Barnardo`s apologises for child abuse

"The UK's biggest childcare charity yesterday claimed there had been no 'malice' in the mistreatment of children - as it formally apologised to youngsters abused in its homes."

"Former Barnardo's executive Sara Clarke now works for the organisation as a consultant, helping it to tackle historic allegations of child abuse and neglect."

"She said the charity was 'deeply sorry' for any 'hurt' that children in its care had suffered - and accepted that the charity was responsible for 'failures' that led to abuse..."

"The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SQAI) has heard a series of allegations that children in its homes were beaten and raped."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6609165/Barnardos-insists-theres-no-malice-mistreatment-children.html?ito=facebook_share_fbia-bottom&fbclid=IwAR3AT1ZaPNqZxnh66CIy1DwOCR4KMkQj0vcMXBIKz6zTo-Wxry8gSG4vDNU

Networking child abusers

On UK Column News, 12 March 2018, Brian Gerrish and Mike Robinson were joined by David Scott of Northern Exposure via video link.

"Of course," begins Brian Gerrish, "Over the week-end on Saturday, Edinburgh, they had the launch of the FreshStartFoundation. FreshStart [are] looking to conduct a public inquiry into child abuse in Scotland and ... this has become necessary because of the total lack of public confidence in the official government run child abuse inquiry. So we`ll just bring on screen the advert for that event... Here we are - The People`s Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. I must say, in my opinion, it was a great success but we`ve gor David Scott to speak to us directly about what took place."

FSF facebook page

 

"Yes, we also were very pleased ... We found that we finished the day better informed than we started it. The comments from the floor and the quality of the people who were coming along and getting involved was excellent and it was a really first class day and a very good start to the ... road show programme."

"Yes, and David I have to say it`s always an emotional time when you are with people who have been through the system. They`re survivors, really remarkable to have endured what they have; but, of course, what comes forward from them very strongly is that they are still very much searching for justice; and they have little to no confidence in all of the organisations which the government would have us believe are protecting children. So whether that`s the local authority or it`s some of the major charities, like NSPCC or Barnardo`s or some of the other organisations that are publicly funded to assist, it`s really - I`ll say sad - but I think a much stronger word is needed - it`s very sad that we`ve got so many people who`ve been abused in the system as children and yet they have absolutely no confidence in the government, be it in Scotland, or down in Westminster, to actually take the necessary action..."

David Scott: "One of many things I learned during the event was that there were people there who had been instrumental, who had themselves been harmed by sexual abuse, and they had been instrumental and devoted years to working with the government to build institutions and build a mechanism by which truth and justice and some form of remedy could be provided. And they`re telling me that these institutions, that they`ve helped build to address the problem, are themselves being subverted by government; are being essentially destroyed. So yes, we are seeing people who are looking for somewhere to go ... We hope we`ll be able to provide a point for these people to gather together and work together and make something happen."

"We hope to provide a means of resisting further attacks because the use of language, the use of policy ... the use of attacks on families... the use of attacks on children, via policy, via changes in language, via ideas being introduced ... are not conducive to human thriving and to protection of children ... We hope to be able to address this as well and provide people with the language and the understanding to fight back."

Brian Gerrish: "The other point I`d like to make is that as far as I was aware there was absolutely no attendance from so-called mainstream or indeed local press or media at that event, nor did I see attempted engagement by local authorities` child care social services themselves. So it appears when the survivors get together to speak out: what`s really happened and what they really think about the system, the system itself runs away. They don`t want to know; they don`t want to publish; they don`t want to broadcast that people are starting to meet in order to address this thing themselves. You could also say that`s very sad, but I have to say it`s more sinister than that. I think this is an orchestrated cover-up. There`s a blanking of reporting these type of events."

Mike Robinson: "Right, so that was Saturday. The next one, David, is 17 March, next Saturday and John Wedger will be attending that. That`s in Stirling.  Details are on screen at the moment [5.26] and we`ll put the details on the UK Column events page as well, on the UK Column website."

"But David you were talking about policy a second ago and where`s the policy coming from? You have published this article on the UK Column yesterday.  Curiouser and Curiouser: Paedophile Networks and the Children`s Rights Movement. This article is already starting to move on social media and so on. Just give us the background to this because it`s a massive story."

"Yes. Peter Newell, he was reported in the mainstream media... Peter Newell, who was described as a children`s rights campaigner, had been convicted of multiple rape back in the sixties. This is a very old case. Like so many of these, it takes a long time to come forward.  He was tried; he was convicted and he was sentenced to over eight years in prison; and that seemed to be the story."

"It really wasn`t and people started to say: `Well look more closely at this man; he`s everywhere`. He indeed is."

"Now we`ve looked - I suspect we`ve only got some of his links in this article - but we started off with a look at one of his charities which was campaigning to end smacking.and hence change the legal position of children. And that was called The Children are Unbeatable and this was linked to an enormous network of children`s charities in the UK.  And so huge was this network, so well connected was this man, that the only way we could describe it was to actually list them... The article contains an enormous list of all these interconnected  children`s charities; and they were all supporting, funding, paying his salary and of course this is a convicted paedophile. " 

"But when we looked further, the links went much further than that; they went international. So he was linked to overseas and international charities and these tie up all across the globe. He`s in Africa; he`s in South America; he`s in Asia and then he is also in the UN.  And it transpires that this is the man who wrote the [implementation] handbook for the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Now this is a huge three volume work; he wrote it together with his wife; it`s still the official line on everything to do with the rights of the child; it`s policy in the UN.  It has been implemented in Scotland, England, Wales, all across the world and it was written by a paedophile."

Mike Robinson: "In the article, towards the end, David, you draw parallels with Kinsey. And it does seem strange, when we look at serious policy regarding children, we have some pretty dodgy characters involved in formulating that policy."

David Scott: "Yes the policy is coming in and the policy ... strikes people as strange; it strikes people as odd. They notice in schools; well we`re having these strange forms of education - you know sex ed and all the rest of it - and we feel uneasy about it. And some people are starting to... say these policies come in, the problems actually get much worse.  We didn`t have a problem with teenage pregnancy but now we`ve got this new education programme ... all of a sudden we do. Then when you start following this back to the individuals that generate this policy - yes you`re quite right. Dodgy is being generous." 

"Peter Newell: Coordinator of the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, launched in 2001, and of the `Children are Unbeatable` Alliance in the United Kingdom. He chaired the Council of the Children`s Rights Alliance for England from 1992 to 2002. He was a member of the NGO Advisory Panel for the United Nations Secretary- General`s Study on Violence Against Children and also of the Independent Expert`s Editorial Board for the Study, 2004 - 2006. He has written various commentaries on children`s rights in the United Kingdom and also a detailed proposal for a children`s rights commissioner, published as Taking Children Seriously." 

https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Implementation_Handbook_for_the_Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child_Part_1_of_3.pdf

Mike Robinson then takes the discussion towards the Telford child sex abuse scandal: He says: "This situation seems to be running right across the UK. We`ve had Rotherham. We`ve got Telford. We`ve got other examples - Glasgow as well..."

View more here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=771eTvV2H7Q

More allegations against charities come to light

"Oxfam has been accused of covering up the use of prostitutes by staff in Haiti in the wake of the deadly earthquake in 2010. Allegations that prostitutes were used by staff in Chad in 2006 have also emerged." 

"It has denied a cover-up, but the charity's chief executive has said nine members of staff `behaved in a way that was totally unacceptable`."

https://news.sky.com/story/step-up-and-do-more-charities-warned-amid-oxfam-prostitution-scandal-11248243

 

Mike Robinson spoke on UK Column News about some of these matters: "I just caught this headline on Sky News. Oxfam: Former development secretary Greening `absolutely shocked` by claims against Oxfam. "

"She was speaking to Sky News. She said she was absolutely shocked. She said: `I don`t recall being aware of those allegations` [while she was in post] `but I certainly know that when I had any instances raised with me, they always would have been followed up. I`m not the kind of person who would have ignored anything like that. Why would anyone?` "

Mike Robinson found this statement interesting given the involvement of the Charity Commission into allegations against Oxfam.

"Well the Charity Commission for England and Wales has announced that they are opening a statutory inquiry today into Oxfam and they are going to improve safeguarding in the charity sector as a whole, they claim. They say that this has come after the allegations made against Oxfam regarding misconduct by staff involved in the humanitarian response in Haiti. They said that they have concerns that Oxfam may not have fully and frankly disclosed material details about the allegations at the time in 2011; about its handling of the incident since; and the impact that these have had on public trust and confidence."

"But this is quite interesting because actually the Charity Commission had already been investigating Oxfam during the course of 2011 and they had produced a report which came out in December."

"It said in 2017 `We engaged... with Oxfam over a number of concerning allegations about recent and non-recent safeguarding incidents involving senior programme staff including allegations of sexual harassment of other staff... `"

What the Charity Commission found:

"Oxfam cooperated fully with us. We established that the charity has a strong policy framework around protecting staff and beneficiaries from sexual exploitation and abuse, which is underpinned by the activities of a dedicated safeguarding unit. We also saw evidence of several examples of best practice including the publishing of data and trends about allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation against Oxfam staff and partners."  

"Many of the allegations reported against senior country staff relating to sexual abuse and exploitation were not substantiated, and the Commission has seen no indication to suggest that the risks to staff at Oxfam are any greater than those facing staff in other similar organisations. However, there clearly have been incidents of behaviour that did not meet the organisation’s culture and values and which have brought into question how confident trustees could be in the charity’s wider people management systems." 

"We also identified some weaknesses in how trends in safeguarding allegations were picked up, reported to trustees and management follow up properly agreed."  

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-case-report-oxfam/oxfam-case-report

"They said that many of the allegations reported against country staff - senior country staff - relating to sexual exploitation and abuse were not substantiated. Well, they`ve been substantiated now. So I`m questioning here how good is this statutory investigation going to be... when they ran an investigation last year and they found nothing."

"It goes on, though. But we concluded there`s further work for the charity to do in respect of its HR culture and overall governance and management of safeguarding. The Commission considers that the charity needs to be more mindful of the allocation of resources which enables an appropriate balance between proactive preventive activity in the investigation of individual allegations."

"So basically they said nothing of any use. They apparently found nothing particularly wrong with the charity but then we have these revelations over here and apparently today more revelations about alleged sexual abuse taking place involving children in Oxfam charity shops."

Brian Gerrish concurs: "It`s amazing isn`t it Mike? And of course when UK Column was pointing a finger at the UK charity Common Purpose... what was discovered?  Matthew Byrne, one of the Merseyside Common Purpose advisory board members. Horrific crimes. I will leave people to look him up for themselves. Was there an investigation by Common Purpose?  Nothing that was made public. Was there any police investigation into him and his links with Common Purpose? No investigation at all. Was there any follow up of the fact that Common Purpose had been providing training in many schools across the country particularly in the Sheffield area with no CRB checks. Nothing was followed up on that at all."

"So what we consistently see is that when allegations come to the surface, or evidence comes to the surface, overwhelmingly there`s a close down."

"But it`s beginning to grow, so people might have missed this from a couple of days ago. It`s focusing in on Brendon Cox. This is the Daily Mail and the article is that it`s alleged that Mr Cox grabbed here hips, pulled her hair and forced his thumb into a lady`s mouth in America, in a sexual way. This was a lady working in a US government job. She reported the incident to the police as a sex assault claim...And what comes to light again in this article ... So it included a text which he sent to her later."

"He left Save the Children after there had been numerous other complaints about him. So quite remarkable. Of course here we`ve got people tied in with the mainstream political parties. These are all allegations at the moment. They seem to be building up. But is any action taken against these major charities?"

"And of course one of the things we have consistently said in our UK Column report is that child abuse survivors simply laugh when you say `Well didn`t you get any help from NSPCC or Barnardos or any of the other major charities? Those survivors have simply laughed and said `Well of course the abusers are embedded within those charities as well`. Maybe we`re beginning to see it."

"And just to bring things full circle. We`ll bring in the Open Government Partnership. Now we mentioned them a couple of days ago. This is bringing us back towards George Soros. But I was intrigued to see that we`ve got Helle Thorning Schmidt as one of the Open Government Partnership ambassadors but she`s also there as Chief Executive of Save the Children International. So remarkable isn`t it? All these people clustered around the mainstream parties. Of course this lady married to ... Stephen Kinnock. Here she is working with a major children`s charity. That charity now coming under the spotlight alongside Oxfam."

Police whistleblower

"Well, we`ll contrast that with what? The testimony of a very brave Metropolitan policeman, John Wedger.  This man speaking out to UK Column on audio... and video, clearly saying that the British government, MPs, charities, local authorities covered up child abuse in London, including the deaths of children.  He was villified, hounded at work."

"He`s doing a walk from London to Manchester. This is his JustGiving page. He was after just £5,000 and I`m delighted to say that today I can report that that JustGiving target is up to £6,255. Now the additional money over his target of £5,000 is going to go to a charity. And if you go to the JustGiving site you can actually have a look at that. So some good news there Mike, but it`s taken John Wedger to suffer so much in order to get that story out.  Mainstream press, the BBC in particular, simply will not follow through on the evidence."

https://www.ukcolumn.org/  [13 February 2018]

CICA avoids compensating child abuse victims

"Children cannot legally consent to sex unless they are over 13 and the defendant reasonably believes they are over 16."

"But CICA, which decides payouts of sexual abuse, uses a different set of criteria."

"In evidence submitted to the Independent Inquiry into child sexual abuse last year, Barnardo’s said that the authority had responded to a claim from one child by saying that `it considers consent as a question of fact…a victim can consent in fact even though in law they may be deemed not to have consented`."

"Victim Support said a 12-year-old girl that had been plied with drink then assaulted by a 21-year-old man had been refused compensation because she had gone with him voluntarily."

"The charities claim that children are being made to feel like they are responsible for their abuse."

"Charities including Barnardo’s, Victim support and Rape Crisis say victims as young as 12 are being excluded from the scheme, the Daily Telegraph reported."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4041335/child-abuse-victims-denied-government-compensation-if-they-consented-despite-being-too-young-to-do-so/

Charity accepts children were groomed for abuse

"STAFF at a children’s charity have been accused of sexually abusing dozens of young people in their care over the last six decades."

"Barnardo's, one of the UK's largest children's charities, has formally accepted abuse had taken place as disquieting practices previously carried out across the country were starkly outlined."

"Barnardo's said children were groomed for abuse by people connected to their homes and this led to a conviction."

"An unnamed priest, a visiting vicar and other children were among those also accused of abusing children in Barnardo's care."

"Abuse appeared to go unchecked because home superintendents were all-powerful in the eyes of the children who had nowhere to turn or help."

"The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard that parents were seen as an `irritant` to Barnardo’s staff once a child was put in care, siblings were split up, and contact with family discouraged."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15381502.Dozens_of_children_came_forward_over_abuse_at_Barnardo__39_s__inquiry_hears/?ref=fbshr

Charities: the eyes and ears of the community

From UK Column News on Monday:

"Let`s move into this little area because if we want to know what the changes are for society, the government is now telling us very clearly. This was released in the last couple of days from the House of Lords: Stronger charities for a stronger society. I wonder what the comment of child abuse survivors would be to that statement in its raw form. Because many of those people say - well they laugh - if you mention the names of the charities NSPCC or Barnardo`s, but here we are, Stronger charities for a stronger society."

"It says: `We are living through a time of profound economic, social and technological change and the environment in which charities are working is altering dramatically. We do not believe that this is a temporary aberration: such disruptive changes are likely to become the norm`."

Brian Gerrish underlines the statement `such disruptive changes are likely to become the norm`.

"Well that`s very interesting. How do they know that Mike? And this is unlikely to be a temporary aberration: such disruptive changes are likely to become the norm."

Mike Robinson: "They can only know that because that is the intention."

"That is the intention and it`s ... only the UK Column that`s pointed out that people are talking about the need to have disruptors in society and we featured some time ago the Ted video ... with a man from Barnet Council - who talks about future government and the fact that we need more disruptors in order to get the necessary changes through."

"So here we`ve got the policy, the policy is of disruption in order to get the government`s change agenda through. What`s the change agenda? Well luckily this Baroness is going to tell us. So here we are: Baroness Pitkeathley and here are some of her comments in respect to the report."

"Charities are the eyes, ears and conscience of society says Lords Select Committee... we need `Stronger charities for a stronger society`..."

"Wouldn`t it be the case that if you have a strong society you wouldn`t need charities because you wouldn`t have people who are poor or suffering or ..."

"That`s absolutely true. Charities are the eyes and ears of society, Brian?"

"Did that remind you of anything?"

"Well are charities replacing GCHQ, is that what`s going on?"

"Well I think that`s part of it. But eyes, ears...certainly made my ears prick up because I remembered this."

"This is Leeds Advisory Group for Common Purpose. This is the meeting going back to 25 July 2006. And just for an indication, here is a charity Common Purpose - we often say this is an oxymoron because of course they`re a political charity. Here are the sorts of people Common Purpose were bringing together. So we`ve got a Regional Director of Common Purpose. We`ve got a Divisional Chief Superintendent from West Yorkshire Police. We`ve got newspapers. We`ve got the university. We`ve got the Council. We`ve got businesses; we`ve got people from the Education sector all meeting behind closed doors under Chatham House rules of secrecy."

"So the two that really stick out are the policeman and the newspaper man because those two organisations should be kept separate from any of this nonsense."

"Indeed. So separation of powers gone out of the window, under the control of a political charity. Why were we so interested? Because in this particular meeting, well it was this statement:"

1. Introduction of new Advisory Group Members

The group and new Advisory Group members were welcomed and introductions were made.

2. Purpose of Advisory Group

Claire went through the advisory briefing pack and reiterated that they are not a board, but the eyes and ears of Common Purpose, Leeds, and will feed key business information to the director. They are there to assist with recruitment, by spreading the word, putting their own staff on programmes and making decisions on accepting participants for matrix. The Advisory Group should also act as a support in localising the content of the curriculum for matrix.

"So think of those orders being given to the very senior policeman there. Because his job is not to be a policeman it`s to work for business information for Common Purpose. And what do we see here? An excellent look into very very dangerous activity by the charity Common Purpose but of course this is mirrored across many other charities as we see."

"Here`s the lady Claire Bennett. You can find her on the Common Purpose website and according to the information she`s very experienced."

"Design and delivery of leadership development courses in West and North Yorkshire."

"Design and delivery of courses for emerging leaders in the north... Youth courses. On it goes. So I don`t know where she got all this experience - she`s been working for Common Purpose for years but this is the lady who was simply pointing at a policeman - a senior policeman - and saying this is what you will do in order to support Common Purpose."

"So let`s come back to the Baroness and see what else she had to say:"

"She said: `Charities are the lifeblood of society. They play a fundamental role in our civil life and do so despite facing a multitude of challenges. Yet for them to continue to flourish, it is clear that they must be supported and promoted`."

"So what`s coming here? Well it`s pretty simple because if you`re a charity you`re not going to be allowed to act as a charity unless the government is supporting and monitoring you`."

"She says: `We found that charities lead the way with innovation, but that this is at risk of being stifled by the `contract culture`. And while advocacy is a sign of a healthy democracy, and is a central part of charities` role, this role has been threatened by Government`."

"Now this is itself an interesting statement. What she`s getting at is the fact that many big charities: Barnardo`s, NSPCC, for example, are now doing the work of government. So they are running contracts. They are no longer effectively charities in the sense that most of us would remember. So big contracts she says are causing charities problems."

"So running on through: `We hope that charities will be encouraged by this report; that the Government will respect their role; and that in addition it will value the connections charities have with all sections of society, and encourage the vital scrutiny they provide`."

"So what we`re interested in here Mike is the fact that the charity sector - that`s about 167,000 charities in UK representing well over £44 billion - those charities affect everyone. They affect local communities, very small communities -  the government now getting the control in through those charities."

"So what Baroness Pitkeathley is expressing here echoes what

Priti Patel was talking about last week where they`re going to fund particularly smaller charities; they`re going to give them grants. But in order to achieve that grant funding they have to agree to special training."

"Correct."

"And of course that is control."

"So Mike`s hit that absolutely on the button. So let`s just put a few things together. This itself was reported by Third Sector magazine, very good article. I encourage people to go and have a look at it. And it says that basically charities are going to be encouraged to report to government on how they perform and they`re going to be encouraged as Mike says to do training for the government. So why should we be interested in all this? Well in that article this is one of the organisations mentioned: the New Philanthropy Capital and they say: `We have seen our approach adopted and adapted as far afield as Brazil, Germany, Sweden and Israel."

"So we now get a clue that this is not UK internal policy - there`s something much deeper here - and why would we be interested with New Philanthropy Capital?  Well if we look at who created it, it`s Goldman Sachs the very same bank that`s helping the British army to train at the moment, alongside Barclays."

"Let`s have a look at another aspect of this article because we`ve got Power to Change mentioned... we`ve got a gentleman called Christopher Stephens. He was chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission. So we`ve got a nice mix here Mike. One minute we`re talking about charities. We then have a look at the interests of the senior people involved and they`re busy appointing judges and at the same time they`re part of the Salaries Review Board for the top Civil Service Commissioners who are going to give them the money through the government in the first place. But there`s no conflict of interest, luckily."

"None at all."

"So what else can we add to this one? Well in the article it also mentions Lloyds Bank Foundation with community businesses to revive local assets, protect services people rely on and address local needs."

"Is that assets in the sense of intelligence gathering?"

"I think that`s exactly what`s going on. They`re trying to get people to believe they`re going to be helping the local children`s football team that needs some help refurbishing their ground but if you have a look at what`s going on here it`s massive data collection."

"And we shouldn`t be surprised because of course it was this gentleman Eric Pickles who said: `We are going to shake up the balance of power in this country. We are going to change the nature of the constitution. Now he said that alone; no debate... He said he was going to be a revolutionary -  and the revolution starts here.`"

"So what we are really seeing coming in now is this central core of Big Society. This diagram we did years ago but it showed the change agents driving through the third sector to produce this Common Purpose based Big Society and this is going to be - well you talked about this the other day Mike - well this is Theresa May. She`s calling it the shared society but it`s exactly the same thing just using slightly different language."

"Again this is constitutional change, localism. OK the Localism Bill has gone through and become the Localism Act. That`s quite constrained and limited whereas most of this change seems to be pretty much unlimited and no real debate in parliament about what this change is about or where it`s taking us... "

"And this is because there is effectively no Westminster. We simply have the Cabinet Office with its special advisers driving policy."

　https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4-S75kXN8

=======================

See also Imagining the future
　

John Swinney: setting the record straight on information sharing

 

At the start of the programme, CEO of Barnardo`s, Martin Crewe, is not sure where the view that the Named Person is going to involve mass information sharing comes from.

Later on, he states that if necessary the Named Person will have access to appropriate records.

It is strange that he does not seem able to connect these two ideas.

=====================

After the three month intense engagement, mentioned in the STV programme, John Swinney had this to say:

"The government listened to parents. The Named Person service provides a point of contact and support who works in partnership with parents and families to help them to navigate the wider system. Parents told us that they do not always get the support that their families need so they have to tell their stories over and over again. Parents also told us they want the Named Person service to work in partnership with them and that having a say in the sharing of information about their family, matters to them."

 

I would like to know which parents John Swinney has been engaging with because this sounds like parents with children who have special needs. Most parents do not require support to navigate the wider system. Having a say in information sharing should not come into it, but certainly should never be done without consent. For most children, there is nothing to share.

"Their views and experience reinforce the initial rationale for creating the Named Person service."

 

No. What is reinforced is the requirement for services for children with special needs so that parents do not have to go round in circles trying to get the services. But John Swinney would rather set up a Named Person scheme for all children when most children and their families have no need of it.

"The Government listened to practitioners. As with families, nursing and medical organisations and trade unions told us that information sharing that is rooted in consent, engagement and empowerment of families was the best way forward."

It is unbelievable that the government needed to be told that information sharing should be rooted in consent.

"Only in exceptional circumstances, such as where the risk of harm is present, should we consider departing from those core principles."

Exactly. This is why the Supreme Court made the judgment that the Children and Young People Act was unlawful - the very thing that the Scottish government was trying to get away with. John Swinney has a brass neck reading from this script.

"Practitioners highlighted the point that professional judgment and discretion remains vital in working with families to decide whether, when and with whom information should be shared. "

 

Information should only be shared in exceptional circumstances. End of.

"The Care Inspectorate highlighted to us that sharing of relevant and proportionate information in relation to the wellbeing of children had improved as organisations prepared for the implementation of the Named Person service."

 

Well the Care Inspectorate should know better, otherwise we need to start questioning what they are doing during their inspections.

"Joint inspections of services for children and young people in 2014 to 2016 showed that most community partnership areas had developed mechanisms for sharing information about individual children with relevant services, while working within the requirements of data protection legislation and duties of confidentiality..."

 

What a lie.

"We must provide consistency, coherence and confidence in the approach to sharing information below the threshold of risk of significant harm where the Named person`s role is so important in supporting families to get assistance when they need it."

 

No. We must get rid of those mechanisms that have been put in place for sharing information. As long as they are there the data sharing abuses will continue.
　

Staggering leak of children`s private data

[Gareth Rose]

"The SNP`s Named Person scheme has been plunged into further chaos after a `staggering` leak of children`s private data."

"The names, addresses, schools, dates of birth and family details of vulnerable children were published online by a council piloting the introduction of state guardians. The breach was reported and the page taken offline, but the Information Commissioner`s Office is now investigating.  Dundee City Council could face a £500,000 fine."

"It is a blow for John Swinney, days after the Education Secretary tried to resurrect the policy. He was forced to halt it in August after the UK Supreme Court ruled it would breach children`s human rights."

"Last week, Mr Swinney introduced scaled back plans that would only see information shared in `exceptional circumstances`, with plans for new legislation this year.`"

"But the news about the SNP-run council raises serious doubts over its ability to handle confidential data."

"Children featured in a `user guide` to Getting It Right for Every Child, the wider SNP policy which includes Named Person...."

"A Scottish Government spokesman said: `We remain absolutely committed to the Named Person service."

See also: http://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/tom-peterkin-changes-to-named-person-show-up-all-its-flaws-1-4387346

As well as the unnamed Scottish government spokesman, Martin Crewe, CEO of Barnardo`s Scotland, is being as flippant as ever about data sharing.

Child abuse inquiry hears testimony of survivors who were shipped to the colonies

"The UK national child abuse inquiry has been urged at the opening of its public evidence sessions to name and shame the perpetrators of the sexual abuse of tens of thousands of British children forcibly deported to Australia by the UK government and leading churches and charities."

"David Hill, one of more than 4,000 children who were sent to Australia and other Commonwealth nations from 1947 to the 1970s, waived his anonymity at the opening of the independent inquiry on Monday to make an emotional call for justice for victims..."

"The national child abuse inquiry is hearing testimony from people who were shipped as children to Australia. Some children sent to former colonies between the 1920s and 1970s faced servitude, hard labour and abuse."

"Hill is one of 22 former child migrants who will give evidence at the hearing. Many will testify of the extreme sexual and physical abuse they experienced when they were sent to Australia as part of the child migrant programme..."

"Henrietta Hill, QC, counsel to the inquiry, said it was the first time the sexual abuse of the former child migrants had been investigated in a public forum in the UK."

"She said the focus of the investigation was from 1947 onwards when more than 4,000 children were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and southern Rhodesia."

"There were many reasons for child migration, she said. It was carried out by the British government and leading churches and charities including Barnardo’s, the Church of England Children’s Society, Cornwall county council and the Sisters of Nazareth. But it was not without its critics at the time and the inquiry heard that in 1956 a blacklist of institutions was drawn up by the British government after evidence of sexual and physical abuse came to light. It was not acted upon following political pressure from many of the charities and agencies involved."

"The QC said cutting the cost to the taxpayer of looking after deprived children and providing white Anglo-Saxon labour for the colonies was one reason for the programme. Between the mid-19th century and the 1970s, more than 100,000 children were sent to the colonies."

"They were taken from their parents, foster families and children’s homes, put on to ships and not told what was happening..."

"The inquiry has divided its work up into 13 separate investigations. They are: children outside the UK; accountability and reparations: Rochdale and any links to the former Liberal MP Cyril Smith; children in custodial institutions; child sexual exploitation networks; Lambeth council; Lord Janner; Nottinghamshire councils; residential schools; the Anglican church; the Catholic church; and Westminster including any involvement by politicians. More strands may be identified in future..."

"The next full public hearing is expected to relate to the Rochdale investigation in October, followed by an examination of the English Benedictine Congregation, part of the Catholic investigation, in December."

"Other public hearings already scheduled will examine online sexual abuse, due in January next year, and the diocese of Chichester, in March 2018, as part of the Anglican church investigation."

"The IICSA is due to produce an interim report on its progress the following month, in April 2018.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/27/child-abuse-survivor-inquiry-name-villains-children-australia?CMP=share_btn_fb

Barnardo`s to run National Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse

"Children's charity Barnardo's has been appointed to run the National Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse being established by government as part of its efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse, CYP Now can reveal."

"The National Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse forms part of the government's efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation."

"The centre, which is backed by £8m in Home Office funding until 2020, aims to gather and share high-quality evidence of successful schemes in preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse."

"It will officially launch next week (25 January) at an event in Westminster, with further regional launch events planned in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Wales throughout February."

"The launch comes more than 18 months after plans to launch the centre were first announced in March 2015 as part of the government's child sexual exploitation action plan."

"The Home Office has previously been criticised for a lack of progress on delivering the plan."

http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/2003042/barnardos-appointed-to-run-gbp8m-national-child-sexual-abuse-centre

Gathering and sharing high-quality evidence of successful schemes is supposed to be some sort of stride forward. It just seems so insipid when there is real work to be done.

Instead of funding for child abuse `experts` to share evidence with the charity sector how about going after the perpetrators, prosecuting those involved in the cover-ups and releasing whistleblowers from prison ?

What is it the police are doing when they`re not tasering mentally disturbed patients and old men in the face? Oh I nearly forgot. Persecuting their own whistleblowers.

Shameful Britain.

Barnardo`s will grow its enterprise on the back of child poverty

"Barnardo`s`has announced a ten-year strategy which will aim to grow income by a third and change its relationship with commissioners, in order to cope with a predicted 25 per cent increase in beneficiaries."

"The charity aims to grow its income to £400m in the next few years, and hopes to do so largely by doubling the amount of funds for charitable application from its shops chain and fundraising department. It expects to grow the number of vulnerable children it works with from 248,000 at present to over 300,000."

"In an interview with Civil Society News, Javed Khan, chief executive of Barnardo`s said the plans were a response to data which showed that child poverty was increasing... "

"To do this, the charity also has ambitious plans to change the way local authorities commission children’s services. Khan said he wants the charity to work more with public sector commissioners to help them design and commission services, rather than waiting for contracts to be advertised and then bidding for them."

"At the moment the local authority decides what service it wants to offer and ten organisations bid for it," he said. "One wins and the other nine have wasted their time and money. It’s wasteful."

"At the moment 78 per cent of the contracts we bid for, we win, so we don’t need to do this, but we want to help local government improve efficiencies and improve outcomes."

http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/fundraising/news/content/22404/barnardos_launches_ten-year_strategy_with_plans_to_double_fundraising_income

While the charity aims to grow its income to £400m in the next few years it expects to grow the number of vulnerable children it works with...

This is business speak at its worst.

We should also remember the official line of  Barnardo`s after the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal which was in essence: business partners first, children second.

Javed Khan refused to back calls for officials to be sacked

Police whistleblower talks to Brian Gerrish

 

UK Column

 

This is a really important interview and I think it is useful to have it in written form, so that the text can be scanned easily for reference.

 

Brian Gerrish interviews John, a police whistleblower, at the UK Column studio. He says: "Just start somewhere at the beginning..."

"Well I joined the police in the beginning of the 1990s. My early career was just as a uniformed officer and I sort of ... progressed into the CID department and all was going well without incident and then I moved on to a specialist operation which was tracking down transient paedophiles because the Sex Offenders Registry Act had been brought in 1997, and they were finding that a lot of sex offenders were going off the radar, were going missing."

"It was a good little role," says John, "But things started to go awry." Sex offenders were required to sign the sex offenders register. Some of them were going missing; but they were going to live on canal boats. John was told that they`d got two but there were probably a couple more. "You`re on it for the next few months. See if you can double the figure and find two more. "Well what happened," says John, "was within a few months there was about ninety, and with that, it sort of exposed there was a loophole in the law that allowed people to live on canal boats, avoid registry and just act with impunity."

"So these people could have anonymous lives effectively and they`re there living in an area but because they`re on a boat they don`t have to identify themselves. They`re not on the council register ... "

The `single point of contact` myth has been exploded

From Iain MacWhirter of the Herald:

"John Swinney turned the indignation meter up to 11 in his defence of the Named Person scheme in Holyrood yesterday. Critics should be `ashamed of scaremongering` he roared and `creating a climate of misinformation`. But there`s been no need for the opposition to do that. It was after all Nicola Sturgeon who said that the NP scheme was not compulsory, when it emphatically is."

"Mr Swinney added to the confusion by comparing the Named Person with a family doctor - a `service` to be accessed as Mr Swinney put it `only when the family needs it`. But GPs are not responsible for preventing child abuse. The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Tavish Scott, insisted that `parents and carers can say thanks, but no thanks` to a Named Person. He then contradicts himself by saying that families will `no longer be allowed to hide abuse.` Exactly."

"Child protection is not optional. This has to be made clear, whatever side you take on this issue..."

"Inevitably the shadow of two-year-old Liam Fee, who was murdered by his mothers, hung over the debate. The SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth accused the Tories of `using the death of a child to score political points`. The Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson had tweeted that Liam Fee already had a Named Person, which was half right. Fife Council admitted that Liam had indeed been assigned one as a `point of contact`. But they went on to say that this wasn`t a fully operational, all-seeing NP with all the extensive powers that go with the post."

"The trouble here is that a `point of contact` is precisely how the Government has been selling the scheme. The phrase was used repeatedly in Holyrood yesterday by MSPs. Yet it is clearly very much more than that. The SNP furiously object to the term `state guardians` but that is exactly what a Named Person is turning out to be, whether they intended this or not."

"They are appointed by the state for every single child in Scotland from the moment they are born, without exception. This is an entirely new proactive approach to child welfare that is called Getting It Right For Every Child or GIRFEC..."

"The Named Person is `a key part of the early warning system we need to make sure that every child in Scotland is protected` according to Barnardos. An early warning system only works if it has an unrestricted view. Named Persons will be expected to spot the early signs of abuse and exchange information with GPs and police - in other words to create a database in which abnormal behaviour will be monitored, recorded and assessed. This could create a bureaucracy of state intervention in family life that is unprecedented anywhere in the world."

"The responsibility on the named person will be onerous. When the next Liam Fee happens - and it certainly will happen - the finger of blame will first of all point, as it did last week to the Named Person who is suppposed to be the protector of the child."

https://twitter.com/iainmacwhirter/status/740507667425300481

Sad to say, the Liam Fee murder has brought to the surface serious questions about the Named Person scheme that are not going to go away.

As the writer makes clear, it has been the Scottish Government which has been misinforming the public about the role of Named Persons.

The Named Person scheme is much more than a `single point of contact` - it `s a surveillance system - and anybody who reads the ACT and the guidance can see that.

Meanwhile the Scottish Government intends to waste more taxpayer money inventing refreshed `spin` about it, for what they hope will be a still ignorant or gullible public.

`Digging a bigger hole` comes into mind at this point.

In order to understand the powers of the Named Person, a good place to start is with the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, paying particular attention to Part 4.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/contents/enacted

Joining the dots at UK Column

 

UK Column 22 April 2016 [continued from previous post, and going through an excellent piece of work by David Scott.]

 

Speaking to David Scott, Mike Robinson says, "David, we`re starting off with GIRFEC here."

On screen appears a letter to Sally Ann Kelly, Chief Executive of Barnardo`s from the Local Government and Communities Directorate, Third Sector Unit.

"And this is a grant? £750,000 is it?" 

"Yes, just under 3/4 of a million pounds and that`s gone to Barnardo`s and a few other charities and they`re running a system of integrating the third sector with the general GIRFEC framework... So this is the system of looking after children in families, through education, in healthcare, that permeates every aspect of the Scottish Government."

"We`re now seeing the third sector, the charitable sector, brought into that fully in detail. So they`re involved in the planning of new developments - they`re involved in every aspect of it - there is in functional terms no difference between the government and these charities."

Mike Robinson asks: "And this is the gentleman who`s done this; is that correct?"

"This is Gareth Allen of the Scottish Government.  He`s all over this. If you google, you`ll find a lot by him encouraging charities to come on board and talking to charities and you can even look at his slide show presentation which explains exactly how it`s all done and how wonderful it`s going to be in the new Scotland. Now the letter there, that award letter was written to the, then, head of Barnardo`s Sally Ann Kelly... Martin Crewe is now head of Barnardo`s... She`s moved on to another charity and this is also a charity dealing with children in Scotland, receiving Scottish Government grants, backing the Named Person scheme wholeheartedly overall for the state snooper scheme... And they are entirely in the pocket of Government. And this lady is running the show there and I`m sure she has lots of contacts which will ensure the Aberlour Trust here will see a great deal of financial support from the government."

Brian Gerrish interrupts: "David I`m fascinated by that website because again we`ve got this look. The website is very childish but, of course, it`s not designed to be read by children. It`s designed to be read by adults and so we`ve got this inversion going on; silly, childish writing about a very serious subject to do with children."

"Yes and little piggy bank for the donate button. It`s all very jolly and as though it`s child friendly but you`re quite right. It`s not there to be read by children."

Mike Robinson puts another document on screen. Funding for the Getting it Right for Every child GIRFEC third sector national project.  "And you wanted to highlight this:"

"This project will work with CPPs to develop an approach to GIRFEC in which there is full recognition and contribution of the Third Sector."
"There are three aims which include:"
"... to embed the role of the Third Sector in GIRFEC at local and national level..."
"To conduct a three year project in which the Public Social Partnership will work with the Community Planning Partners to reinforce and embed the role of the Third Sector in the implementation of GIRFEC."

"Right. What that means, because it`s a bit, you know, central government gobbledygook; what that means is that there`s going to be a whole series of things called Community Planning Partnerships. They will then enter into formal written agreements with central government. They will involve, not only local authorities and police.. NHS and other services but they will also involve... integrated... third sector charities ...Barnardo`s and Aberlour. So they will have a seat at the table. They will form these written agreements with central government. They will then apply government policy, including [the] Named Person, data gathering and complete state surveillance of the family."

"Now the effect of this is that there is nowhere to go. If you then go to any major children`s charity in Scotland with any sort of problem - and those of us who follow the Hollie Greig case know the sort of problems those might be - then you`re dealing with the Scottish Government. You`re dealing with the state; you`re dealing with the great big singular entity that is the Scottish model of government. But it`s not just that there are no functional departments within the government ...almost the entire third sector ... has been rolled into government as well."

Gerrish responds: "This is the third sector or the Third Way which, of course, Tony Blair was absolutely boasting about back in 2001/2002 - if I`ve got my dates right. So unaccountable people in the NGOs` quasi-government systems. Now it`s all being rolled in together. This is Big Society...It`s communitarianism is the closest description I think we can get to it."

Mike Robinson continues: "Well David, tell us about Joining the dots."

"Right, so Joining the dots is the core document that underpins GIRFEC. This is the Named Person and all of these things. So this is the defining document. Now you will be pleased to hear it was an independent document; it was an independent report, so that`s ok and it was headed by a former Labour MSP but she clearly didn`t write it. The person who seems to have written it is, in fact, this lady, Laura Meagher. [James Hutton Institute] Now she`s a very interesting lady... She came to Scotland ... from America, and she came to Scotland at a very interesting time, 1999.  And this is not the first time I`ve found this. When you look at the people who are actually generating the ideas, they all arrive in Scotland in 1999. Why? Because we`re getting a new parliament."

"What happened was people came from all round the globe - globalists if you like - to influence the policies of that new parliament because it was a clean slate. So where Scotland thinks it received a degree of independence, what`s actually happened is we`ve got globalists, think tanks and people influencing the policy behind the scenes and the change from Westminster to the Holyrood parliament simply opened up a new opportunity for these people to control what we actually do. And we`re seeing the policy of the Scottish parliament actually being set by people such as Laura Meagher."

 "And we`ve got a number of other people involved in producing this document. One is the Centre for Confidence and well-being.  Now the Centre for Confidence and well-being is meant to be Scottish because Scots are meant to lack self confidence, ok? I don`t know if you noticed that; that`s the allegation.... [It] is in fact Common Purpose sitting on a thistle because all of the people seem to have huge Common Purpose links, including Mr Alf Young here. Very friendly looking chap. I like the smile ...and what`s his background?"

Mike Robinson says: "Well from 2007 he chaired the Glasgow Advisory board for Common Purpose."

"Yes... so what you`ve got is the import of the ideas from America [and] the UN via American universities. That`s brought in. We`ve got Common Purpose providing the organisational infrastructure to actually get everything set up and ... then we have assorted charities and quite a few PR companies ... Charities give cover and the appearance of it being from the people and the PR companies get the message out. And that`s what we`ve got. That`s the origin of GIRFEC. That`s the origin of the Named Person. It did not come from Scotland. It did not come from our politicians. It came from elsewhere."

The ideas also came via Westminster: See http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/thinking-about-future.html

Fairbridge to become part of Prince`s Trust

by Goody

"Britain’s Child Migrants"

"..unanswered questions about the rationale for the child migration policy and who drove it forward within a context of secrecy, deception and lies. "

"…need to address the relationship between the charities, the churches and the state in the implementation of this policy."

Quoting Liz Davies

"The forced migration of children as a social policy began in the 17th Century and continued for 350 years until coming to an end in 1970."

"It is estimated that 130,000 child victims of 200,000 parents were sent to Canada, New Zealand, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Australia. Most child migrants had no idea of their birth families or the reason why they were sent to the colonies and parents were not told what had happened to their children. They were sent to populate the Empire with ‘good, white British stock’. Many of the children lived in large institutions and were used as cheap labour suffering abuse, cruelty and neglect..."

"The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland has already heard evidence from child migrants, as has the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse."

"It is not yet known whether the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in the UK will grant child migrants core participant status and therefore enable them to be legally represented."

"It is concerning that the main IICSA public hearings are not accepting personal accounts of child abuse which are instead being presented through the Truth Project strand of the Inquiry which is not part of the legal process of prosecution and justice."

"The [Fairbridge] society was one of several child migration charities which dispatched about 100,000 impoverished British children to Australia, Canada and other far-flung parts of the Empire from the late 19th century to the 1970s."

"Unlike Barnardo’s, which has acknowledged that its child migrant scheme was `shameful` and `barbaric`, Fairbridge has refused to apologise for past injustices."

"In January 2011 it was announced that Fairbridge will become part of The Prince’s Trust."

Read more: http://loucollins.uk/2016/04/25/britains-child-migrants-the-fairbridge-societythe-independent-inquiry-into-child-sexual-abuse-iicsa/

Barnardo`s to expand services for those at risk

"More than 15,000 people have sought information on the signs of a child being sexually exploited in the first weeks of a new Scotland-wide campaign."

"Aileen Campbell, minister for children and young people, made the announcement on Friday during a visit in Edinburgh to Barnardo's Scotland, which is receiving a £300,000 grant in April to expand services for those at risk."

"The campaign, the first of its kind in the UK, highlights how to spot the warning signs of young people being manipulated, forced, pressurised or coerced into taking part in a sexual act in exchange for something."

"Ms Campbell also announced an updated action plan to tackle child sexual exploitation including extra support for child abuse investigations through Police Scotland's specialist national unit."

"She said: `Child sexual exploitation is a form of child abuse and some young people may not be aware that they are at risk of harm.`"

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/15-000-seek-details-in-child-sexual-exploitation-campaign-1.929680

Does this mean services can be forced on children ?