"Some reports suggest that the British Security Service, MI5, shielded pedophile politicians from prosecution to blackmail them back in the 1970s." "There's now substantial evidence that the Security Service were condoning that, they knew of it and made use of it so as to blackmail the abusers and prevent some of the abusers being brought to book at the time," Belfast Telegraph quoted a lawyer for one of the child abuse victims as saying." "The revelation was made in Belfast High Court during the hearing of the Kincora Boy’s Home case." "The victims of the abuse at the Kincora boys’ home in Belfast have filed the legal action with the aim to force a full independent probe that would have the authority to compel the secret service to hand over documents and witnesses to give testimonies." "Meanwhile, Amnesty International announced that investigation into child abuse at Kincora Boys’ Home in east Belfast should be investigated by the UK parliament." http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/06/03/414199/MI5-BLACKMAIL-PEDOPHILE-SEX-ABUSE
"Human rights expert Aidan O’Neill QC told three judges that legislation to appoint a ‘named person’ for more than one million young people is "incompatible with the fundamental rights of a democratic society", noting: "This is worse than the nanny state because the nanny is at least responsible to the family." "The QC was speaking at the start of an appeal at the Court of Session in Edinburgh by campaigners fighting the Named Person scheme which is part of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act." "The appeal has been mounted by a group of concerned organisations and parents after a decision taken earlier this year by Lord Pentland following an initial three-day judicial review. The judge ruled in favour of allowing the Named Person proposals to go ahead prior to full nationwide implementation in 2016." "The campaigners say the law denies families the right to a private life and also breaches data protection rights because the state will compile and share family data." "During the appeal Mr O’Neill said the state should support the family in the upbringing of children as the family is the fundamental group unit of the state and entitled to state protection." "He said the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written to counter Nazi and Fascist totalitarian states which placed value on "uniformity and conformity" and to point out that "the child is not the mere creature of the state". Read more http://no2np.org/press_release/plans-provide-state-guardian-every-child-18-scotland-savaged-top-lawyer/
"The SNP Government has been accused of trying to "buy support" for its Named Person plans with a "bribe" for people who attend a training and development event."
"Grassroots organisation NO2NP made the comments as Scotland’s highest court considered arguments against the Named Person scheme made on behalf of The Christian Institute and concerned organisations and parents." "Under the scheme, every child in Scotland will be assigned a state-employed guardian to monitor their welfare..."
"NO2NP raised concerns over an event for the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) initiative which will see parents given a £25 gift voucher and reimbursement of transport costs." "A flyer for the day describes it as an opportunity to "develop clear messages about GIRFEC and come up with creative ways to share those messages with families". "However, the campaign group said the Hampden Park event is a "rather cynical attempt to bribe people into supporting the GIRFEC principles which underpin the Named Person proposals". "Government money would "be far better spent on funding social workers who are actually working with vulnerable children and needy families", NO2NP commented." http://www.christian.org.uk/news/scots-govt-accused-of-bribing-parents-over-named-person/
UPDATE: 04 June 2015
Local shops are displaying posters that ask the community in Govan, Glasgow, to contribute to the Govan foodbank who are running low in supplies for local families in need. It instructs the community in Govan who will be attending the Govan Fair to make their contribution at the Govan centre.
The Govan Fair takes place on the first Friday of June (tomorrow) a procession that has always raised money for the local hospital and other good causes. Local organisations and businesses proudly take part to show their contribution to the local community.
Never in its history has it had to beg for food.
Perhaps the 25 pounds GIRFEC bribe could have been better placed servicing foodbanks. Just a suggestion.
Meanwhile, good luck to all the excited children who will take part in this yearly tradition in Govan - always under threat due to lack of FUNDING.
Subrosa`s latest blog post has a wealth of information about the named person scheme in Scotland which is worth exploring. For instance, at a recent meeting in Glasgow, Lesley Scott from the Tymes Trust, an organisation which helps sufferers of ME and their families, talked the audience through the various tools that professionals will use to gather data about children.
SAFEGUARDING TOOLS
The wellbeing wheel with its 8 SHANARRI indicators: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, included which Edinburgh University broke down into 304 outcome signifiers. (A check list for wellbeing)
The My World Triangle - a tool for gathering information about a child and its wider family: how they are growing and developing.
The Resilience Vulnerability Matrix: a tool for organising and analysing wellbeing
22 risk indicators: such as child under five, illness within family, bereavement, parental resistance, child unwilling to disclose information, parent having a different perception of the problem.
Genogram: a pictorial representation of a child and its family network
Chronology: both simple and complex. A timeline of recorded events.
Eco map: a diagram showing child, family and social relationships.
Cycle of change: a plot of parents` engagement
All of this reveals the effort that has gone into bureaucracy to create the means of gathering as much information as possible from children and their families - in the name of children`s wellbeing. As well as the privacy concerns there are issues of state control. Lesley Scott pointed out that the guidance on measuring outcomes that link to the healthy wellbeing indicator is that the child and young person, parents and carers are compliant with treatment for any illnesses, diseases, chronic conditions and impairments.
It is important to stop here in order to absorb that information. Named Persons and other professionals are being guided that children and families are COMPLIANT with any proposed treatment for ANYTHING. As if all of that was not frightening enough, David Scott in conversation with Brian Gerrish argued that the named person scheme is merely one small part of the transformational change being planned in Scotland. The enabling state, the Scottish model of government, was masterminded by John Elvidge and has been in place since 2007. According to David Scott, John Elvidge believes that the welfare state has been a failure and does not serve the 20 to 30 percent at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Using that as his justification, Sir John Elvidge is quoted as saying:
"In partnership between Civil Service and political leadership, a radical Scottish model of Government has developed since 2007, building on the learning from the earlier period of devolution. It is based on the effort to have government function as a single organisation, working towards a single defined government purpose based on outcomes, and establishing a partnership based on that purpose with the rest of the public sector which is capable of being joined by other parts of civil society."
http://www.scottishleadersforum.org/sites/default/files//docs/The%20Strategic%20Context.pdf What I can say about Changing the World: an approach to Public Services: Improvement in Scotland, where the quote comes from, is that there is hardly anything in the document that cannot be related to the joined up working that is happening in Scottish education today. In fact, it is even more apparent that children are being prepared in school for their planned future by unelected bodies and think tanks.
http://www.scottishleadersforum.org/sites/default/files//docs/The%20Strategic%20Context.pdf The enabling state is a woolly concept, difficult to pin down, according to David Scott but its core hypothesis is that maximum control of our own lives is important but must co-exist with the role of the state. It requires a redefinition of the relationship between the individual and the state but it will be those in unelected think tanks like the Carnegie Trust and secretive organisations like Common Purpose who will drive the policy on behalf of the public/private partnerships at the top of the hierarchy. [Admittedly, I have condensed the conversation here.]
Although Scotland is ahead of the game the same vision extends to other parts of the United Kingdom and further afield.
Where I find issue with David Scott`s analysis - and I may well be wrong - is his idea that David Elvidge believes that the welfare state has been a failure. On the contrary he is quoted as saying:
Most of us have benefited enormously from the models of the welfare state that emerged after 1945 and are much healthier, wealthier and better educated as a result. Even pre-2007 however, outcomes for a significant minority in the UK and Ireland and indeed across Europe were failing to improve.
He is talking about failing to improve which is not quite the same thing as failing.
Sir John Elvidge goes on to say:
It’s about that moment of realization that the long, and often positive, pathway of ever-growing state services might have overreached itself.
http://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/from-welfare-state-to-enabling-state-what-role-for-foundations/ What John Elvidge wants is to shrink the welfare state which seems to be the same thing David Scott wants. This is where I believe that Brian Gerrish has more of a handle on the issue. What David Elvidge and his ``behind the scenes compatriots` are talking about is not promoting an expanded welfare state, but communitarianism - a completely different animal. [The ultimate public/private partnership: i.e. Fascism]
Having said that,it is great to see minds working together to analyse issues. But I have to ask why has there been no discussion in the media about these important issues other than - rat-a-tat - ten minute sound bites?
(T)here seemed to be a shared belief among adopters, foster carers, and social workers that old attachments needed to be broken and forgotten about before new ones could be made, leaving any underlying grief to subside as quickly and as quietly as possible.
As Boswell and Cudworth point out, and as Mary Dozier has also shown, both theory and research emphasize that gradual transitions in care are best for young children and for their caregivers. In fact, an old attachment does not have to be "broken" through abrupt separation in order for new attachments to occur....
When NICE recommend that health and social care professionals be trained in attachment theory they do not have the above scenario in mind. According to the proposed guidelines all social workers in the care system should be trained in recognising and assessing attachment.
It is more about assessing parenting quality
Providing training for foster carers and adoptive parents
Interventions for young people who are seen as the problem
Guiding decisions about interventions
In other words, it is a missed opportunity to actually get something right by stopping the cruel practice of breaking children`s attachments.
The consultation on the guidelines closes on 13 July 2015.
Formative assessment is also called assessment for learning because it is supposed to be an aid to learning. Children are assessed as they learn in order to determine their understanding and to plan those important `next steps.` There is nothing new about it. What is new is the emphasis being placed on it.
The Northern Ireland Curriculum embraces the principles of Assessment for Learning by placing formative assessment at the heart of the learning and teaching cycle. The emphasis is on improvement, raising achievement in pupils' learning and celebrating success. Assessment for Learning has the potential to make a powerful contribution to the central aim of the Northern Ireland curriculum by empowering learners and enabling them to realise their full potential.
In Assessment for Learning: a practical guide, they are using the same language as Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland. As they admit: "Most of the world`s education systems are adopting Assessment for Learning approaches..." Their explanation for these changes leaves much to be desired. It is because they are focused on improving pupils` learning and raising their achievement.
So what were educators doing before this? Not bothering with children`s learning and achievements?
Information about formal assessments: the parent friendly version.
When your child gets stuck, don`t give him/her the answer, instead, encourage them to try different ways to become `unstuck`.
We will value all answers, because making mistakes is part of the normal learning process; and encourage them to be more resourceful and independent in their learning by equipping them with helpful strategies that they can use when they get stuck in their learning.
I cannot think of anything more frustrating for some children than to say: `You are on your own, you must get yourself unstuck.`
Think about thirty children in a classroom getting stuck at different parts of the curriculum - the time wasted on the formative assessment approach - how unworkable this is. Direct teaching has a good track record. Yet teachers are encouraged in this practice by learning from one another through ongoing whole school dialogue. What teacher is going to have the courage to stand out from the crowd to say: `This does not work in my classroom ?`
Formative assessment for teachers
As well as an emphasis on assessment for learning, the idea is promoted that children can be helped to become independent learners.
The more we can do to help them master the skills of learning, themore able they will be to manage it themselves.
Towards this end teachers are persuaded that children need to learn how to learn.
Using the same logic, if children cannot be successful learners without being taught how to learn, perhaps they cannot be taught these learning skills either !
Then we would need to teach children how to learn how to learn how to learn. There is an infinite regress here which exposes the nonsense. Children learn.
In addition, the outcomes of education, in terms of skills, dispositions and attitudes to learning, are emphasised throughout.
It is those skills, dispositions and attitudes which will become part of formative assessment.
Education is being nudged towards the psychological testing of children in the classroom. As education systems progress, children will be tied to a computer (independent learning) and teachers will be downgraded to facilitators. Already in the US a battle is being waged by parents over the psychological testing, and data mining, of their children. In some States parents are struggling to get access to the tests.
The changes in education are politically motivated and parents are being deliberately bamboozled.
What is doublespeak ? "Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate but really doesn’t. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids or shifts responsibility, language which is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought. Doublespeak is language which does not extend thought but limits it ..." Lutz (1988)
Agony Aunt, Denise Robertson, talks about her novel Don`t Cry Aloud in the Daily Mail article, and the hundreds of letters and emails she receives from desperate families which prompted her to write the book:
"(L)ast year I received 450 letters and emails from desperate families begging for help after their children or grandchildren had been forcibly taken from them by the family courts. The majority were subject to gagging orders and risked prison sentences by talking to me. Such restrictions imposed by the courts, ostensibly in the interests of the children, effectively silence discussion about questionable adoption procedures."
"However, I believe forced adoption is a national scandal that must be exposed. To this end, I have written a novel, Don’t Cry Aloud, a lightly fictionalised account of the real stories I encounter every day. I dedicate it to Nicky and Mark Webster, a decent and blameless couple who appealed to me for help when their three older children were taken and forcibly adopted in 2005. I’ve written it in the hope that it will provoke a reaction; that it will make people care."
"The Websters’ case, also taken up by this newspaper, proved how innocent people can become helplessly embroiled in an escalating nightmare. It began when Nicky took one of her children to hospital with a viral infection. Doctors discovered a fracture in his ankle and, within two days — on the false assumption that the little boy had been hit — all three of the couple’s children were taken into care."
"When I met the Websters, I knew they were incapable of harming their children. I asked a solicitor who had helped me fight for justice in similar cases to take up theirs. He, too, was powerless. ‘As fast as I amass evidence in their defence, social services push the adoption proceedings forward,’ he told me."
"It took four years for the courts to find the Websters innocent of any wrongdoing. It emerged that their son, after feeding problems, had been put on a soya milk diet, which had led to a rare nutritional deficiency that caused his bones to fracture easily. By then, however, the courts had also decreed that it was too late to overturn the adoption orders imposed on the Websters’ children: they were not returned to their parents."
The British Association of Social Workers received a number of complaints after sharing the Daily Mail article. There was a response from Maggie Mellon, Vice Chair of BASW:
The issue of adoption without parental consent and against their wishes is one that we feel is of professional concern and must be openly and fully debated, not just within social work, but also in the wider world...
There is growing public interest and concern, and it is very important that your professional association shows leadership in responding to this. We cannot deny that there are grounds for concern and inquiry and explanation, and neither should we attack the messengers – the birth families and their spokespeople such as Denise Robertson.
I will always support the open airing of critical comment and believe that we have a responsibility to members to respond to these openly and with an ethical and informed position.
"Tens of thousands of teenage girls have fallen ill with debilitating illnesses after the routine HPV cervical cancer jab." "That's the verdict of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which received 8,228 adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports concerning HPV jabs in the 10 years to April this year, according to a Freedom of Information response released earlier this month." "The agency estimates it receives only 10 per cent of all reports, potentially leaving more than 80,000 girls suffering from side effects including chest and abdominal pains, exhaustion, breathing difficulties, fibromyalgia and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) - a condition where moving from lying down to standing up causes an abnormally high heart rate." "Some have even been left wheelchair-bound by the apparent effects of a vaccine which protects against the second most common cancer in women under the age of 35."
