michael_robinson_tcm
Date:
2008-04-05
Time: 15:45:28
|
On 17 March 2008 the charities Families Need
Fathers and Mothers Apart from their Children
together with five other organisations wrote
to the Government asking for legal safeguards
to be introduced to help protect a child’s
right to family life should the parents
become unable to provide care.
We are asking that the biological family be
granted the following rights to safeguard a
child’s right to family life:
• The right to be automatically notified of
care and adoption proceedings;
• The right to automatic involvement in care
and adoption proceedings;
• The removal of the requirement for leave to
apply (the need to ask the Court’s permission
prior to applying for residence, contact or
special guardianship orders).
Why is this necessary and why should you
support this campaign?
If you, as a parent die, what happens to your
child? Some parents believe that if they have
named a guardian in their will, this is
sufficient to ensure that a trusted
individual or family member cares for their
child should they be unable to. Less than 50%
of adults have written a will, but a will is
no guarantee.
Mental illness, physical disability, a
debilitating health condition, imprisonment
or addiction problems can also lead to your
children being taken into care. The
grandparents’ rights campaign is a little
like life insurance for your children.
Within recent months, investigations into
CAFCASS confirmed what many of us suspected
or have witnessed, that placement within the
extended family is not always being
considered by Social Services, CAFCASS or the
Courts. In 2007 a ruling by the Local
Government Ombudsman was highly critical of
Birmingham Social Workers for not considering
grandparents as prospective carers despite a
Court direction that they should do so. The
Ombudsman found that the Council failed
utterly in its duty to the child. In late
2007 an appeal court ruling refused Social
Workers’ attempts to consider biological
family as carers in an adoption case or to
even inform the family that adoption was
being considered.
The campaign started with a petition to the
Prime Minister. 1,673 individuals and
representatives of organisations signed that
petition. The Government’s response was as
anticipated, contradicting itself and
ignoring the key issues raised.
There are 60,000 children in care in the UK.
If you compare statistics for 1995 and
2005/6, the number of children under 12
months of age taken into care has risen by
75% while the number of newborn babies taken
into care has risen by a staggering 259%. The
Government sought to reduce this trend (or
was responsible for it) by introducing
adoption targets for Local Authorities with
financial incentives if the adoption targets
were met. 30 Local Authorities shared
£18,000,000 for hitting their targets, but
unsurprisingly the number of older children
adopted dropped due to an increased
‘availability’ of younger, more ‘marketable’
children. Thankfully the adoption targets
have now been abolished.
John Hemming MP tabled an Early Day Motion
(EDM1199) asking for MPs to support our paper
‘Grandparents’ Rights Petition – A Response
to the Government’.
Please write to, or email your MP asking that
they support EDM1199. By all means send them
a copy of this post to explain why they need
to.
Children need care, but they also need to
know they are loved and wanted. |
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