'The baby-stealing bureaucrats'
image©
First post
Some councils in
England and Wales are taking
babies from their parents and placing them in care before any other options
are being considered in order to meet government adoption targets.
Tony Blair set a target in England and Wales of a 50 per
cent increase
in the number of children adopted between 2000 and 2006. [Note - Latest figures show the target has not been reached and the rise is only
37.7 per cent.]
New National Target To Speed Up Adoption Process
Published date: 21 December 2001 A new national adoption target to
speed up the adoption process was announced by
Health Minister Jacqui
Smith today - marking the first anniversary of the
publication of the White Paper' Adoption - a new approach'
Local Authorities/Social Services dept's reaching
their PSA targets are to be given 'huge financial rewards.
Local Authority
Circular LAC(2001)33
(2007) 30 local authorities have been
rewarded for successfully achieving adoption targets in their local public
service agreements (LPSA).
The Labour government's plan in 2000 to increase adoptions was flawed from
the start. It is very difficult to successfully adopt a child older
than 5yrs. Hence the pressure to increase adoptions applies mainly on
younger children. [*About 3,700 children were adopted in 2005-6,
and although this was three per cent down on the previous year, the
number of children aged one to four who were adopted showed a big
rise.]
The Investigation into the Scandal of Adoption
Targets
Cash prize for council that hit adoption targets
Telegraph April 14 2008
Hammersmith and Fulham council, in west London, was paid £500,000 as a
reward for placing more than 100 children for adoption in three years.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Justice for Families
Parliamentary Families Coordinating Campaign
Adoption Targets
John Hemming MP
Targets speeding up the adoption process
Independent October
14 2007
Are over-zealous social
services acting on orders to meet adoption quotas?
http://www.fassit.co.uk/
Fears over
Adoption
rise
BBC News
August 24 2007
Adoptions have
increased dramatically since 1997
http://news.bbc.co.uk
Scandal of
Adoption
targets
BBC News January 26 2007
Babies 'removed to
meet targets
http://news.bbc.co.uk
In 1995 - 2,870 children under 5yrs old were taken into
care and 910 children under 5 adopted from care (32%). In 2006 - 4,160
children under 5 were taken into care and 2,190 children under 5
adopted which is over 60%. For the government to achieve their target
almost all of the children taken into care under 5 have to be adopted
a ludicrious objective In the
12 months to 31 March 2007,
740
special guardianship orders were granted, compared to 60 in the first
quarter of 2006, when the orders were introduced under the Adoption and
Children Act 2002. During 2006-7, adoption numbers fell from 3,700 to 3,400.
A result of all this has been to strongly motivate social workers to procure
children suitable for adoption even if it means splitting up the very
families they are meant to support and protect.
A cross party group of over 20 MP's concerned by the adoption targets
set by the government have now signed a parliamentary EDM 626 [Early
Day Motion] deploring the taking of babies from their mothers not for their welfare but
simply to enable social workers to meet their government adoption targets.
[That this House notes that local authorities and their staff
are incentivised to ensure that children are adopted; is concerned about
increasing numbers of babies being taken into care, not for the safety of
the infant, but because they are easy to get adopted; and calls urgently for
effective scrutiny of care proceedings to stop this from happening.
(EDM)]
*For the first
time, the government also provided profiles of adopters in data on
looked-after children. This showed that in 2007, 84% of adopters were
married, 4% were unmarried heterosexual couples, 2% were unmarried
homosexual couples (68), 1% were civil partners (34) and 9% were
single.
Who cares for children in care
Latest available figures show that
80,000 children were 'looked after' by local authorities in the UK as
at 31st March 2004. That's the entire
population of 200 primary schools. Each case costs the taxpayer an
average of £70K in legal fees, many cost over £350K. There are other
costs, children in care
cost the taxpayer over £830 million pounds a year with private
children's homes charging up to '£7000 per week per child' with foster
parents in Slough for example getting '£400 per week per child'.
Children in care cost the
taxpayer an average of £2,500 per child, per week-more than four times
what it would cost to send a child to Eton
Channel4.com.
Massive costs that needlessly drain the resources of local
authorities, central government and charities. Massive amounts
of public money. In the interests of children?
These are the best government figures we are aware of; clearly showing
the tragic consequences for the majority of thousands of children
leaving care each year:
Care can be profoundly injurious to a child
Minister Alan Johnson admits Gov are failing children in care...
www.fassit.questiontime.wmv
(video)
80,000
living reasons why enforcement of state intervention parenting by
Government, Courts and Child protection officials as failed. They
should all hang their heads in the Families and Childrens 'Hall of
Shame' listings
here soon
Who cares
for children in care?
- More
than 75% of care leavers have no academic qualifications of any kind
- More
than 50% of young people leaving care after 16 years are unemployed
- 17% of young girls
leaving care are pregnant or already mothers
- 10% of
16-17 year old claimants of DSS hardship payments have been in care
- 71% of
our homeless spent time in care
- 33% of
adult prisoners and 38% of young prisoners have been in care
- 30% of
young single homeless people have been in care
- 90% of
all prostitutes on our streets who have been arrested at least once
have come from the care system.
Ref: The Children Leaving Care Bill [HL] Bill 134 1999-2000 PDF Document
Stats -
Children looked after by Local Authorities Year Ending 31 March
2004
England: 61,100 DfES Scotland: 11,700 Wales: 4,591
Northern Ireland: 2,510 - Metropolitan Police (London) -
Justice for Families chaired by Lib Dem MP John Hemming
JFF - BBC British Broadcasting Corp - Independent UK Newspapers -
Channel 4 broadcasting Corp -
First post - Kent County Council -
Home Office records.
