tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1833374226888636446.post8617162239797015133..comments2023-08-27T14:04:47.773+01:00Comments on Jimmy's Blog: 4-1/2 years abuse. Grandparents ignored.Grandparents Apart UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17631887562820389689noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1833374226888636446.post-70726279872688637532009-11-22T12:50:17.062+00:002009-11-22T12:50:17.062+00:00Jimmy
I hope you are well. It is great to see...Jimmy<br /><br /> <br /><br />I hope you are well. It is great to see you campaigning away. In fact I think your pronouncements are getting better focussed and more hard hitting all the time. <br /><br /> <br /><br />I don’t know how to post a comment about your item on Facebook about the wee boy whose bruises were ignored by social services. Here’s what I’d like to say:<br /><br /> <br /><br />Social Services are highly antagonistic to anything raised by fathers and paternal families. They fall over themselves to say that they have no role in helping children to have ongoing relationships with their paternal families even when it is blindingly obvious that this is in the best interests of a child at risk. <br /><br /> <br /><br />What does it take to get social services to take a child welfare referral seriously? From my experience you would need to be able to show them the child with a hatchet actually embedded in his or her skull before they would take the complaint seriously and even then they would return the child to the mother at the earliest possible opportunity. If they won’t even take bruises seriously how much less will they respond to psychological damage? The bias in favour of the single mother is absolutely ingrained in the workings of Social Services. The bias against paternal families is equally ingrained. <br /><br /> <br /><br />There needs to be a statutory duty imposed on Social Services to treat contact disputes as a fundamental child welfare issue and to listen to and consult with grandparents. They would claim, of course, that they’d get bogged down with contact disputes but then, perhaps, something might get done to improve the current disastrous situation for children.Grandparents Apart UKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17631887562820389689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1833374226888636446.post-12163982824149882352009-11-21T10:44:54.705+00:002009-11-21T10:44:54.705+00:00We have seen many instances in both public and pri...We have seen many instances in both public and private law cases where children's accounts are not believed - often because there is the attitude that their views are being influenced or controlled by the resident parent, or parent having contact when they are in foster care. We had a case where a child stayed with one parent over the weekend and that parent was so concerned about yet more bruising in 2 children, they were taken to hospital. At first the bruises were diagnosed as likely to be abuse. Then social services talked to the doctor and the diagnosis was changed. The parent who reported the problem is now denied contact with the children, because the reporting was seen as abuse! <br /> On the bruising evidence, you need to understand how the criteria work. On the basis of standards from both the Royal College of Paediatricians and NICE guidelines on diagnosis of child abuse, it is not bruising, but the age of the child and above all WHERE THE BRUISES ARE which are important in diagnosis of accidental or inflicted injury. In normal life, children bump foreheads, fall over and bruise knees, etc. Even bad bumps on forehad would not normally be seen as abuse unless there is other indication. It is a pattern of injuries which happen less often by accident which is more likely to suggest abuse, or shape of bruise (eg belt buckle or bite mark). Also bruises to babies too young to crawl or toddle are almost always seen as suspicious, on the principle "those who don't cruise rarely bruise". Yet we do have cases where true accidental injuries occur, but parents are not believed. Best wishes, Name and address suppliedGrandparents Apart UKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17631887562820389689noreply@blogger.com