Social services removing children from parents with ASD

There is a lot of fear mongering in this thread. Many of us are autistic parents with absolutely no involvement with social services. I'm even a qualified social worker but not working in children's services, and my autism is declared to the regulator. 

Autism isn't a reason in itself to remove children from their parents, behaviour/actions are. I'm sure there are cases where processes haven't been followed properly BUT the social workers don't get involved for no reason in the first place. They don't just appear one day because they've found out that you are autistic. 

I am sorry but unless you have experienced having your human rights violated by social services then you will not understand. Some local authorities are better than others, that said there are many autistic parents falling victim of unlawful removal of their children. I work with a team of independent professionals dealing with these cases. It's not public knowledge because the family courts are secretive. There's a catalogue of research which sheds more light on the extent autistic parents are having their human rights violated by social services.

Just because you have not experienced it doesn't mean it isn't happening nor does it mean people are fear mongering. I would like to say many of the cases I work on the parents involved simply asked social services for help and support and unfortunately this was not what was given. Social workers involved use the deficit model of autism to ensure children are removed, they also don't meet the needs of the autistic parents which essentially is setting them up to fail. 

Autistic people haven't been treated as they should and this is slowly becoming exposed for example Winterbourne scandal and the school scandal etc. These things do happen and they need to be exposed.

I am sorry but unless you have experienced having your human rights violated by social services then you will not understand. Some local authorities are better than others, that said there are many autistic parents falling victim of unlawful removal of their children. I work with a team of independent professionals dealing with these cases. It's not public knowledge because the family courts are secretive. There's a catalogue of research which sheds more light on the extent autistic parents are having their human rights violated by social services.

Just because you have not experienced it doesn't mean it isn't happening nor does it mean people are fear mongering. I would like to say many of the cases I work on the parents involved simply asked social services for help and support and unfortunately this was not what was given. Social workers involved use the deficit model of autism to ensure children are removed, they also don't meet the needs of the autistic parents which essentially is setting them up to fail. 

Autistic people haven't been treated as they should and this is slowly becoming exposed for example Winterbourne scandal and the school scandal etc. These things do happen and they need to be exposed.

Hello, 

I work currently in the Police as a Business Admin, but I deal with Domestic Violence Protection Orders and manage their visits, as well as that I am a level 2 qualified door supervisor with the SIA.

an SIA licence should not be a requirement for a social worker, as their role is generally hands off, laying hands on should be only when there is threats to life, limb and property, otherwise there could be a claim against being assaulted, as the training in SIA states "as much force as is reasonable in the circumstances", they do not provide active restraint techniques, they only tell you what to avoid in restraining to prevent serious health issues, also to mention SIA licences are not cheap and require renewal, of which mine costs around £222 last payment i made on my licence.

Citizens arrest falls under S24A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act - Arrest without a warrant any person - This is a massive grey area in legal defenition, as such should only be done when in threat of life limb and property and the offence is indictable, of which you cannot reasonably expect a SW to understand what law is indictable in every scenario.

Now domestic abuse is horrible, but abuse doesnt mean just bad things, abuse is a wide range of things, it doesnt cover just violence, as Domestic Violence is mainly its own catagory.


I just want to cover this scenario a bit more you stated;

NAS76265 said:

emale under civilians arrest due to threat to his life until police attend sw not trained will class this as domestic abuse not a domestic incident.

Under defenition, the fact the female is a threat to the males life, that does count as Domestic Abuse, irregardless of how many times this has happened, I have seen Domestic Violence Protection Orders granted over a one time fight between couples.

People seem to think Abuse has to be multiple, but it could be one time.

In terms of diagnosis, not to discredit your experience, however in general terms, autism alone is not enough to take a child, it would be the belief that there is a genuine fear for the safety of the child to remain in custody of the parents due to the actions and situation at home, this can even include house cleanliness, enough food to eat and even a toxic situation between parents.

NAS76265 said:

my first question would be should a SW who has no secondary care qualifications or professional experience be making any judgements that are based of stereotypes and stigmas and outside of their areas of expertise.

In relation to the above, as stated by M they should seek counsel if there are things that are not experts in, however they are there to ensure that the family is OK and support is there, if there are serious concerns then they use their authority to take action, the voice of the child is a big part of their work, but also assessments of the family home, the environment and the relationships with the family members.

Now stereotypes of autism do exist but that is due to mainstream knowledge, many people assume autism is the severe end of the spectrum where there are severe development issues, however that is not just for the SW to know, but the orgonisation themselves to facilitate training or place families under caseloads where they have knowledge of Autism as opposed to someone who isnt qualified, but that is an orgonisational process and not a criticism of the social worker, as they say, you can only work with the tools you have at the time.

your diagnosed with autism due to your behaviour/actions..... why would your child then not be removed by a professional with lack of training qualifications or knowledge around these behaviours which lead to neglect human abuse, suicides, and harassment from NT and relies on the stigmas and stereotypes associated with autism 

SIA training - domestic abuse two people in a relationship one trained in Sia restrains female under civilians arrest due to threat to his life until police attend sw not trained will class this as domestic abuse not a domestic incident. so u would understand that egos and personality clashes could lead professionals to become revengeful, spiteful and a Sw who didn't have conflict management and negotiation training could fail to realise and cause conflict due to not understanding a situation and thinking she's doing the right thing not one of 8 social workers have been willing to accept this as they always know best and don't need additional training 

I've never heard of anyone expecting a social worker to have SIA training! 

I personally have had autism training, safeguarding training AND conflict management training, amongst various other extensive training. I've even had breakaway training though thankfully my clients haven't tried to physically attack me. I agree that a lot of SWs don't understand autism well. We are expected to know a lot about everything, but that's why we don't work alone. 

I'd request an advocate if I were you, if you haven't got one already. 

it is a statutory obligation that Sw work with wider agencies when situations outside of their expertise arise not many sw do this due to that I know it all attitude if this was the case and peoples perceptions due to limited lived experiences and unwillingness or incapability to recognise a asd needs would be a blatant form of abuse and then to manipulate this due to their lack of qualifications is what's puts questions around the profession on a whole 

again manipulative but have not answered are Sw allowed to comment outside of their areas of expertise about secondary care issues that only a specialist can comment on due to their qualifications. its not about changing minds its about stating facts not opinions unless willing to have those opinions changed with knowledge but can see your unwilling to gain any knowledge or debate your opinion as a Swe probably will say argumentative again lack of conflict management skills this is where a Sw would put don't understand my concerns failing to engage cuz unwilling to accept responsibility for her lack of knowledge training or discriminate opinions reason why there is still racism and such going on easy to see 

exactly family courts do not take into account autistic traits like building trustful and honest relationships but would force them to work with a random court doctor and then further violate there healthcare rights of not being able to discuss this random professional observations and recommendations after one meeting. I have had 8 social workers over 1 year a Half while professionals claiming to be working with me and its me not working with them how can u build a rapport with some many workers who fail to have any conflict management skills or negotiation they dont know how to collaborate and do not accept responsibility for needing further training as went to uni and that section covered was sufficient enough even though there is much more than generalised information about autism. professionals ego do not allow them to raise awareness discrimination due to their lived experiences and perception online no matter how wrong or right that may be. I yet to see a SW with conflict management training negotitiaon training, SIA training safeguarding training. 

just cause your scared of a dark room I must be too and thats doesn't mean I have trauma I need dealing with could mean im more reliant than u more able to deal with stations that u more creative (autistic trait) lack of knowledge awareness and qualifications lead to opinions and stereotypes happy to accept your qualifications but accept they are not the best and if u was willing you could gain those qualifications but think u know it all so won't 

I did not say that they do not happen, I said that it is not a blanket experience of all autistic parents, hence why I feel that it is fear mongering. 

It is a good idea for anyone in the social care system to seek independent advice, whether from legal professionals or an advocacy service so their voice can be heard. 

Social workers don't work in isolation, they work with other types of professionals and they alone don't make the decision to remove children. There are so many factors that come into deciding to remove a child and they have to jump through so many hoops. 

I'm not going to keep posting in this thread because I'm not here to change the mines of people who are unhappy with their experience, I just want other autistic people to know that being an autistic parent doesn't automatically make people concerned about your children's wellbeing.