We wrote recently about Suffolk Social Services who seem intent on persecuting families on the flimsiest of pretexts. Carissa Smith, 32, fled to Spain over Christmas with her husband, Jim, £300 and three cats because they believed the baby she was expecting would be seized and taken for adoption as soon as it was born.
The Smiths have already lost one child. Carissa had a psychologist’s diagnosis of factitious illness, which used to be known as Münchausen’s syndrome by proxy, in 2008. The same psychologist later changed the diagnosis to narcissistic personality disorder, but their daughter was already in care. Although experts said there was no immediate risk to the child, social services said she "could face emotional abuse in future", so when Carissa became pregnant again, the Smiths decided to move abroad.
Mr.Smith reckons he has spoken to dozens of couples who have made a similar decision. “There’s so many people who want to go back but are frightened,” he said. “It is a horrible way to live. Nobody wants to leave their country, family and friends, but you have to.” What makes this case worse is the suspicion that the real cause of Suffolk's actions was a dispute over custody of another child by a different husband - whose current partner works for Essex Social Services; now there's a surprise.
Now we hear that another pregnant woman has also fled to Spain with her parents to prevent her unborn baby being taken into care by social services, despite an offer by the child’s grandparents to foster her. Megan Coote's supportive and articulate parents were successful in gaining television coverage of their plight - not that Suffolk are likely to be swayed by that. I mean, they know they're right, don't they, and that the Family Courts system allows them to do pretty much as they please.
The two babies have now been safely delivered two days apart, and are neighbours.
Their cases reflect what John Hemming, a Lib Dem MP and chairman of Justice for Families, believes is a growing phenomenon. “It is clear that nothing is being done to sort the family courts out and so more people are thinking of simply emigrating,” he said.
Tim Yeo, the couple’s MP, suggested in Parliament that Suffolk social workers acted in the Smith case in a manner “sometimes tantamount to child kidnapping”. That the Coote family fled the same authority “rather bears out the theory I had that the department intervenes not with the aim of helping couples become good parents but of separating vulnerable couples from their baby”, Mr Yeo told The Times.
In the case of Ms Coote, who has mild learning difficulties, her parents offered to foster their grandchild. When she became pregnant, her midwife went to social services with concerns about her emotional maturity. A psychological assessment suggested that she would not be capable of looking after the baby. Her parents disagreed, but volunteered as guardians. The baby was due but social services told them that the process would take 12 weeks and could not promise that the baby would not be put forward for adoption beforehand.
When Jim Smith learnt that the Cootes were moving away, he rang to offer them space in his new house.
Suffolk social services would not comment on individual cases. However, Simon White, director of Children and Young People’s Services, said: “Children’s services work hard to support parents and families so that children can remain in their own families. No decisions can be made before assessments which determine whether the child in question can be adequately cared for by the natural parents or within the extended family.”
What Simon White omits to mention is that the assessments he sets such store by are carried out by ... you've guessed it ... Suffolk Social Services.
Tim Yeo believes that more support for families at home was necessary. “It’s a tragedy that loving couples should have to flee Britain to feel safe to bring up their own baby. It’s a terrible situation for any family and rather a serious indictment of the way the system of support is operating.”
The Cootes feel that they have been let down by social services. “I employ people. I pay my taxes. I abide by the law,” Mr Coote said. “I didn’t think that my country was going to kick me in the teeth.” He is now battling to find a way to reunite his family in the United Kingdom where he still runs a business and his son is in school.
For the Smiths, Spain is home. But their plan to celebrate their baby’s return from hospital yesterday was marred by a visit from Spanish authorities - Suffolk Social Services had tracked them down and alerted their Spanish counterparts. “They are being really nice but we’ve got a weekend of worry ahead,” said Mr Smith.
And it's a brave parent or, indeed, social worker who dares raise a voice against these vicious, power-crazed Machiavellian jobsworths. The social worker who blew the whistle on Haringey’s dire treatment of children before the death of Baby P told the newspapers how the council tried to destroy her life for telling the truth, even going to the extraordinary lengths of falsely accusing her of child abuse and beginning an investigation into her nine-year-old daughter’s welfare.
Nevres Kemal said Haringey’s ‘monstrous’ allegation, which was made, she says, in response to the concerns she raised, left her terrified she would lose her daughter. She had been accused, falsely, of shaking her fist in the face of a 14-year-old girl (not her daughter) which, according to Haringey, constituted ‘child abuse’. She says ‘They then turned their attention to my own daughter and launched a child protection investigation into her, which means that they felt she was at risk. Ultimately, it could have led to her being taken away from me. I felt terribly frightened all the time. It was evil.’
She also revealed how council staff were taken on 'team-building' junkets to Barcelona and Dublin and spent £1,000 on a tea party at the Ritz, while back at work cases of potentially abused children were piling up. During what she calls a four-year ‘witch-hunt’, Miss Kemal, 44, lost her job, faced a police investigation and saw her family and health fall apart. An employment tribunal heard that she had been singled out by her bosses because she was a whistleblower. Haringey eventually dropped the case and paid her undisclosed compensation.
Nor is she the only whistleblower who has suffered from the attentions of vengeful councils - see here, here, here, here and here.
The GOS says: Anyone who lives in my neck of the woods knows that there is a traditional - and not always unhealthy - rivalry between Norfolk and Suffolk. I'm just wondering if Suffolk are bidding for the title of "Most Hated Social Services Bully" currently worn by Lisa Christensen, Director of Children's Services for Norfolk County Council, for her truly appalling treatment of the Webster family.
The odd thing is that as far as I am aware Christensen (who hit the headlines recently when she was attacked by her partner who is - no word of a lie - a convicted terrorist) is still in post. When it comes to local government, if you're sufficiently senior you become completely untouchable. Businesses can fail, innocent production line workers can be made redundant at the drop of a hat, a pensioner who tries to resist a mugger can be prosecuted, if you take a photograph in the street you're likely to spend the night at the police station, but if you're a local government officer you can make false accusations, you can lie till you're blue in the face, you can kidnap innocent children from their homes, you can cash in on the government bounty when those kids are successfully adopted, you can get found out in all these crimes and publicly pilloried ... but not to worry, your job and your massive index-linked pension are safe as houses.
In days gone by you could only achieve this level of immunity by joining the masons. Now all you have to do is get a job with a county council and you can keep both trouser-legs rolled down.
Bastards.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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