Researching Reform has written a piece about social workers who fabricate their reports:
The excellent Community Care reports today that a social worker has been struck off for faking a conversation with a vulnerable child, to complete her report. The social worker claims, in a statement for the hearing which resulted in her being struck off that she was unwell at the time, hugely overworked and under pressure to be "disingenuous".
Many of us working on family law cases see fabrication of this kind on a daily basis. Fabrication in social work reports, though, is not as straightforward as it seems. This case is a clear cut example of obvious misconduct, but some misconduct is less easy to spot.
Sometimes, things get lost in translation and no matter how much a parent or child tries to clarify a misunderstanding, most of the time, the initial errors are left in the report. A combination of time, resources and pride play a large part in these errors being undone, but they can create potentially lasting and terribly damaging results.
http://researchingreform.net/2014/01/08/social-workers-who-fabricate-evidence-the-tip-of-a-chilling-iceberg/
There is another problem, which is not mentioned by Researching Reform, and that is that social workers are expected to be able to write reports about what might happen in the future. Obviously there can be no evidence for that and a report can be slanted in whatever direction is favourable to the manager`s targets. It is impossible for parents to provide evidence against this type of subjective opinion.
The court decides on the balance of probabilities, that is, that it is more likely to happen than not; and seldom takes the risk of going against the judgement of a social worker.
No comments are allowed in the following Express article which I have already posted but comments appear in blogs around the Internet.
” TWO YOUNG children were taken from their distraught mother and placed for adoption because her own legal aid lawyers “colluded” with social workers, according to an MP’s extraordinary allegation in Parliament”
” In a highly unusual accusation, John Hemming said lawyers for Jacque Courtnage colluded with Derbyshire County Council to prevent her analysing a document he believes would have cleared her of abuse allegations."
"She and her husband have lost their two sons, now aged six and eight, for ever after a court ruled on the balance of probabilities they were responsible for harming their youngest when he was a baby. They have never been arrested nor charged with any criminal offence due to lack of evidence. Their heartbreaking story emerged in a Commons debate two months ago when Mr Hemming used Parliamentary privilege to name the mother and to make accusations against her lawyers and Derbyshire County Council."
"He says the parents are the victims of a miscarriage of justice in the secret family court system. The Lib Dem MP believes lawyers representing families on legal aid have a conflict of interest if they also do work for local authorities."
"Mrs Courtnage, a 45-year-old accountant and her husband John, 47, an engineer, only discovered the potentially significant evidence nine months after a judge ruled their children should be taken from them."
"They found it among their son’s medical records, which they secured after making a request to his hospital under the Data Protection Act as part of their own probe to discover the “truth”.
"The evidence was an alternative diagnosis from a leading hospital consultant saying their son’s head injury had been caused by a fissure, a birth defect that weakened the skull bone.
Until then, Mr Hemming said, they had only been aware of the fracture diagnosis put forward by other experts and used by the council in its arguments before the court."
"The children are now with an adoptive family and banned from any contact with their real parents."
Read More
"TWO YOUNG children were taken from their distraught mother and placed for adoption because her own legal aid lawyers “colluded” with social workers, according to an MP’s extraordinary allegation in Parliament. In a highly unusual accusation, John Hemming said lawyers for Jacque Courtnage colluded with Derbyshire County Council to prevent her analysing a document he believes would have cleared her of abuse allegations."
"She and her husband have lost their two sons, now aged six and eight, for ever after a court ruled on the balance of probabilities they were responsible for harming their youngest when he was a baby. They have never been arrested nor charged with any criminal offence due to lack of evidence."
"Their heartbreaking story emerged in a Commons debate two months ago when Mr Hemming used Parliamentary privilege to name the mother and to make accusations against her lawyers and Derbyshire County Council. He says the parents are the victims of a miscarriage of justice in the secret family court system."
"The Lib Dem MP believes lawyers representing families on legal aid have a conflict of interest if they also do work for local authorities."
"Mrs Courtnage, a 45-year-old accountant and her husband John, 47, an engineer, only discovered the potentially significant evidence nine months after a judge ruled their children should be taken from them."
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/442241 ... adopt-boys
