. I was supposed to get letters every year and be told how my boys were doing but that never happened and still hasn’t. But i did also mention this to the sw on my case and i do have that i should have had letter box contact in the courtpapers that i still have. I think after me telling them they kidnapped my children illegally behind my back and that i should have had letter box contact and have the proof in balck and white i think they got worried and left me and my kids i have now alone. But they are still with me my younger two who my dd who is 3 and my ds who is just 7 months ss weren’t interested this time so it is proof that kidnapping happens everyday by the state to boast their bonus’s. I do understand and know how you must have felt when everything was happening to you and your partner i am so glad you beat these people and i hope the 3 of you have a happy future.
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