On Tuesday 11th
September 2018, I attended a seminar in Westminster with a determined,
courageous and inspiring group of mothers who have come together and created
the support/campaign group @Fiightback.
This Seminar was organised by Legal
Action for Women a grass roots legal service. LAW have worked tirelessly since
their creation in 1982 to enable women who have historically been silenced get
their voices heard and their rights recognised.
This seminar was called “Do NO
Harm”
One of the guest speakers at this
seminar was Mr Andy Bilson Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University
of Central Lancashire, who is working on the rising levels of children going
into care. Professor Bilson spoke about the increase in child protection figures,
which alarmingly in children before the age of 5 is now at a staggering 1 in 16
children. Professor Bilson went on to clarify that equates to a staggering 52 %
rise in adoptions before the age of 5. These are truly astounding figures.
Here at Fiightback, we are seeing
an alarming increase in child protection cases involving children with chronic
and complex illnesses along with children with autism. It would appear
mothers/parents seeking appropriate statutory support (EHCP’s) due to the
multisystem needs of their children seem to be targeted for Fabricating and
Inducing Illness; a new term for the old Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy.
I was shocked when listening to the
first hand personal accounts of these proceedings, which were read out by
courageous but still clearly traumatised family members. Emma Lewell-Buck MP,
Shadow Minister for children and Families also gave a stirring speech about how
the practice of forced adoption has been reinstated. It took me right back to
the 50s 60s and 70s and I ask the question how could we let this happen again?
How have we regressed back in
time from a point where the Prime Minister has issued an apology for those
children harmed by forced adoptions in the 50s – 70s, to where it is now
happening again for no good reason in 2018?
Support is what is desperately needed in our society not separation.
Draconian measures are being
ratified in both the USA and UK, an outcry went up when Donald Trump took
children away from mothers in the US and yet the state can do the same here and
we hear nothing?
Our support system is now turning
on families aggressively harming innocent children without due care,
understanding or process whilst other countries look on with astonishment. We
should be hanging our heads in shame.
When people like Lord Nash,
former Conservative Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and
co-founder of the charity Future, are sponsoring academies that are running out
of control. Is it really surprising that we find our education, health and social
care doing the same? It has now been revealed that the same thing is happening
with forced adoption, which was another reform Lord Nash was calling for.
In the Queens’s Speech the UK
Conservative Government introduced a Children and Social work Bill. This was to
ensure that children could be adopted into new families without delay. It was supposed
to improve the standard of social work and opportunities for young people in
care in England. The resulting reality is anarchy and misuse of forced adoptions.
We then come to supporting a child’s
needs when in the care system. Care for sick children is wholly inadequate with
children physically unable to take a shower for themselves, they are often left
alone with no education, no healthcare provision or dental appointments, all
because they have conditions that are little understood and do not get me
started on how they are viewed by professionals.
Dr Speight, a leading and world-renowned
specialist in Myalgic Encephalitis (ME) a complex condition with many systems
that have dysregulation that makes the condition complex and hard to understand,
also comes under attack from other professionals who use the system to their
own gain and advantage. Dr Speight has never shied away from protecting children,
but he often suffers due to putting his head above the parapet as the NHS
whistle blowers do, he explains:
Parents naturally move heaven and earth trying to get a diagnosis and
the “treatment”, often needing several “second Opinions”.
When the treatment doesn’t work or makes the young person worse the
parents are blamed for withholding from treatment.
He goes on to say
I’ve seen several cases of proceedings driven almost certainly by a
desire for revenge on the part of the professionals.
Dr Speight has attended 20
families accused of FII in the last 5 years who have been taken to case
Conferences. The wretchedness of having an ill child who is deteriorating with
no treatment, let alone fighting the system is utterly devastating. With Tymes Trust
having over 200 cases of families being falsely accused, at some point someone
somewhere must look at this situation and recognise the system is not only
failing but is not fit for the purpose that was originally intended.
We hope this seminar will provide
the long overdue recognition this issue demands.
We have to stop the rot and discrimination.
Listen to those that know Dr Rowe from the US and DR Speight from the UK
http://voicesfromtheshadowsfilm.co.uk/paediatric-mecfs/
Both have written in the world renowned 2017 paediatric
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2017.00121/full
