Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am an autistic adult who is a parent. Since having my daughter I went through a terrible time with social services who set me up to fail and removed my daughter from me because I have a diagnosis of autism. It took me two years to fight for my daughter back and through this time social services and Cafcass used the so called deficits of my autism to justify the removal and to stop the return of my daughter. Thankfully the judge saw through this and returned my daughter concluding in her judgment that I parent my daughter to a high standard.
I want to know how many my adults will autism who are parents have been through a similar situation. How many parents with ASD and other disabilities and or impairments are being targeted by social services and having their children removed? If you have experienced this please tell your story because the current system is outrageously discriminative against parents who have a disability and or impairment and I would like to raise awareness of the current failures within the current child protection system which is targeting parents with disabilities and or impairments so that change can happen.
I have friends who work in Child Protection at Social Services, and it's an impossible job. If they remove children they're wrong, if they don't remove and then somethings happen they are wrong. There have been a number of high profile cases over the years where social services tried to leave kids in the home and work with the parents, only for the kids to suffer terrible abuse. The media only made this situation worse by over reporting with only half the facts.
Now, I'm not suggesting for one second that this would have happened in your case, I'm sure you are a good parent. I can't imagine what it would be like to have my children taken away, even for a short period. What you have to believe and accept though, is that social services don't do these things lightly. There would have been a number of discussions, that they have as a team, as well as with senior management, before they made the decision to remove. For what ever reason at the time they felt it was in the child's best interest, and that's all that matters.
Sueing an already stretched public sector organisation only adds to the pressure they are under, gives them a bad reputation, makes it harder for them to recruit, which increases their work load.....and so it goes on. I would urge you to just move on with your life, enjoy spending time with your family and forget winding yourself up about something that can't be changed now.
I hope you take this with the good intention it's meant with. I understand your emotionally involved, but when you see it from the other side, when you see a social worker curled up on their sofa unable to function because of their work, you understand the pressure they are under.
I wish you the best.
I appreciate your comments but you don't know the facts of my case. The LA involved actively lied and deceived the court to remove my child, then they tried to cover it up at the expense of an innocent child and innocent parent. This is wrong, it's unlawful and these so called practitioners broke the law and made a mockery of the system!
They have to be held accountable. The damage caused by their actions has been horrendous for myself and my child. They targeted me simply because I am autistic and they for whatever reason decided that autistic parents should not be allowed to be parents, they deceived the judge and fabricated evidence to falsify the threshold for removal.
Yes social work is a hard job but social workers are not above the law. The social workers involved in my case need to be held accountable so that they can't damage any other families. In every profession there are good practitioners and bad practitioners who shouldn't be practicing. If practitioners who abuse their powers are not challenged and held accountable then they will continue to abuse their powers and damage the public.
It does feel that your message has put a lot of the responsibility on me an innocent parent, the assumption that the LA were innocent and followed the law when they made the decision to remove, again you don't know the facts of my case. I struggle with your comments that I shouldn't sue an already stretch service, as if I deserved having my child unlawfully removed and I should just walk away and allow theses unfit practitioners to continue to abuse their powers and make a mockery of the family courts system and a mockery of the human rights act.
What about the long term impact on my innocent child? She was unlawfully removed and denied her mother for no justified reason. What about the impact on me, I lost two years of my baby's life, time which I will never get back, the trauma that these so called professionals have inflicted on me and my family is indescribable.
I appreciate that social work is a extremely difficult job but you cannot target a parent because of their 'disability' and then break the law to remove their child, it's an absolute abuse of power. It's not my responsibility that the service is stretched and at the end of the day the LA choose the waste thousands and thousands of pounds of the tax payers money on legal proceedings which were unlawful and continued to waste the tax payers money in order to cover up human right breaches, it's corruption, myself and my daughter will stand up for what is right we deserve justice and peace of mind that these practitioners are held accountable and prevented from doing the same to other innocent parents and children.
I don't mean any disrespect, you are entitled to your own opinions, that said, you are making assumptions and opinions about a case when you do not know the facts of the case and that can be rather difficult in particular for the people involved.
Kind regards