Reaction to certain news stories today. – Finley Boden

I made sure I had got rid of most my migraine attack symptoms before I made a comment on this news story. I don’t want to get stressed again without feeling better first. I heard the news story about the parents abused their 10 month old baby to death during the covid lockdown. The fact that they convinced a court to return the baby to their care only 39 days before he died of his injuries makes it very difficult for those of us that lost our children to adoption due to disability issues etc. The parents in this case willingly went out to deceive a court and social workers with layers of lies. Their own family had concerns about the baby being returned to them due to drug use and the way they lived. I’m glad that they got substantial prison sentences. Lessons probably will be learnt by the authorities but it’s likely to make the whole forced adoption (adoption via dispense of parental consent via court order on statements provided by child protection social workers) a lot worse. The baby P effect all over again. The children that get abused and killed will still happen because those types of people aren’t honest with the authorities. Many more children that shouldn’t be taken from their parents for adoption will be taken via court order and their parental consent dispensed for their children’s adoption. Those parents won’t be the abusers who need their children removed. They will be the children of those referred by various agencies for ‘support’. It’s about to spiral into that kind of over zealous wave of professionals being extra cautious. We already have the highest rate of adoption figures in this country. That illustrates that the system is prioritising splitting families instead of trying to preserve the link. The majority of kinship carers assessments or special guardianship assessments are deemed unsuitable in many cases involving disabled adults. The system is designed against us due to how the children’s act is written and interpreted. This is why many children get returned to those with substance abuse issues. The act says the parents need to demonstrate ability to change. That isn’t possible with a disability. They state that the parent will need too much support which can’t happen due to lack of funding (majority of funding is allocated to adoption/fostering services). The imbalance means that a lot of disabled people lose their kids. The ones that don’t usually aren’t open with social workers, don’t sign anything (that is how I got dragged into the process).