MP Accuses Council of "Kidnapping " Children 9-Week-Old Baby From Parents

By Andrew Levy
Last updated at 1:21 AM on 27th November 2009

Social workers who forced a couple to give up their 11-week-old baby for adoption have been accused of 'child kidnap' by an MP.

Staff waited until the girl's father was out before launching a raid with police at the family home to 'snatch the baby from the arms of her mother'.

Tory MP Tim Yeo used Parliamentary privilege to make the allegations in the Commons, saying Suffolk County Council had declared the couple to be unfit parents despite having no evidence of physical or emotional abuse.

'This council actively seeks opportunities to remove babies from their mothers,' he added.

'Its social work staff do so in a manner which in my view is sometimes tantamount to child kidnapping.'

In a further claim, Mr Yeo told the Daily Mail that social services became involved only because the woman's former husband had successfully sought custody of their son previously.

He alleged the ex-husband's girlfriend, who works for Essex social services, had contacted a friend at Suffolk social services and a ' spurious' concern over the mother's parenting skills was concocted around an occasion when she refused to send her son to school.

The parents, who can see their daughter only once a month on a supervised visit, now plan to flee abroad because the mother is pregnant again and is terrified the new child will also be taken away.

Using fake names to protect the family's identities, Mr Yeo said: 'Carissa and Jim have not managed their lives particularly well but that does not disqualify them from being good parents.

'The council could have provided help which would have allowed them to keep their daughter, Poppy.'

Staff started monitoring Poppy after her birth in August last year.

Mr Yeo told MPs: 'The fact that no fault could be found in the physical and emotional care provided by her parents did not deter the council from destroying this fragile family.

'On October 27 last year, council staff - having ensured that Jim would be away from home - accompanied by police, arrived unannounced and snatched Poppy from the arms of her distraught mother.'

A legal battle was raging over her removal, he added, and throughout the process the council had repeatedly changed its grounds for intervening, alternating between blaming one parent and then the other.

'The first doctor's psychological assessment of Carissa declared she qualified for a diagnosis of factitious disorder [formerly known as Munchausen's by proxy],' he said.

'Then a consultant forensic psychiatrist, after the briefest of assessments, decided that she fulfilled the criteria for the much more catch-all narcissistic personality disorder.

'The first doctor assessed that Jim was 'a pathological liar' but later a consultant clinical psychologist 'would not endorse the expression'.

'The final favoured rationale given by social services for Poppy's adoption order was based on nothing more than the possibility of future emotional abuse.'

Simon White, director of children and young people's services, said: 'It is the welfare of the child which must be safeguarded - we reject any accusation otherwise'.

 

Foster Parents Become Butchers to Their Three Adopted Children

Editor's Note:  Foster/adopt abuse is just as prevalent and rampant in other countries as it is here in America.  These people are supposed to be protecting our children from us but no one is protecting our children from them.  We all must band together and fight Child Protective Services and the corrupt and broken foster care system.

A family couple from Moldova – Vladimir Grechushkin and Airini-Sofia Baskaya – were found guilty of committing a brutal murder of their adopted son and tormenting their two other adopted children. The jury unanimously ruled that the defendants must be punished for their crimes as severely as possible. The judge will announce the measure of punishment for the spouses on December 1. Most likely, the husband and wife will be sentenced to life in prison.

The naked and bruised body of a three-year-old boy was found underneath the bridge across the Pekhorka River in the Moscow region on January 26 of this year. When the body was pulled out of the water, it turned out that his hands and feet were tied with adhesive tape, and there was a car battery pack attached to his stomach. The boy was extremely exhausted – he weighed only 9.5 kilos.

Forensic experts said that the boy had been thrown into the river two days before he was found. The boy’s photograph was published in mass media and pasted up everywhere around.

Several people from a fitness center in Moscow’s Lyubertsy region appeared at a local police station several days later. The people said that they had recognized a three-year-old Sasha on the picture. The boy would come to the center with his two-year-old sister Erika and their parents. The people also said that the parents were very rude to the children.

The father of the children, Vladimir Grechushkin (32), and his wife, Airini-Sofia Baskaya (21), arrived in the Moscow region from Tiraspol, Moldova, where they had adopted three children in December 2008. The kids were Danil Boiko (3 y.o.), Anastasia Lukyanova (2 y.o.) and his brother Anatoly (1 y.o). The foster parents registered the children under different names: Alexander-Allar, Erika-Anneta and Vsevolod-Gerbert.

The body of the elder son, Danil (Alexander-Allar, or Sasha), was subsequently found in the river. It later became known that the youngest of the three children died too. The little boy died on December 24, 2008 on board the plane bound for Thailand, where the parents took their children for holidays.

Experts said that the little boy died of the inhalation of food which occurred against the background of acute respiratory parainfluenzal infection.

Witnesses said at court that the parents were very calm about what happened. When the child died, the plane returned to Moscow, and the parents cremated the body.

The spouses were arrested in Moscow on February 5. Erika-Anneta, the last of the three children who stayed alive, was with them. The girl was taken to a Moscow orphanage. Employees of the orphanage later said that the girl was exhausted because of undernourishment and ailments.

The foster parents did not plead guilty during the trial. They said that the children were sick and died of their own diseases. They also said that they had drowned Danil when the boy was already dead: they feared that the death of the second child would attract the attention of the police.

Join Pravda.ru forum. Registration is free and simple

Judge Allowed Boy, Two, to be Fostered by Blind 82-Year-Old Widow

By Vanessa Allen
Last updated at 8:21 AM on 24th November 2009

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230306/The-judge-Baby-P-council-boy-2-fostered-blind-82-year-old.html#ixzz0Y2rTYjKC

A boy of two was allowed to remain in the care of a blind 82-year-old widow by the council involved in the tragedy of Baby P. 

Social workers from Haringey said the child was 'thriving' with the frail pensioner, who had once fostered his mother.

But the widow's family accuse the North London council of ignoring a series of warnings that she was too old to cope.

They claim it failed to act even when the tiny, six-stone great-grandmother collapsed from exhaustion after caring for the child for almost two months.

She died this month after falling down stairs at her home, where she lived alone with the child.

Doctors believe she lay unconscious and bleeding for up to six hours until the boy answered the phone to one of her friends and could not pass it to his 'Nanny'.

Her angry relatives said they believed the Labour-run council was to blame for the tragedy.

The council says it wanted to take the child away from the widow and instigated emergency care proceedings.

However, the child was under its supervision for 18 months before the case came to court and the family feel that Haringey is guilty of dragging its feet.

Her son said: 'Social workers came to her house, they saw how old and frail she was, but they went away and did nothing.

'She was too old to cope with a child that age but she was too proud to say she couldn't manage.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230306/The-judge-Baby-P-council-boy-2-fostered-blind-82-year-old.html#ixzz0Y2rHOmMi

Children's Court Faces Ombudsman's Sting

CAROL NADER

November 23, 2009

THE Children's Court will come under scrutiny by the Ombudsman as part of a scathing report card on the child protection system expected to be released this week.

The Department of Human Services and the State Government are bracing themselves for a litany of horror stories that will emerge from the long-awaited Ombudsman's report, which he initiated partly in response to a number of complaints to his office about how cases were managed.

But The Age believes the Children's Court will also come under pressure. There has been broad dissatisfaction and frustration from people working in the sector, who believe the court is too adversarial for families and workers.

A spokeswoman for the court said it could not comment before the report was released.

Child protection workers, who must go to the Children's Court to obtain an order to have a child removed from a family's home, are also emerging from court distressed. A few weeks ago, a specialist family services worker who was distraught by treatment from a magistrate walked out of court and resigned.

There is also concern that too many lawyers are involved. The system pits parents against their children, because parents and children each have their own lawyers in the court.

Cathy Humphreys, professor in child and family welfare at Melbourne University, said the court should not automatically agree to decisions made by child protection workers, but there should be a less combative approach. ''It's such a highly adversarial system where you battle out what conditions there should be on an order in relation to the baby and to the parents involved,'' she said.

''That's not a good way of getting the best outcome for everybody.''

She said that child protection workers were also feeling damaged by their interaction with the court. ''The workers that have experienced courts either in other states or overseas … are surprised at how adversarial the court process is in Victoria, and they often feel as though their work is attacked. They find it a very bruising experience, and it doesn't necessarily have to be like that. In some exit interviews they're citing their experience in court as one of the reasons why they leave.''

There is currently a push within the sector to try to focus more on an alternative family dispute resolution process, where families try to come to an agreement without going to court, or at least go to court with some kind of plan.

Berry Street chief executive Sandie de Wolf said the court was adversarial because Government legislation set out how it should operate.

''The court is hugely overloaded, and there has been an enormous increase in demand. They can't do the best work that they would want to do either.''

She said there was a need to seriously reconsider how to best manage very vulnerable families in a less adversarial way.

A taste of what is expected to come in this week's report was revealed in the Ombudsman's annual report in September, which said that the Department of Human Services allowed a child to live with a sex offender because it did not conduct proper criminal record checks. Several other cases that have been poorly handled will also be uncovered.

Baby P Pair Face More "Charges"

By RICHARD MORIARTY

Published: 23 Nov 2009

TWO brothers jailed following the death of Baby Peter may be charged over an alleged attack on their grandmother, police said today.

A cold case review relating to an assault on Hilda Barker in Whitstable, Kent, in late 1995 has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2742641/Baby-P-pair-face-more-charges.html#ixzz0Y2o78t8C

Years before Peter's death, Steven Barker and Jason Owen were accused of locking Mrs Barker, 82, in a wardrobe to make her change her will so they could cash in.

The pair were arrested and charged with assault but police dropped the case when Mrs Barker died in January 1996.

A Kent Police spokeswoman said today: "Kent Police has carried out a case review of the investigation and a file is being submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service to seek their view on whether there is sufficient evidence for a prosecution against any person."

The will was later found to be invalid and an inquest in 1996 concluded Mrs Barker died from pneumonia.

Owen, 37, who was convicted of causing or allowing the death of 17-month-old Peter Connelly, is serving a six-year jail term after winning an appeal last month against his initial sentence.

In May an Old Bailey judge had imposed an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection, with a minimum term of three years.

Owen was jailed along with Baby Peter's mother Tracey Connelly, 28, of Tottenham, North London, and her boyfriend Steven Barker, 33, for causing or allowing Peter's death.

Owen, of Bromley, South East London, who is Barker's brother but changed his name, had been staying at Peter's home with his 15-year-old girlfriend when the tot suffered a horrific catalogue of abuse.

Peter was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in August 2007.

Risky Families May Face Welfare Controls

By Catherine Best, AAP November 27, 2009, 1:31 pm

Families at risk of degenerating into breeding grounds for child abuse would have their welfare payments quarantined under a program being pushed by the Victorian government.

Community Services Minister Lisa Neville raised the plan the day after an ombudsman's report exposed systematic failures in the state's child protection system.

The plan would feed into the federal government's proposed compulsory income-management program for welfare recipients, unveiled this week.

Under the federal scheme, the government would have the power to quarantine 50 per cent of welfare recipients' payments for food and other essentials to ensure money wasn't wasted on alcohol, drugs or gambling.

Ms Neville said she had approached the federal government about quarantining payments in Victoria to try and break the cycle of abuse in vulnerable families.

"They've been trialling this obviously in the Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, and there's also been a trial going on in Western Australia," Ms Neville told ABC Radio on Friday.

"We'll be working with (Federal Minister) Jenny Macklin on this, to make this tool available."

Ms Neville said the plan was about intervening before families became dysfunctional.

"If this is a tool, if being able to quarantine some welfare payments to ensure that children's basic needs are being met by families, then that is absolutely something that we'll consider."

The ombudsman's report found the system had failed children, with some dying on the state's watch and others left in the hands of abusive carers and known child sex offenders.

The government has accepted the ombudsman's 42 recommendations and has commissioned a review of the Children's Court to try and free up child protection workers, who were found to be overworked in a system stretched beyond capacity.

Victorian Premier John Brumby said the state quarantine plan was consistent with the federal government's action on problem families.

"There are many families that are troubled, that are very, very difficult, that have a long history of concerns about raising children and they do need special attention and special care," he said.

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the government could not be trusted to protect vulnerable children and repeated his call for Ms Neville to be sacked.

"This has got to be about protecting children in the first instance, not protecting the payments, the first priority has to be protecting the children," he said.

Mr Baillieu called on the minister to reveal when she was first aware of the systematic failures and how many children had been hospitalised as a result.

Convicted Pedophile Had Fostered Children (Wales)

A PAEDOPHILE pensioner – convicted after his wife posed as a 14-year-old girl in an internet chatroom to trap him – was a foster father accused of sexually abusing one of the children in his care, it emerged yesterday.

David Anthony Roberts, 69, who fostered more than 20 vulnerable children over four years, was investigated by police and social services.

It comes less than two weeks after the former pub landlord was spared jail after he admitted eight charges, including making and possessing indecent images of children and attempting to engage in a sexual act in the presence of a child. He was arrested for those offences after he performed a sex act in front of his computer webcam thinking a teenage girl called Kelly was looking at him.

“He didn’t realise his audience was his own wife in another room of their home in Pant Street, Pantygog, Bridgend,” prosecutor Martyn Kelly had told Cardiff Crown Court.

Roberts was given a three-year community order, with compulsory attendance on a sex offenders’ programme. He must also sign on the sex offenders’ register for five years and have no future internet contact with anyone under 18.

Roberts and his then wife began fostering children for Bridgend council in 2003, and took in 22 of both sexes up to the age of 14 over four years in both long, short-term and respite placements. They were registered to look after up to four children at any one time.

But the now-divorced couple were suspended in 2007, when one of the children in their care made a complaint of sexual abuse against Roberts and all children who were at the home were moved to alternative carers. Social services went to all the children Roberts fostered to check whether they had been the victim of any offence.

A spokesman for the authority said: “If any concerns of a child protection nature arise about a foster carer, a procedure is immediately launched which includes considering and assessing all children with whom the carer has been in contact. This was followed in this particular case.”

South Wales Police launched an immediate investigation but decided not to charge Roberts.

It is understood the couple were being reassessed for their suitability to become foster parents again when Mrs Roberts went to the police with her discovery.

Social Services and South Wales Police officers re-examined the 2007 complaint after Roberts’ conviction.

A spokesman for Bridgend council said “rigorous procedures” were followed for the recruitment and selection of its foster carers.

He said: “Bridgend County Borough Council was in the process of completing a reassessment of the couple to determine whether they could resume their roles as foster carers when a second allegation was made, this time by Cheryl Roberts, to which David Anthony Roberts later pleaded guilty.

“When this second allegation arose, the South Wales Police reviewed the original complaint, and again found that it could not be evidenced. Residents can be assured that the council’s current procedures are robust and are in line with all statutory regulations and national standards.

“Prospective foster carers are subject to enhanced checks with the Criminal Records Bureau. They are also subject to background checks with the local authority in any area they have lived in for a 10-year period (or longer if deemed necessary) as well as checks with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales.

“We also carry out reference checks with employers, and if the prospective foster carers have children of their own, we check with health visitors and head teachers.

“In addition, prospective foster carers have to provide a minimum of three personal references.

“Bridgend County Borough Council is confident that its current procedures comply with all statutory regulations and national standards.

“Following his conviction, Mr Roberts’ suspension will continue until he is formally de-registered. Mrs Roberts will be allowed to foster after she completes an independent risk assessment.”

A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said it “received a report of sexual abuse from a child who had been in the foster care of a 68-year-old man from the Bridgend area.

“We investigated this report and in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service found no evidence to bring charges against any individual. Following a separate investigation, we decided to review the original allegation from the child but still no charges could be brought against anyone.”

Dying Girl Had "Ants Crawling in Mouth" (Australia Foster Child Death - Two Separate Articles)

Article One...

A coronial inquest in Darwin has heard that the former head of the Northern Territory Department of Families admitted the system failed a girl who died while in foster care.

The 12-year-old died at her foster home in Palmerston from blood poisoning, which was caused from an infection in her leg.

She was later found to have had 1.5 litres of pus in her thigh from the infection.

The girl's carers, Denise Carmen Reynolds and Toni Leanne Melville, were acquitted of manslaughter charges in August last year.

In opening statements today, the counsel assisting the coroner, Phillip Strickland QC, said the inquest would hear evidence that shortly before her death the girl was lying on the ground outside the house unable to move with ants crawling into her mouth.

Mr Strickland also read out part of a statement from the head of the Department of Families at the time, Jennifer Scott, in which she admitted the department had not monitored the girl's care properly and that she had been failed by the system.

The inquest continues.

Article Two...

EMILY WATKINS

November 23rd, 2009

THE Territory coroner has this morning ordered the arrest of three witnesses expected to give evidence at an inquest into the death of a girl who died of a bone infection while in foster care. 

NT Coroner Greg Cavanagh told officer-in-charge of the investigation Ann Lade to arrest them so they could give evidence this afternoon.

Counsel assisting the coroner Phillip Strickland, SC opened the inquest this morning, telling the coroner that 12-year-old Deborah Melville died in the yard of her great aunt's Palmerston house in July, 2007.

Mr Strickland said one of the issues the inquest would address was why medical help had not been sought for the girl, who had injured her leg at a school sports day three weeks before she died.

Mr Strickland said up to 19 people had been living in the house at once and the family had been "living in squalor".

Mr Cavanagh will examine the role the Department of Families and Children played in the lead-up to Deborah's death, including the appropriateness of her carers.

The inquest continues.

Shortage of Funds, Surplus of Suffering (Canada CPS)

Inadequate funding for child welfare on reserves will perpetuate chronic social problems

With the passing of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Canada must wrestle with the bleak reality that more First Nations children are in child welfare care today than were forced to live in residential schools at the peak of their operation.

The damaging legacy of residential schools has been acknowledged by the Canadian government. Yet the federal government provides about 22 per cent less funding per capita for child welfare on reserves than other children receive.

This funding disparity continues despite the fact that First Nations children are 8 to 10 times more likely to go into foster care.

Abuse is not the chief reason behind the higher incidence of First Nations involvement with child welfare. Poverty, inadequate housing and caregiver substance misuse – all factors linked back to residential schools – are the root causes for placing First Nations children at risk.

While these are also factors that could be realistically addressed, child welfare funding on reserves is so low that there are few resources to do so. The federal government's own documents acknowledge its funding does not support First Nations families to deal with problems before there is a crisis and the child needs to be placed in foster care.

Importantly, there are evidence-based solutions jointly developed by the federal government and First Nations that would address the funding problems. Yet these solutions have never been implemented.
A number of expert reports have already documented this funding inequality and the tragic impacts on children. In 2008, the auditor general of Canada confirmed that substantial shortfalls in federal child welfare funding on reserves are jeopardizing children's safety. In previous reports, she also found First Nations children receive substantially less elementary and secondary school funding per capita than other Canadians enjoy.

The multiplier effect of this inequality across essential children's programs creates a perfect storm of disadvantage for First Nations children.

The legacy of a 5-year-old boy named Jordan River Anderson provides a way forward. This child spent more than two years in hospital unnecessarily because the federal and provincial governments could not agree on who should pay for his at-home care.

If he had been non-aboriginal, he would have gone home as soon as doctors said he was ready. Instead, he was left to languish in hospital while government officials argued over which level of government would pay. Jordan died in the hospital never having spent a day in a family home.

This tragic incident led to the creation of "Jordan's Principle," which states that where government services are available to all other children, the government of first contact pays for the child's service and argues about funding jurisdiction with other governments later. Jordan's Principle was passed unanimously by the House of Commons in December of 2007.

If it was fully implemented, the inequalities in child welfare and education on reserves would be a page in history instead of a current and tragic reality.

It is time to take action to ensure a better future for First Nations children and families.

One hopeful development is the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearings into the federal government's role in funding child welfare for First Nations children. The public tribunal began on Sept. 14 and was set to continue on Nov. 16. Jordan's Principle, along with other solutions-oriented evidence, was to be presented at the hearings.

Unfortunately, a surprise ruling two weeks ago by the newly appointed Canadian Human Rights Tribunal chair has put the tribunal hearings on hold for reasons that are not entirely clear.

Tribunal participants are now seeking answers and hoping for a quick resolution.

Whatever the cause for the delay, the outcome of the adjournment is more than procedural as First Nations children continue to suffer from a seriously strapped child welfare system. Every moment spent waiting for the resumption of the tribunal represents a day of lost opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of First Nations children who deserve better.

Much is at stake for all of us.

First Nations represent the fastest growing population of young people in Canada. More than one in three aboriginal people are younger than 15 years of age, compared with fewer than one in five non-aboriginal people.

The World Health Organization says that one of the best investments governments can make is in children's programs, noting that every dollar invested in quality programs for children results in $7 in returns to society over the long term thanks to improved outcomes in health, education and social inclusion.

More importantly, inequality robs all of us of benefiting from the enormous contributions that could be made by First Nations children if they had an equal shot at success.

As First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Director Cindy Blackstock reminded all of us in her opening statement to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in September: "When the children receive equity and are able to grow up in their families proud of who they are – we all win."

The children are growing up before our eyes. It is time to act to ensure they are treated equally. There is no time to waste.

Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada, and Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, are signatories of the I Am A Witness Campaign, pledging to follow the developments of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal looking into federal funding of First Nations child welfare funding.

Photos

Foster Carer "Raped Boy in Care" Hampshire, England

A foster carer groomed, sexually assaulted, raped and abducted a boy in care, Winchester Crown Court has heard.

Christopher Waite, of Basingstoke, Hampshire, was a registered foster carer with the county council but did not care for the boy, jurors heard.

He allegedly gave the boy gifts and helped him escape a secure unit so he could sexually abuse him.

Mr Waite, 35, denied two counts of rape, sexual activity with a child, child abduction and grooming a child

Mr Waite, of Cumberland Avenue, also denied sexual assault, inciting sexual activity with a child and possessing indecent images.

"[Mr] Waite's interests and motives had nothing to do with the boy's interests. Alastair Malcolm QC, prosecutor

The court was told the offences took place between December 2007 and December 2008 when the boy was aged between 12 and 13.

Alastair Malcolm QC, prosecuting, said Mr Waite first registered as a foster carer with Hampshire County Council in 2002 and but he did not look after the alleged victim.

The court heard the two met in Basingstoke and Mr Waite got "deeply involved" with the boy, who was in care and described as "very young and very vulnerable".

Mr Malcolm said: "[Mr] Waite's interests and motives had nothing to do with the boy's interests.

"It had entirely to do with his own sexual gratification."

'Text messages'

The court was told the boy absconded from children's homes in southern England in 2007 and 2008 and stayed at Mr Waite's Basingstoke home, where much of the alleged abuse took place.

The jury heard staff at the home also found text messages from Mr Waite saying, "I love you".

He was arrested for helping the boy - then 12 years old - when he was found in his garden and Mr Waite's house was searched.

Mr Waite was bailed and the youngster was sent to a secure unit outside Hampshire to stop him contacting Mr Waite.

But he followed him there and helped him escape from a care worker during a trip to a supermarket, a court heard.

Mr Waite was arrested again and the child was also interviewed.

Mr Malcolm said he began to tell the officers what had happened.

The trial is expected to last eight weeks.

Foster Care Association of Canada - Links

For those interested, please visit...


Foster Care Association of Canada 

The Canadian Foster Care Homepage 

Australian Foster Care Association - Link

For anyone interested, please visit...


Australia's Foster Care Association 


Foster Care Association of W Australia 

Heroin-Addicted Social Worker Struck Off Over Cover-Up of Own Child's Abuse

By Aislinn Laing
Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Nov 2009

A heroin-addicted social worker has been struck off after she delayed seeking medical help for her gravely injured baby and tried to cover up the fact that her partner was to blame.

The woman, who is known only as Miss C to protect the identity of her 13 month-old daughter, hid her almost daily use of heroin from her employer while working as an adult care social worker between January 2006 and December 2007.

When her partner inflicted life-threatening injuries on their child, she delayed seeking medical help and then lied to doctors about what had caused the injuries.

The child was eventually admitted to hospital on 16 October 2007, where she was found to be suffering from injuries including a perforated intestine consistent with blows to the stomach, and serious bruising to her back.

The little girl was also found to have an older injury of a fracture to a bone in her skull.

A two-day hearing of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) in London this week found that Miss C had jeopardised her daughter's health by her delay in seeking medical health, and lied to protect her partner.

The case raises further questions about the quality of Britain's social services in the wake of the Baby P scandal, including whether chronic staff shortages in some areas of the country have forced councils to lower their employment standards.

The child's father pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for two years earlier this year.

It is not clear whether hospital staff alerted social services to Child A's injuries when she was admitted, or when the investigation into Miss C started.

But the GSCC hearing was told that the woman continued working for the unnamed council's social services department for two more months after her daughter was injured.

Her heroin addiction – and the fact she was also taking methadone – only came to light in December 2007. She had failed to declare her drug use on a pre-employment form.

The GSCC's conduct committee ruled that Ms C should be removed from the register of social workers.

"If a social worker's behaviour, in or outside work, calls into question their judgment, honesty or commitment to helping others we must take action," GSCC Chairwoman Rosie Varley said.

"We do this in order to ensure that only those who are fit, trained and committed to putting the interests of service users first are able to practise as social workers."

Petition for Balance of Power in Child Protective Services

Luke's Army

Tue, 27/10/2009 - 21:28 — lukes dad

PETITION FOR BALANCE OF POWER IN CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of NSW in Parliament Assembled;
Issue: Currently there are many confronting “problems and errors” that are being made far too often in NSW Department of Community Services. One such problem is that while there is sufficient legislation in place, there seems to be no strict compliance and enforcement of the legislation other than lengthy court proceedings. In many cases children are being removed unnecessarily, or for prolonged periods even after parents/family are able to show the case worker/manager significant proof of adequate care, absence of abuse, and in the case of restoration sufficient minimum outcome requirements. Many times the case workers have refused to “work” with families and prolong court proceedings wasting the courts time and prolonging the emotional distress of the child/family.

Precedence: “Georgia and Luke” case of 2008 Children’s Court of NSW; where the children were removed needlessly for months; “Jackson”, where the department appealed final orders without foundation;

Request: To have a panel of review to make the ultimate decision and determination of significant risk of harm in care and protection proceedings; except of course temporary emergency action pending such a review.
We the Undersigned citizens of NSW; request that a review Board/panel be appointed in all matters of Child “Care and Protection” orders that affect the child(ren) and their placement. Currently the sole delegation of a case worker to remove/restore a child(ren) is flawed and the children of NSW deserve a fair democratic system. It is simply not logical for one department delegated by a case worker and their manager to decide such fate as removals and restoration, to be able to influence the court with limitless funds comparatively to the family. A cross sector team of experts/liasons and professionals appointed to form a panel/review board from combined departments (Education/Medical/Police) that have prior knowledge of the family such as school teachers, police, Non Government services (family support and D & A , DV services) would allow for a way to repair this flawed system.

Full Name and Address Signature

To be fixed: Request ? A fair distribution of responsibility. No one person or department should have such powerful influence in such a delicate matter

Mother Convicted of Abusing Children With Meat Mallet (CPS Failure to Protect in England)

Editor's Note:  A perfect example of CPS failure to protect children in England.  They admit they were in this family's life since 1999.

Published: 8:00AM GMT 20 Nov 2009

The mother-of-eight attacked six of her children, all aged under 16, with objects including a belt and a broken coat hanger, a court heard.

The 37-year-old was found guilty of 18 charges of abuse including scratching one of her daughters with a knife over a "sickening" six-year campaign of violence and neglect.

Cambridgeshire County Council admitted monitoring the family since 1999 yet charges were only brought against the mother after two children discussed the abuse with a teacher.

Her reign of terror against her children, aged between four and 16, lasted from January 1 2002 to July 1 2008, Cambridge Crown Court heard during a five-week trial.

The allegations came to light when two of her daughters told teachers at their school that they were being mistreated.

On one occasion, the 37-year-old locked up two of her daughter's school friends in the family home after they witnessed her violence towards her daughter.

They saw her hit her daughter with a meat mallet and garlic press and threatened to "slit her through" with a knife if she did not move her hands out of the way.

Summing up the case, Judge Jonathan Haworth read an extract from video evidence from the girl who suffered the attack.

She said: "I thought she was going to hit me until I died.

"She hit me on the head with the garlic crusher and grabbed me round the throat. I was crying and putting my hands up to stop her.

"She said I am going to slice your throat with the knife. I could hardly breathe and she cut me with the knife she was holding in her hand."

The mother subjected her children to a catalogue of abuse and smacked them with a belt, leaving buckle marks on their skin.

On one occasion the mother heated a screwdriver to mend a toy and then used it to burn her daughter on the thigh and buttock areas, leaving scars.

Two of the children aged just 12 and 14 said they did the shopping and cooking for the family and looked after their younger siblings while their mother lay in bed watching TV.

The mother even sent her young daughters out late at night to find ice for her drinks. Rather than return empty-handed, the youngsters often hid in a park overnight to avoid being attacked.

The woman was heavily pregnant when the allegations were made and has since given birth to her eighth child. All of her children are now in care of the social services.

One of her daughters told the court that she had considered suicide.

She said: "I was bullied at school, beaten and burned by my mum. My life was terrible."

When police arrested the mother, they found the house dirty, with no food in it and no sheets on the children's beds.

Medical reports said doctors found scars and marks on the children which could not have been from accidental injuries.

The children's teachers described them as quiet and withdrawn and noticed that one of her sons was always cold and hungry, eating second and third helpings of school dinners.

They were concerned at times that the girls were fending for themselves and appeared frightened of their mother.

In her defence, the mother claimed that a former partner used to beat her and hit the children with a belt and that her children and their friends had made up the allegations.

She admitted slapping them but not using weapons.

She told a parent of one of her children's friends: "Tapping them is different from hitting. I loved my kids, I still do. I did not do these things to them."

The woman, a Jamaican national living in Cambridge, was found guilty of the charges, which included nine counts of assaulting a child under 16 in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering with injury to the child's health.

She was also found guilty of one count of affray and two counts of witness intimidation.

Georgina Gibbs, defending, said that witness reports about the house being messy and smelling of urine did not indicate that the children were being neglected.

Cambridge City Council admitted that they had been aware of the situation since 1999, but despite "ongoing monitoring" the children were only recently taken into care.

A spokesman said: "We acted as soon as these allegations came to light and the children were immediately taken into care.

"Social care teams offered extensive support when the family first came to our attention in 1999, and the situation improved significantly when a relative moved into the family home.

"There was ongoing monitoring of the family situation by all the relevant agencies."

Peter Bradley, deputy director of national children's charity Kidscape, described the abuse as "sickening".
He said: "This is really sickening. If you've got six children, over a six year period, showing signs of serious physical harm, it begs the question as to why there was no intervention earlier.

"This seems to be part of an ongoing problem with social services nationally where departments are not joined-up in their thinking process and are not sharing information effectively.

"This has been the failing of many social services around the country which needs to be addressed urgently.
"In this case the child who reported the abuse was braver than social services themselves who should have been there to protect those children."

Detective Sergeant Tim Underhill of Cambridgeshire police's child abuse investigation unit described the state of the house when they arrived.

He said: "The mother was arrested and her children taken into care on the same day that the children reported the situation at school.

"The house was untidy and cluttered. It smelt and there were no, or very few, toys around."

Detective Chief Inspector Karen Rowell, also of the child abuse investigation unit, said she was "pleased" with the result of the court case.

She said: "This has been a particularly harrowing trial. Firstly I would like to thank all of the children involved who have all been incredibly brave throughout.

"I hope the children will be able to move on with their lives. Additionally, on behalf of Cambridgeshire constabulary, I would like to thank the remaining witnesses and the assistance from CPS and other professional agencies."