Judge is praised for communicating with children

"A judge has been praised after taking the unusual step of writing to children involved in a custody battle about her decision."

"Sheriff Aisha Anwar had been charged with making the decision as to whether a father could have access to his children, who had told a specialist they no longer wanted to see him."

"The case at Glasgow sheriff court ruled that he should remain in contact so the sheriff wrote to the children explaining why."

"She said: `I think that as my decision is all about you, it is only fair that I should write to you. I have not met you, but I have heard a lot about you`."

"`I know, from what your mum (and the specialist) have told me, you don`t want to see your dad. I can understand that. Your dad`s job is to care for you, protect you, love you, help you, make good plans for you and to know what is right for you. Sometimes, he has not been very good at that`."

"Sheriff Anwar went on to explain having spoken to their father, she believes he is not a bad parent but instead does not know how to act sometimes. In the letter she explained both parents would receive help to build a better relationship and work on their behaviour. Sheriff Anwar added: `I don`t think that it is good for you to grow up thinking you have a bad dad. I don`t think that it is good for you to forget all the good times`."

"`I think that it is better for you to get to know your dad again and to give him a chance to make things better`."

"The move was praised by family law specialists. Janys Scott, QC, Chair of the Faculty of Advocates` Family Law Association said: `This is the Scottish courts at their best. It would be great were this the pattern for future cases`."

[Metro: 23 August 2017]

Parental alienation - or maybe political alienation ?

I am very worried about governments regulating what goes on inside families. I am very worried about solicitors and barristers tussling each other inside courts as if the courts were boxing rings, while making money out of a child`s distress. I do believe that attempts at mediation are often a better way to proceed.

Having said that, I must admit, that this performance recently in the House of Commons shows how much children do not figure in the concerns of our political representatives.

Fathers, who are looking for more tussling in the courts - and let`s face it some mothers too - have a long way to go in influencing this empty chamber.

Santa rescued from monument

"A man dressed as Santa has been removed from the top of Glasgow's famous Wellington statue."

"A crowd gathered to watch as workers using a cherry-picker removed the apparently inebriated man from the top of the monument."

"The Duke of Wellington statue is famous for the prized traffic cone on the top of the city centre monument."

"The incident comes almost a year to the day since a man was fined for an almost identical stunt."

"He was believed to be a father campaigning for access to his child."

http://news.stv.tv/west-central/1336796-man-dressed-as-santa-removed-from-the-top-of-famous-glasgow-statue/

The many roles of Baroness Butler-Sloss

One of the patrons of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), the charity which has recently collapsed, was Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE.

On its website BAAF says: "Among her many roles she has been High Court Judge and President of the Family Division."

So Baroness Butler-Sloss was part of the system which fed children into the adoption and fostering industry. Many would see that as a conflict of interest.

She has several other interesting connections; one of them is that she is also a trustee of the Human Trafficking Foundation. This is an organisation which gets to know about the movement of vulnerable adults and children.

http://www.humantraffickingfoundation.org/about-us/trustees/baroness-elizabeth-butler-sloss-gbe
　
She had to stand down from the inquiry into child sexual abuse because her late brother, Sir Michael Havers, was accused of a white-wash after he backed a decision not to prosecute Sir Peter Hayman, a paedophile diplomat caught exchanging obscene material.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10955726/Brother-of-paedophile-inquiry-judge-was-accused-of-cover-up.html

Recently, Baroness Butler-Sloss gave character evidence on behalf of Philip Chard who was convicted of raping a 13 year-old girl.

"Lady Butler-Sloss, who is a working peer in the House of Lords, said she had known Chard for 20 years because his mother Valerie was her cleaner at her home in East Devon."

"She told the jury she was astonished by the allegations against him and considered him unlikely to be a sex offender."

How does she know?  Well, she has had 34 years of experience... so she just knows.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3202909/Butler-Sloss-defends-child-rapist-court-Retired-High-Court-judge-acted-character-witness-man-later-convicted-attacking-13-year-old-girl.html#ixzz3jDiJt9wK

Here she is in 2013 apologising to Fathers4justice for her false statement about death threats from them.

What more needs to be said ?

The trouble with benefit sanctions

The Families and Societies report says that it is not surprising that the parents of children with disabilities generally exhibit higher stress levels and poorer mental health than other parents. "When comparing children with developmental disabilities and the general population, Byrne et al. (2010), Guyard et al. (2011), and Rentnick et al. (2007), among others, found this to be true in the case of cerebral palsy. .."

"The presence of a disabled child in the family can increase the physical demands made on the caregiver, increase depression and anxiety, cause a general feeling of exclusion from "normal" life, influence the perception of the individual well -being (emotional contact with other people, social capital, feelings of being rejected and excluded) , and it can also influence physical health... "

"Economic support to families with disabled children needs to be extended because costs for raising a disabled child are three times those of a non-disabled child. (Langerman and Worrall 2005: 1). "

 

Governments know all of this, of course, which makes the following account of a family in trouble all the more damning. 　

The writer of the Poor Side of Life blog recounts the story of a man who was ill advised by the Job Centre and lost his whole family.

One of his three children had cerebral palsy and his partner became more and more stressed over time until eventually she had a nervous breakdown for which she was hospitalised and could not return home. The writer believes that this was a family who was never given the right kind of advice or support when it was needed.

Nevertheless, the man was determined to look after his three children and put in an application for DLA and Carers Allowance but in the following  few weeks he was called into the job centre for a `back to work` interview and told that he must look for work. As the full time carer of a disabled child the information he was given was erroneous but he was not aware of that at the time.

His troubles really began when he was sanctioned over and over again for not trying hard enough to look for work. In desperation he contacted social services and told them he could not care for his children and they were taken into care.

It is appalling that neither the job centre nor social services informed the man that in his circumstances he was not legally obliged to spend time looking for employment and should never have been sanctioned.

"Many of the consequences of having a disabled child are not inevitable and can be counteracted by adequate policy measures. Personal resources and the ability to cope flexibly with problems, together with a favourable environment can prove relevant in providing some feeling of safety and protection. Moreover, the risk and the costs of having a disabled child might be more acceptable to the families if the state were to provide better services and more support to families with disabled children. The promotion of programmes directed at the psychological support of the parents and at improving and managing their emotional resources seem to be a crucial point. "

http://www.familiesandsocieties.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/WP23GiulioEtAl.pdf

Parents also need economic security.

 

http://www.bigissue.com/

"The UK’s statistics watchdog has called on the Department of Work and Pensions to give "objective and impartial" information on benefits sanctions, it has been reported..."

"Employment Minister Priti Patel has defended the department, telling the House of Commons: "The Government intends to publish mortality statistics but before doing so they need to meet the high standards expected of official statistics. Once we have completed that important work we will publish them."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welfare-cuts-statistics-watchdog-urges-government-to-release-clear-information-on-benefits-sanctions-10446515.html

As well as mortality - and the massaged statistics may be produced eventually -  there are all the other negative consequences of benefit sanctions: stressed families, broken relationships, children in care, that we will never hear about.

Children`s rights campaigner dies in hospital

"A CAMPAIGNER for equal rights between parents has died in hospital after he was found hanging in a prison cell. "

"Haydn Burton, 42, was discovered by prison officers at Winchester Jail and rushed by ambulance across Romsey Road to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital where he later died. "

"Mr Burton was a member of New Fathers 4 Justice and was campaigning to highlight children’s rights including secret family courts."

"He had become a well-known figure in Winchester city centre in recent months protesting at the corner of Upper Brook Street and St George’s Street in a Superman costume and with an loud hailer..."

"A statement on the New Fathers 4 Justice website said: "We are deeply shocked and saddened by this news. "

"Putting vulnerable people in prison is, in part, further victimising people who are in most need."

http://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/13477254.Haydn_Burton_dies_after_found_hanging_in_prison_cell/?ref=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Servant Of The Country - Betrayed By The State

Parental involvement and Children and Families Act 2014

Suesspiciousminds comments on the Family Justice Review of the Children and Families Act 2014 who were asked to consider parental involvement in relation to the welfare of the child. Should a non-resident parent have equal access to the child, for example?

There were four options consulted on (none of them being the presumption of equal time or shared time that the media reported on, and that the fathers’ rights lobby were asking for. I’ve tried in this article to not split it on pure gender lines – I think that all parents who don’t live with their children would like the Court to have in mind that spending a lot of time with both parents is better for a child than artificially restricting one parent’s time with their child)...

The Government decided that the court should work on the presumption that a child`s welfare is likely to be furthered through safe involvement with both parents but the nature of that `involvement` has been watered down over time.

...there`s a presumption that it is good for a child to have involvement with both parents (unless it would cause harm or risk of harm to the child), but that involvement can be `of some kind, direct or indirect, but not any particular division of a child`s time`.

It is probably worse for non-resident parents than the current Act, which tended to be interpreted that direct contact for both parents is a good thing for the child, if it can be done safetly.

http://suesspiciousminds.com/2014/04/28/welfare-of-the-child-parental-involvement/

Fathers4Justice campaigner jailed for 6 months

"A Fathers4Justice campaigner has been jailed for six months for defacing a portrait of the Queen with paint in Westminster Abbey."

"Tim Haries, who told jurors he vandalised the picture to highlight the "social justice issue of our time", had denied causing criminal damage of more than £5,000 but was found guilty at London's Southwark crown court last month."

"The judge said the sentence must acknowledge Haries's distress and unhappiness, but have regard to the case's aggravating features, and to a degree deter others."

"I accept that your separation from your daughters for a period of four years caused you real anguish. I also accept that you felt that the legal processes by which you tried to have contact with them had failed you."

"But I do not accept that the means that you chose to adopt to make your protest were in any way justified."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/05/fathers4justice-campaigner-jailed-defacing-queen-portrait-haries

Such is the state of the justice system in the United Kingdom that in contrast many paedophiles, convicted of crimes against children, are let off with suspended sentences or community orders.

See HERE