Robert Green is free

Robert Green has been released from prison:

He cannot thank everyone enough and is amazed how, two years on from his previous jail experience, so many more people have written to MPs and others in positions of power, so he knows now that the door that he helped to unlock is truly open and we will have justice for Hollie and Anne. In fact he had to leave much of the correspondence behind as he said it wouldn’t fit in a car!-this is some measure of how the colossal amount of support has been imperative in securing his release.

Original Article at Free Robert Green http://www.freerobertgreen.co.uk/robert-green-is-free-2/

CIA To End Covert Vaccine Programs After Polio Backlash

Investigation into bullying at special school

"Fresh questions are being asked about the government’s beleaguered post-Winterbourne drive to improve care for learning disabled people. An investigation is underway into “bullying accusations” at a special school run by a charity whose chief executive is trying to reinvigorate the flagging £2.86m government improvement scheme."

"Bill Mumford, chief executive of MacIntyre which runs Womaston School and Children’s Home in Wales, offered to stand down as director of the Winterbourne improvement programme after allegations of mistreatment at Womaston. The government programme launched after the abuse of learning disabled patients at the Winterbourne View privately run unit in south Gloucestershire, abuse that was exposed by BBC’s Panorama in 2011. It aims to move individuals out of institutional, large-scale, long-stay units and into community-based accommodation."

"Concerns about the behaviour of some staff towards children at MacIntyre’s specialist residential service were reported by a member of staff to the school principal in March and police and social services are investigating the claims. The school, home to students aged aged 10-19 with autism, complex behavioural needs and learning disabilities, will close in July with the young people moved to alternative placements. Staff have been suspended, other staff drafted in and, says MacIntyre in a statement, “the alleged behaviours are not occurring in the service now”.

The investigation into Womaston is expected to last several months and there are no more details about what the allegations involve."

http://thesocialissue.com/2014/05/investigation-into-bullying-at-special-school-sparks-questions-for-winterbourne-improvement-scheme/

John Pierce denies cover-up at Rochdale school

The council chief executive who closed Knowl View has rejected claims there was a cover-up at the school. John Pierce, who headed up Rochdale council from 1986 to 1996, said he was never given any evidence to suggest pupils at the Bamford special school were being sexually abused.

It comes as Rochdale council and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) begin looking into whether widespread sexual abuse at the school had been hushed-up. GMP say they have identified 11 potential suspects while former MP Cyril Smith and ex-councillor Harry Wild have been named as abusers by current MP Simon Danczuk.

But Mr Pierce, who went on to become chairman of the borough’s now defunct health body NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale until 2011, said he was unaware of the claims while in charge of the town hall.

He added: "To the best of my knowledge there was no cover-up.

"From the evidence that was passed to me, as far as I can remember, there was nothing there that led me to believe anyone was trying to cover-up anything. "It could well have been that staff in my department were aware of the reports but they didn’t bring them to my attention."

Mr Pierce, of Norden, said three reports, written in 1988, 1991 and a council-ordered probe in 1992 detailing the scale of abuse taking place at the boy’s school didn’t find their way to his desk.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/former-rochdale-council-chief-executive-7047274

See also: http://theneedleblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/teacher-kept-job-for-16-years-after-pupils-found-sex-tapes/

 and http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/more-cover-ups.html

and http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/police-have-access-to-knowl-view.html

and http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/paedophile-mps-are-mocking-british-law.html

Girl 8 taken from her mother

From the Telegraph:

"Last week, another such case came my way, involving a girl of nearly nine, who has always lived with her mother and was bright, engaging and doing well at school. Her father, who left them years ago, has a long criminal record, was a drug addict, is currently unemployed and lives in a single room. The mother had not stood in the way of contact between the girl and her father, but when this eventually caused problems due to his behaviour, the courts became involved, along with a "guardian" from Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service ("making sure that children’s voices are heard"), and a psychologist hired by the local authority."

"Last month, as I gather from someone present in court, the judge, Mrs Justice Williscroft, quite unexpectedly seemed to have changed her mind. She ruled that the girl must leave her comfortable home and be given over to the permanent care of her father, in his single room. For the time being, the child and her mother could have no contact. Unsurprisingly, the girl ran back to her mother, but had to be returned, in accordance with the judge’s wishes, to the father."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/10805569/Girl-8-taken-from-loving-mother-to-live-in-one-room-with-father.html

Sex change drugs to be offered to nine year olds

"Children as young as nine are to be prescribed drugs which delay the onset of puberty as the first step towards a sex change operation, according to reports."

"The treatment will be offered by one NHS trust to children who are so troubled by their gender that they may wish to undergo drastic surgery after adolescence, according to the Mail on Sunday."

"But the decision was attacked by critics who described the decision to offer the treatment at such a young age as "horrifying" and called for an immediate investigation."

"Monthly injections of the drugs, known as hypothalamic blockers, are used to slow the development of the children’s sexual organs by blocking the production of the hormones testosterone and oestrogen..."

"Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP, called for an investigation into the trust’s decision to provide the treatment at such a young age, especially at a time when budgets for life-saving cancer drugs are being squeezed."

"His colleague Andrew Percy added: "I think many people will be horrified at the thought of a nine-year-old being provided with a drug that effectively stops them developing and maturing naturally."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10839063/Sex-change-drugs-to-be-offered-to-nine-year-olds.html

No `named person` conference 9 June 2014

Schedule

June 09, 2014
10:00 am to 12:30 pm

Venue ..
Salisbury Suite
Macdonald Holyrood Hotel
81 Holyrood Road
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
 

The Scottish Government has decided that every child in Scotland must be allocated a state-employed ‘‘named person” who is responsible for the child’s ‘wellbeing’.

These blanket measures will operate regardless of whether welfare concerns exist. Many are deeply worried about how this proposal could undermine parental rights and disrupt family life.

 

If you share these concerns, or want to learn more, please attend this crucial conference featuring those from journalism, academia, education, politics, religious backgrounds, as well as parents.

See link: http://wacedinburgh.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/no-to-named-persons-conference-on-9th-june/

Privatising child protection services

Experts sound alarm over proposal from Michael Gove's department to outsource children's services to private firms. A letter signed by 37 senior social services figures and published in the Guardian says child protection is too important to be left to the 'fickleness and failings of the market.

The power to take children away from their families could be privatised along with other child protection services under controversial plans the government has quietly announced.

The proposal from Michael Gove's Department for Education (DfE) to permit the outsourcing of children's social services in England to companies such as G4S and Serco has alarmed experts. They say profit-making companies should not be in charge of such sensitive family matters, and warn that the introduction of the profit motive into child protection may distort the decision-making process.

Professor Eileen Munro, whom Gove commissioned to carry out an independent review of child protection published in 2011, said establishing a market in child protection would create perverse incentives for private companies to either take more children into care or leave too many languishing with dangerous families...

The critics say the track record of big outsourcing companies such as G4S, which was fined for overcharging on a contract to tag offenders, and Serco, which manipulated results to meet targets on outsourced NHS family doctor services, shows the dangers of introducing the profit element into vital public services.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/16/privatise-child-protection-services-department-for-education-proposes

It is revealing that two of the biggest charities involved with children, the NSPCC and Action for Children, are not averse to the privatisation of child protection services and contracts being given to huge global corporations.

But then these charities feed off the government and so we can understand why they would back the government agenda. 

One in seven councils are failing vulnerable children

Ofsted home page

One in seven councils in England is failing vulnerable children with "inadequate" child protection services, according to a damning report. There are 20 local authorities where Ofsted says standards are "unacceptably poor" and the most basic safeguards against abuse or neglect are not in place.

In its first annual report into social care, the watchdog said that child protection services are too often "manifestly and palpably weak". Just four in 10 local authorities were rated as "good" or "outstanding" and more than half were deemed to be "less than good". The study was based on more than 4,500 inspections of children’s care services in England’s 152 local authorities.

The picture was better for adoption and fostering services, which the regulator found had "generally improved over recent years". More than three quarters of local authorities are now rated as "good" or "outstanding" for their adoption and fostering services.

A climate of increasing workloads and sharply decreasing budgets is making it harder than ever for councils to improve the situation, the regulator said. The growth in the number of looked after children alone represents an estimated additional £173 million pounds a year in added costs to the system. Yet local authority budgets have been slashed by more than a quarter in the five years from 2010.

The report suggested that the watchdog would be pushing the Government to introduce tougher standards for councils. It said: "We are not satisfied that the standards [set by Government] are ambitious enough for children."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/social-care-crisis-damning-ofsted-report-says-20-local-authorities-cannot-keep-children-safe-8882208.html

Just like the NHS, social care is being run down in order to justify the privatisation of services.

Children are the opium of the masses

For many people, becoming a parent is the most important task in life. For one MP, however, children are simply the ‘opium of the masses’.

Conservative backbencher Rory Stewart has hit out at people who think of their offspring as their ‘purpose’ in life – despite admitting he would like to become a father himself.

He said: ‘If we say the purpose of life is our children, that’s neither a purpose nor a meaning. But I’m sure I will be as besotted as everybody else when I have them.’

Conservative MP Rory Stewart says people should not let their lives be driven or defined by having children

Playing on revolutionary Karl Marx’s infamous statement that ‘religion is the opium of the masses’, Mr Stewart described children as the new ‘opium’.

His comments come just five months after he criticised society for worshipping children as they once worshipped God. On that occasion he also compared children to ‘opium’, but focused his attack on society’s tendency to prioritise the needs of young people over the elderly.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2588500/Children-opium-masses-says-MP-Backbencher-hits-think-offspring-purpose-life-admits-wants-father-himself.html

The MP is making a reputation for himself for his tasteless remarks:

Diplomat's son Rory Stewart, Eton-educated like David Cameron, caused further anger by making a tasteless "joke" about a tractor tragedy.

Mr Stewart, 37, MP for Penrith and the Border in Cumbria, said: "Some areas around here are pretty primitive, people holding up their trousers with bits of twine and that sort of thing."

The rising Tory star went on: "I have a constituency with 52,000 people and a million sheep. I was in one village where a local kid was run over by a tractor. They took him to Carlisle but they couldn't be bothered to wait at the hospital. So they put him in a darkened room for two weeks, then said he was fine. But I'm not so sure he was." Derek Daley, 76, whose son Noel died after his motorbike collided with a tractor, said: "I take great umbrage at what Mr Stewart has said. It is extremely distasteful."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/new-tory-mp-rory-stewart-237543