Forced adoption in UK

The documentary also covers the Mark and Kerry McDougall case. They fled to Ireland after Fife social workers removed...
Posted by Human Rights for Elderly on Saturday, March 28, 2015

Politically speaking, the threat to families is real, and the possibility of resistance is weakened by the ever growing adoption industry. 

Mark and Kerry McDougall: still fighting

Photo John Gladwin Sunday Mirror

"Proud Kerry McDougall is looking forward to the birth of her third son – but fears she may have a tough battle to keep him. Kerry, 22, deemed by social workers to be "too dumb" to be a mum, has left her home and her two young sons 200 miles away in the hope of preventing her new baby being taken into care at birth."

"She and husband Mark say leaving Sean, five and William, three, with the foster family they had been handed to was "the hardest thing".

"But Kerry added: "They’d already been taken from us. The social workers think because I can’t spell long words I’m incapable of love or caring for children. "I can’t describe how it feels to know your children are somewhere else and are unhappy. I just have to trust one day we’ll get them back."

"The couple fear that if they return home when their son is born they will almost certainly lose him too..."

The judge's view

"Responsibility for the care of the children has been moved by Dunfermline Sheriff Court from Fife to Dundee City Council."

"The judge ruled this was, to remove any problems which may arise from social workers being biased against the family due to historical events."

The parents' view

"We’ve never done anything to put our children at risk of cruelty or neglect. We love them and have only ever wanted the best for them. That is to be with us."

"We have been made to make a decision no parent should have to make – to chose between our two sons and our unborn baby."

"We will fight until we are back together as a family."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/loving-mother-forced-flee-unborn-5378815?ICID=FB_mirror_main

John Hemming House of Commons 27 Nov 2014: Mark and Kerry McDougall

At 2.37

"England has many more problems than Scotland, although there are cases such as that of Mark and Kerry McDougall, who lived happily with their two children in Ireland, but were on the receiving end of vindictive proceedings that saw their children removed when they returned to Scotland. Sadly, they have had to return to Ireland as mum is pregnant, and we will see where that goes." - John Hemming MP addressing the House of Commons.

Since their two children were taken, Mark and Kerry McDougall have been gagged from speaking out about their situation for many months.  John Hemming`s remarks in Parliament have provided a window of opportunity for them to again speak about their case.

See http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/children-removed-from-kerry-and-mark.html

Update 30.11.2014

The Mark and Kerry McDougall child protection case has also been reported in the Telegraph:

"Five years ago, Mark and Kerry McDougall made headlines in Scotland when, two days before their marriage by a bishop in their local cathedral, Fife social workers intervened to halt the wedding – on the grounds that Kerry, who had mild learning difficulties, was "unfit" to be a mother. The couple escaped to Ireland where they married, built a new life and had two sons, fully supported by friendly Irish social workers, who found Kerry to be a perfectly capable mother. This year, however, they wanted to move back to be near their Scottish families."

"As John Hemming MP said in Parliament last week, no sooner had they returned than the social workers moved to seize the children, and a lengthy court battle ensued."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11262102/Parents-flee-again-after-vindictive-proceedings.html

A disturbing case of child removal you can`t read about

"Circulating the internet has been a harrowing, two-hour recording of a Scottish family waiting for social workers and police to arrive to take two small children into care. Mostly we hear the father trying to talk calmly and reassuringly to his sons, who are chatting cheerily about how they want “to go to the beach”, although they all know what is going to happen. Finally, the social workers enter, saying they have an “emergency protection order” to remove the children, because of their “concern” that the family might leave the country. The children are heard crying as they are carried away. The father breaks down, sobbing and angry, although he manages to tell the police, still there, sounding sheepish, that he “appreciates” them for being “nice”.

"The odd thing about this story is that, until last week, it had for years been widely reported in Scotland as one of the most bizarre examples of over-reacting social workers imaginable. Even now there is no allegation that the parents had harmed their children in any way. The local community is said to be outraged at what has happened. Yet now the case has finally come to court, neither I nor anyone else can report any further details of the story, for fear that the children might be identified."
 

"Experienced observers who have been following this, including John Hemming MP, are confident that, if the proceedings turn out as they hope and suspect, this will indeed be a story worth reporting in full. But the time is not yet."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10931969/A-disturbing-case-of-child-removal-that-you-cant-read-about.html

Is this Scotland`s GIRFEC approach, or what ?

The McDougall`s children have been snatched by Fife social services on their return to Scotland after the council failed to get Kerry McDougall`s baby at birth. Is this GIRFEC in action and, more importantly, which aspect of GIRFEC in action is this?

Early intervention?  (No, Kerry and her child escaped that because she fled to Ireland and they have now formed a loving bond which is irreplaceable. It would be damaging to the child to intervene.)

Getting it right for every child? (No. Fife social services lied when they told the MacDougall`s they would be left alone if they returned to Scotland. The alarm has been raised around the country that social services cannot be trusted. )

Fife social workers in enacting their revenge are not the Machiavellian manipulators they thought they were. As a concept, GIRFEC has been weakened and social workers in Fife have fallen into disrepute.

What is wrong with the child protection system?

For anybody interested in the wider implications, Dr Lynne Wrennall presented a paper to the All Party Group on Abuse Investigations in which she addressed the question: what is wrong with the child protection system and what are the indicators of the need for change?

She argued that the child protection system is harming children, families and communities because it has lost its focus. Social workers no longer do social work because they are acting out the role of child abuse investigators.

Some people would say: leave the police to do the policing - they are better at it - and let social workers provide the social support. The two roles are incompatible.

It`s worth another read.

http://www.academia.edu/339801/Wrennall_L._2004_Miscarriages_of_Justice_in_Child_Protection_a_brief_history_and_proposals_for_change._Paper_presented_to_the_parliamentary_conference_held_by_the_All_Party_Group_on_Abuse_Investigations_Attlee_Suite_Portcullis_House_2_December

Children removed from Kerry and Mark McDougall

A Facebook group was opened on 21 June 2014 in support of Ben and Lochlan, the two sons of Kerry and Mark McDougall whose boys were removed from their care by social services on the same day. A member reports that:

This group is not owned, moderated or otherwise controlled by the family. It is completely independent.

This afternoon, after a five hour wait with police sitting in their living room keeping them under house arrest (without an arrest, of course) Fife Social Services came and took Ben and Lochlan McDougall into their custody. This will be a terrible long fight and both boys will need your help and support for them, and for Kerry and Mark. The boys have been removed. No one knows why. The police turned up at midnight last night with Social Workers who asked if the family were going to return to Ireland (Where Social Workers deemed the family fine). Mark asked if they could go out and visit the grandparents today. Social Worker said they could go wherever they pleased, there was nothing to stop them.

Today, police turned up at approx 1pm. Asked Mark and Kerry to remain in the house until Social Workers arrived. Social workers did not turn up for over five hours. When they did, they took both boys away.

Mark and Kerry, devastated. As ever, no evidence of neglect. None. I'll update you on the paperwork whilst I can. Please propagate, share, tell everyone. We are legally allowed to speak right now. That may not be the case, come Monday.

By: Morgan Gallagher

Group at https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/249731588558370/

Fife Council Social Services vs Mark and Kerry McDougall ..

Update: The video has been removed. I can only assume that the McDougalls have been warned by social services that putting their case into the public arena identifies their children and this will cause them significant harm.

With the threat of removing their children they will have no other option than to comply with whatever social services propose.

See also: http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/false-allegations-from-fife-social.html

False allegations from Fife social services

Kerry and Mark McDougall talk to John Hemming in the video above.

Because Kerry was banned from marrying Mark and told that their baby would be removed at birth, they fled to Ireland. The reason given to them by social services was that Kerry had learning difficulties and had been in care herself and had had a bad experience. Mark explains that this sort of thing happens to many mothers and John Hemming agrees. "It is really about adoption."

When they arrived in Ireland, and after the baby was born, Ben was removed into foster care because the reports from Fife social services painted such a very poor picture of Mark and Kerry. In the reports that followed them to Ireland they were accused of being cocaine addicts and alcoholics. There were also allegations that they had picked up sexually transmitted diseases. In order to prove their innocence and to get Ben out of care they went for health checks and drug tests. The test results disproved the reports from Fife social services.

After four years in Ireland they returned to Scotland where eventually social services told them that they would leave them alone.

John Hemming asks them if fleeing to Ireland had been the right thing to do.

Mark tells him that, had they not fled to Ireland, they would never have been able to get Ben back.

See also: http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/mark-and-kerry-mcdougall.html

Decision making on whether to take children into care

The Education and Culture Committee in their `10th Report, 2013 `have stated that they recognise the good work that is being taken forward as a result of GIRFEC and other child protection measures to improve the wellbeing of children in Scotland. We have to remind ourselves that these child protection measures are to be exercised for every child and their family in Scotland. This means essentially that Scotland is to become one huge child protection system.

We are reminded in the report of the Minister`s oral evidence, when she described "tangible progress" as being in terms of large increases in the proportion of younger children becoming looked after by local authorities, and the doubling of adoptions from care. This is in line with the Government`s commitment to earlier interventions. So it is important to note that taking children into care at an earlier stage, and adopting them out, is an intervention which the Government is pushing local authorities to provide. There is not a family in Scotland who will not be at risk of these types of interventions given that the threshold for state intervention is a concern over the `wellbeing` of a child.

A particular worry is that the Minister could not describe how disputes between parents and `named persons` were going to be resolved.  What is to happen if there is disagreement about a child`s best interest?  Without an appeal process, and given the power of the `named person` to intervene in the life of the family, it is not difficult to imagine how easily a situation could get out of hand.

Sometimes the language used  with regard to state interventions is deceptive because it is put across as a matter of `delivering services` or `providing the child`s needs.` However, this language disguises the fact that when it comes to child protection measures, as GIRFEC and the `named person` are, any concern about a child`s wellbeing will invariably raise the issue of whether or not the child should be ``looked after` or placed into care.

We are informed that when the home environment is likely to be clearly unsatisfactory, professionals should seek to intervene as early as possible so that damage to the child is minimised. The matter does not require to be `clearly unsatisfactory`- merely `likely to be clearly unsatisfactory`, which is an awkward use of terms but suggests professionals are expected to make predictions about what is `likely to be.` In fact, The Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) in Scotland discussed pre-birth planning leading to babies being placed with carers either at or just after birth. Interventions do not come much earlier than that. The Minister reported that the number of children becoming looked after under the age of one had increased by 50 per cent since 2007. Clearly early interventions are all ready taking place and the push is for more.

At this point it is worth considering again the case of Mark and Kerry McDougall (See earlier post) who fled to Ireland to escape Social Services, intent on taking their baby into care after it was born. Four years later they have returned to Scotland with their two healthy sons believing it was safe to do so, only to find.themselves still under the radar of Scottish social workers.

The report of the inquiry raises this issue: 

The Scottish Government should explain how the trend for increasingly younger children becoming looked after is compatible with legal requirements around promoting the upbringing of children by their families. This is particularly relevant in the case of babies who may be removed close to birth.

It is nonsense to expect social workers to make crystal ball predictions about parenting before or after the birth of a child. In the case of the McDougalls, the social workers involved did not predict that, despite their decision, four years later there would be two healthy boys in the care of the McDougalls. For 4 years they got it wrong. Irish social workers had no concerns. How can this family ever trust these social workers from Fife and their early interventions? 

Yet everyone in Scotland, through the `named person` and the wellbeing indicators they interpret in relation to a  particular child, is expected to trust their decisions. It`s obvious that social workers have been set a hopeless task. That there is no way for parents to opt out or challenge decisions is truly terrifying.

Mark and Kerry McDougall return to Fife

　
From the Daily Record 17 November 2013

　
"A WOMAN who fled Scotland four years ago after social workers claimed she was not smart enough to be a mum has returned home – only to face losing her two little boys. Kerry McDougall, 21, – who has mild learning difficulties – hit the headlines after social work chiefs banned her from marrying fiancé Mark McDougall, saying she wasn’t intelligent enough to understand the vows."

"Fearing their unborn son would be taken into care, the couple fled to Ireland. They have since married and, having been judged suitable parents by social services, gone on to have another son, Lochlan, two."

"The couple desperately missed family and friends in Fife. Two weeks ago – having been told by Scots social workers that they no longer had any concerns – they came back. But last night the couple told how within days of returning two social workers visited them to say they are reopening proceedings to see if their sons should be put under a protection order. Kerry said: "I can’t bear the thought of my boys being taken away. It’s making me ill."

"Mark, 30, who within days found work as a night warehouseman, said he was further angered because social workers told him he couldn’t take up the position – because he must be at home with Kerry and his sons 24 hours a day. "As soon as we got to the UK, I went looking for a job, anything to bring some money in – we definitely don’t want to be claiming benefits," he said. "But I was then told by social services I can’t take it."

"Incredibly, they say this is because they worried how Kerry would cope at night while the boys were asleep. I pointed out that when we lived in Ireland I was working every day in a hotel while Kerry was a full-time mum at home and we were all fine. "But although Kerry’s gran, aunts and uncles are also all on hand to help, they aren’t happy. They seem determined to ruin our lives."

"Dougie Dunlop, Fife Council’s head of children and families and criminal justice, said: "As with any family moving back to Fife, we will continue to meet with Kerry and Mark to discuss their circumstances so they receive the care and support they need."