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.
social services took my children because of my aspergers diagnosis
I am so sorry and saddened to hear that you have gone through this. Due to lack of understanding, absence of tailored support autistic parents are having their human rights violated by social services and the family courts. I started this conversation over 4 years ago because my 7 week old baby was forcibly removed, I was lucky enough to have been able to prove that social services deceived the court at the time of my baby's removal and my child was returned at 18 months old. I have created artwork about my experiences as an autistic mother. https://outsidein.org.uk/galleries/esther-whitney/
Trying to raise awareness of the failings within the current system relating autistic parents is vital, we need to speak out. I am too frightened to have anymore children as an openly autistic mother in the UK. It should not be this way!!!!!
IF your child was taken from you for those super important 11 months, that is what is known (IIRC) as a "Tort" in law, and you should ask for compensation, separately for you and your child as separate plaintiffs.
I am NOT in any way qualified to give you this advice, but MY O/H did a law degree, and I got as much out of it as I could in terms of understanding the underlying concepts and machinery.
Your post "triggered" me, as does this whole subject of modern day "childcare".
MY single experience of S/S is when as a newly single 56 year old ADD person (didn't know about the aspergers then, and the relationship I later returned to, had hit a rocky patch so I had just moved into the cheapest flat I could find) I ended up tasked with looking after my daughters abused, vulnerable, self harming, bonkers, 17 year old mate. S/S/ after a brief inspection of my flat left us a couple of carrier bags of miscellaneous food and hooked her up with whatever bennies she was entitled to.
Fortunately, Jesus Intervened and made it possible that after six months of living with me and my Cat, she was able to stop the self harming stuff, straighten up her shoulders, dump the weird ideas that lead to self harming, and having seen a how a halfway decent (I smoke dope and casually exceed 100mph when I deem it not criminally insane on safety grounds, so I can't claim to be respectable or fully decent!) male Christian role model acts, and leave my flat with her shoulders back and head up and get a (by all accounts, I've not kept in touch directly) half decent life with the kiddies and everything.
My point, if anyone was wondering, is that we seem to have lost our way as far as parenting goes, when "parenting instinct" is devalued and replaced with "Society" which seems to want to intrude more and more in one of the most basic and intimate human relationships, that that exists between a human and their child and replace it with "Experiments in human behaviour" and then fails to do it well. That kid who SS allowed to be dumped on me, was very lucky, I could have been anyone... (And the stuff I learned through her, about the male role models in her life was deeply, deeply, disquieting, and almost made me ashamed to be a bloke).
I find my morality and defence of traditional values & models to be constantly under attack these days, but the traditional Ideas that were instilled in me about what it means to be a man, and our duty to protect the weak etc, and "provide" clearly were not instilled in any of the men who she encountered... But that's what happens when you forget what sex is actually, really, all about. It's not the jollies, or the endorphins, it's about making babies and bringing them up to be better humans than you were.
Oh god, I wrote my thoughts down again. I hope it goes well this time..
I have just joined here and found your post. I hope your case is progressing and you achieve the right outcome. I admire you have persevered - not at all easy. May I ask if you were / are you represented? I ask as it is rare to hear of lawyers being willing to take on such cases. I believe there should be more human rights challenges. I’m looking to start a group.
Legal action is the only way to make public bodies accountable for thier actions and relentlessly pursue them through the courts to take their responsibilities seriously
you are right I meant Litigation friend not McKenzie friend.
A McKenzie Friend is a person who is not legally qualified who "assists" a litigant in person. They can take notes, whisper advice etc. but not speak in court.
A minor would have a " guardian ad litem " in cases where the court was considering making an oder affecting them, e.g. care proceedings. A minor or person lacking capacity can sue through a "litigation friend" , sometimes known as a "next friend" , with the permission of the Court.