Bill allows councils to opt out of child protection legislation

Hansard -   Mrs Lewell-Buck:

"I apologise at the outset that my comments are rather long but they are entirely relevant to the Government’s new clauses. As I listened to the Minister, I hoped he would offer some clarity on a number of key issues that have rightly plagued these Government plans to allow councils to opt out of primary and secondary protective legislation for vulnerable children and young people. I want that sentence to sink in with the Committee for a moment."

"The Minister is asking us to approve a power that threatens vast swathes of hard-fought legislation that was carefully crafted in the proper way, rooted in robust evidence and consultation with the sector, children and families, often in the wake of tragedies and failures that should not have occurred, and that had cross-party commitment to better protect and provide for children and young people."

"Of course, not all children’s social care legislation has evolved because things have gone desperately wrong. Many statutory requirements in the care system, in leaving care and in support for families have emerged through creative practice and innovation, but I fear that after the Bill, innovation will be forever associated with the removal of legal protection. That does a terrible disservice to all the excellent projects, pilots and world-leading practice that have developed in children’s social care across the decades."

"The Minister is asking us to hand the Secretary of State unprecedented power to dispense with primary and secondary legislation without any prior Green or White Paper consultation, any public evidence sessions, as there should have been for such a radical change, or any evidence that any of the endangered legislation works against children’s welfare. Once an exemption or ​modification to the law has been authorised, the trials could last up to six years—that is a long time for a child reliant on the state for his or her care and protection."

"Our most vulnerable children are being used as guinea pigs. That is no exaggeration. Look at the transcript of the Lords debate that led to the first incarnation of these awful clauses being kicked out. These so-called innovation clauses were described several times by noble Lords, even those on the Government side, as an experiment. Do we really want to give consent to such high-risk experiments when local authorities are facing extreme funding pressures and increased demand? Nagalro warned in its evidence to the Committee:"

"Anything which helps spread the budget further is going to be greeted with great enthusiasm in County Hall. It also warned that the Bill risks introducing perverse incentives into a system already buckling under great strain."

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-01-10/debates/7454bf55-0b80-46b9-ab65-675091bc9c4d/ChildrenAndSocialWorkBill(Lords)(FifthSitting)#contribution-8C3F852A-8CCC-4E95-AC0E-7C083303ACC8

"On Wednesday 11 January 2016, Melanie Shaw, the whistleblower on the horrific abuse of children which occurred at the then county council-run Beechwood Children's Home in Nottinghamshire in the late 1980s, was given a two-year custodial sentence in a secret court hearing."

"The nature of the charge against her is unclear and that information is refused when requested of court staff. The case took place late yesterday morning but it did not appear on any court lists until the hearing was past."

"Melanie Shaw did not appear in person in court for this hearing, which was conducted by video link from her prison, as has also been the case with previous of her court 'appearances'. She states that without fail, whenever in the past she has given testimony by such video link, she has been cut off on the pretext that `you were shouting`, which she denies."

"The effect of this is to prevent her testimony from going on the court record, as well as to prevent her as defendant from hearing certain deliberations and assertions being made in the courtroom."

"In addition, UK Column News is very confident that at this particular secret hearing, no member of the public was present, and particularly not any of the supporters who have been following Melanie Shaw's case very closely. The public is therefore entirely dependent on any transcripts—accurate and complete or otherwise—which may be produced in order to find out what was said at the hearing."

"Time already served by Melanie Shaw in prison on remand, namely 11 months, mostly in solitary confinement, does not appear to have been set against the two-year custodial sentence imposed yesterday."

"Melanie Shaw is one of the few child abuse whistleblowers who is prepared to name politicians as having been among the abusers of her fellow inmates, some of whom she asserts were murdered on site at Beechwood. Her reminiscences date from 1987, in which year the Cabinet was constituted of these politicians until the general election that May and of these politicians thereafter. (This does not constitute an allegation by UK Column News that any particular Cabinet minister at the above links was an abuser.)

Melanie Shaw's correspondence address in prison is:

Melanie Shaw
A4126DE
HMP Foston Hall
​Uttoxeter Road
Foston
DERBY
DE65 5DN
United Kingdom

"It is advisable if writing to Melanie Shaw to use a card or light letter containing no stamps, blank paper, return envelopes, money or any other objects. These are highly likely to be confiscated, potentially together with the letter or card itself."

Update 13th January 2017
http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/melanie-shaw-given-two-years-following-secret-court-hearing

It has been reported further that Melanie is to appear in court on charges of assaulting prison officers.

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NCF report alleges children were tortured in residential units

"CHILDREN were tortured at Scottish schools, children’s homes and residential units with waterboarding, sleep-deprivation and force-feeding among the practices deployed to torment them, a major study into alleged abuse has claimed."

"The report from the National Confidential Forum (NCF), a body set up to anonymously document the experiences of abuse victims, also records testimony alleging the humiliation of children for bed-wetting and others having their hair shaved off to suppress their identity. Costing more than £4 million since it was established in 2014, the forum has faced accusations of being a `talking shop` because it lacked powers to hold abusers to account."

"The subsequent Scottish Child Abuse inquiry may have appealed to more victims because it could ultimately lead to prosecutions."

"While it was initially thought up to 2000 abuse survivors might give evidence to the NCF, so far only 78 statements have been lodged."

"Head of the forum, Dr Rachel Happer, said a culture of silence and intimidation had prevented many of the perpetrators of abuse from facing justice."

"She said: `Many of the accounts we have heard have been heart-breaking and akin to extreme treatment that nobody should be on the receiving end of, never mind children and never mind a child who is meant to be cared for and protected. People have used their own words to describe the experiences and some have certainly described what happened to them as torture`."

"The oldest record of abuse detailed in the report called ‘What We Have Heard So Far’ took place eight decades ago, and the most recent just five years ago."

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/15015247.Children_tortured_in_Scottish_schools_and_care_homes__report_claims/

Expectant mothers turned away from Glasgow hospital

"A HEALTH board has apologised after pregnant women poised to give birth were turned away from a flagship maternity unit because it was full."

"Expectant mothers arriving at the maternity unit at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow have been waiting hours in maternity wards today because there were no spaces for them in the labour wards. In some cases patients were having contractions minutes apart on a packed maternity ward while still waiting to be moved to a labour bed."

"From lunchtime, others were being turned away and sent to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and the Princess Royal Maternity after beds also ran out in the maternity wards. It included women arriving for planned Caesarean sections."

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/trendingacrossscotland/15020355.Expectant_mothers_turned_away_as__full__Glasgow_maternity_unit_forced_to_close/?ref=rl&lp=3

Mum vows to sue council for traumatising son

"Nicola Nash spoke out after council investigation ruled that staff at Hythehill Primary in Lossiemouth showed a `negative approach` towards the vulnerable youngster."

"Nine-year-old Kai has been diagnosed as `neurologically atypical` after being born with brain damage, which means he can be prone to extreme bouts of anxiety."

"But he was shut in a room for more than an hour when he threw a tantrum because a teacher took a book away from him."

"And the upset youngster ran away from Hythehill three times in the space of just three weeks."

"Yesterday, Moray Council apologised to Mrs Nash for the way teachers handled Kai’s problems and vowed to retrain members of staff."

"But she fears her son’s experiences at Hythehill have left him emotionally scarred, and plans to take legal action against the authority for the emotional distress Kai suffered."

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/moray/elgin/1133211/moray-mum-vows-to-sue-council-over-claims-toxic-school-left-son-traumatised/

Teaching reading effectively

Parents found it difficult to engage with consultation

"A consultation on possible changes to how schools are governed `excluded many parents`, according to an organisation representing parent teacher councils. The Scottish Parent Teacher Council said it gathered more than 800 responses to submit to the Scottish government's consultation. But it said most respondents skipped questions about the school governance review itself..."

"The government intends to devolve more powers to head teachers, and is also looking at creating new regional education boards to work across council areas. Some in local government fear councils will end up with a greatly-reduced practical role."

"A government consultation closed on Friday, with detailed plans likely later this year."

"In the introduction to its response, the SPTC highlighted what it sees as problems with aspects of the consultation itself."

It said: `While we gathered more than 800 responses, the majority of respondents skipped the questions about the governance review. This in itself communicates a great deal about the perspective of parents on this consultation`."

"`The feedback received regarding the consultation events has similarly indicated that parents who attended (and are therefore by definition motivated and engaged) have generally been left puzzled and feeling excluded from the debate`."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38563112?SThisFB

"A number of concerns were raised by Parent Council Chairs, the Education Advisory Group and the Head Teacher Executive on the lack of detail stated in the consultation document which makes it challenging to answer the large number of open questions contained within the national survey... Overall, this lack of detail in the consultation document and the complex open questions may have resulted in a low response rate to both the Midlothian consultation and consequently may be the same in terms of response rate to the national survey. It should be noted that more respondents started the questionnaire than completed the questionnaire."

https://midlothian.cmis.uk.com/Live/Document.ashx?

"The Education Secretary was pressed on criticisms that the consultation was filled with jargon during an appearance before Holyrood’s Education Committee..."

"[P]arents at a Glasgow meeting held to discuss the issue last month told the Herald newspaper that the questions posed were `completely impenetrable to your average parent`."

"Committee member and Labour MSP Iain Gray said: `We read in the press that some of the parents there felt the document was filled with jargon, that the officials present couldn’t provide clarification for some straightforward questions, and they also felt that the questions the consultation asked of them really made little sense to them`."

https://www.consultationinstitute.org/consultation-news/scottish-education-secretary-pressed-jargon-filled-impenetrable-school-consultation/

All going to plan then.　

Running down services in NHS Highlands

Let`s not be fooled by the baby box gimmick:

====================

"Preparations are being made to change the operation of maternity services at Caithness General in Wick earlier than previously planned."

"NHS Highland said a midwife-led community maternity unit (CMU) is to be in place at the hospital at the end of this month."

"In November last year, the health board had anticipated introducing the change by April."

"Maternity services are currently led by consultant obstetricians."

"NHS Highland has said the majority of births at Caithness General do not require obstetrics."

"The hopsital has no facilities for on-site specialist neonatal paediatric support or adult intensive care."

"Complicated pregnancies are to be handled by `strengthened` services at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and also close working with the ambulance service, the health board said."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38583769

What`s wrong with the Named Person ?

The systematic breakdown of the NHS

UK Column are back with a vengeance after the Christmas/New Year break. They begin with the new Global Britain policy which is going to be investing up to £12 billion in Africa. "So that sum has been magicked up," Brian Gerrish says. Then referring to an ironic comment from a viewer about the Global Britain policy he adds: "We`re going to be taking Red Cross [food] parcels in UK shortly... Well in a couple of moments we`re going to be moving on to the NHS where the Red Cross is already having to act."

They conclude that Global Britain is an example of British `soft power` which is being backed up by American military power. For an example of how British soft power works they suggest having a look at Martin Edward`s article: We`re all in this together.

When Mark Anderson from American Free Press is invited to comment he says: "I think Brian hit on it the best, that these countries aren`t allowed to have a grass roots approach to develop themselves... You can develop third world countries without all this outside investment by teaching people to develop their own economy from the ground up... But this approach by the globalists, by Common Purpose and what not - well it might have a few peripheral benefits here and there - is largely not what these African and other third world nations need."

Mike Robinson agrees: "What we`re witnessing is the continuing effort to make sure these countries can`t develop. And a perfect example of it ... was a series of programmes on the BBC called Swimming with Crocodiles and at the end of the series they were describing how the crocodiles were posing a danger for people collecting water at the riverside; and so the BBC`s solution to this was to put up some signs saying: Danger ! Crocodiles ! As if the people who had been living there thousands of years didn`t know that there were crocodiles in the river; when, in fact, what these people probably needed was a tap."

=================

"Well let`s come back to UK and have a look at the state of the country. So no better place to go than the NHS. Here`s the report in from Plymouth local Herald. It says Red Cross volunteers drafted in to Derriford Hospital to ease NHS pressure."

"So this is the reality; we`ve now got the Red Cross having to come in and help the NHS and if we follow this story, of course, this isn`t just about Derriford hospital in Plymouth. We`re talking about the whole NHS. But we`ll just take a couple of points here. It says: Derriford like many other Trusts across the UK declared itself on the highest possible alert level last week. And that is basically saying that the hospital was close to meltdown because they simply couldn`t cope with A & E and other operations going on. But 24 hours later it was reduced to an Operation Pressures Escalation Level Three rating, thanks to a fantastic response from the staff."

"Now we know how hard the staff have been working at Derriford because we talk to them and we get information from them but what we`re interested in here is what is going on in NHS which has created this problem. But, of course, there isn`t a problem because Jeremy Hunt said that hospitals are performing `slightly better` than this time last year and he defended the NHS against claims of a `humanitarian crises` which is what the Red Cross is saying is going on... and Theresa May for those of you who don`t know; she is apparently the British prime minister; but she`s been very quiet of late. She says there isn`t a crises at all."

"So we`ve got a remarkable situation... In the Midlands we know that hospitals have had to actually stop all operations because the hospital is at breakdown point but apparently there`s no problem."

 

"Now in that article we were interested to see that this gentleman got a mention.... So this is an organisation called NHS Providers. They actually train, and boast that they train, most of the NHS Trusts and their executive directors but the Chief Executive of NHS Providers rejected the idea that there was a crisis and did not think it was an `appropriate description.` Now that was the quote from the Plymouth Herald. We decided to phone the organisation ... and ask whether their Chief Executive stood by that statement that there wasn`t a crisis. Well we received an interesting and very hostile reply because we were told that the problem was the word `humanitarian.` `Humanitarian crises` means quote `something equating to what is going on in Syria.`  Clearly that isn`t going on in the NHS so it isn`t really a `humanitarian crisis.`  People are dying. It is nothing to do with humanity. In fact, it`s not really a crisis at all."

 

"So let`s have a look at this organisation. I encourage people to go and have a look at the site themselves. It`s a membership organisation and trade association for NHS acute, ambulance, community and mental health services ..."

Mike Robinson interjects: "That is what the NHS is nowadays - a trade."

"A trade, business. Yeah, very close to. And it says: We help those foundation trusts, and other trusts, to deliver high quality patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system - so one failing hospital is going to learn from another. But we are there it says to influence governance and policy within the NHS. So an organisation, very interesting organisation, linking together all of these NHS Trusts which are having major problems: failing, people dying, people being left on trolleys, people not having fluids and being fed. But not to worry because these organisations are teaching one another and having to bring in the Red Cross. But it`s not a crises Mike... I`d like to stress that."

 

"So who is the gentleman we spoke to?  Well let`s bring him on screen because he was a bit worried as to whether the conversation was off the record. But when I speak it`s on the record. So I don`t see why we should have special rules... His name`s Adam Brimelow. I asked him whether he was aware of the extent of what was going on in the NHS and I mentioned Staffordshire hospital and he replied that basically he had been a former BBC reporter and reported on Staffordshire hospital. When I said that Staffordshire was one of a minimum of ten or eleven equally bad hospitals he didn`t really want to talk to me for much longer. But this is his twitter page and if you go and have a look there`s a couple of interesting articles one of which is of course he`s plugging the BBC`s interview by his own Chief Executive about what`s going on in the NHS. So nice little bit of circular reporting there from the BBC health correspondent, back through this organisation which says: `Well of course it`s not as bad as Syria. So there`s no problem."

 

"Now just to emphasise the logic these people use - this is obviously part of their website. Have a look at it. They`re all about performance and this is a press statement they released in relation to what`s been going on in the NHS and it says: The last few days have seen a wave of media coverage on current NHS Accident and Emergency Department performance and how well the NHS is coping with the pressures. Much of the comment and media coverage seeks to extrapolate what this current performance means for the wider state of the NHS. What a terrible thing to do !" 

"People are saying if it`s happening in one hospital is it happening in another? But not to worry because NHS Providers said: It`s important to calibrate how well the NHS is doing as accurately as possible. We know this is going to be difficult when comments reported in the media are simplistic and binary."

"So we`ve got people in corridors on stretchers; we`ve got people dying - a minimum of a thousand last year. I`ll say that`s a gross understatement - but the training organisation helping to put this thing together says: `Well it`s not a problem`. "

 

"And if I just add this on screen here. Here`s the Chief Executive concerned. He says: `There is no humanitarian crisis and we should avoid exaggerating the scale of the problem so we don`t frighten patients, undermine public confidence in the NHS or undervalue the staff`. And he`s fully supported by our very own Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, and as we said yesterday of course what he is doing is driving the Tory plan to destroy the NHS from within. Get rid of those nasty bed blockers and introduce private health care for profit. And if you don`t believe that you might like to visit his twitter page because he`s very excited that there`s now a new ambulance scheme to take end-of-life patients to the preferred place they`d like to go to die."

"So we`re not really interested in the crisis which is killing people but Jeremy Hunt`s got very interested that terminally ill people can be transported to the place they want to go to die."

Mike Robinson again:  "If we link this with the story yesterday on the privatisation of crematoria and cemetery services..."

"We`ve got a nice little circle... "

"And of course why is that happening? I mean you`ve been told that undertakers are refusing to do the job any more."

"Well this is absolutely true. We`ve had a number of reports from undertakers. This is a very unpleasant subject, but what they are becoming deeply concerned about is the number of grossly underweight bodies. So they are now dealing with bodies of individuals that have clearly been severely dehydrated and are malnourished to the extent that they are extremely small - their frame is extremely small - and this has also raised questions from relatives who are surprised at the size of the coffin. Nasty subject, but this is reality and I`m just going to add to that. If we want to know what has been going on inside the NHS then let`s introduce this UK Column article, more powerful than ever as we start to really understand what`s happening; and this was Martin Edwards explaining in great detail how the charity Common Purpose has been at work inside the NHS and he starts off with this quote:"

"For change to work, the discontent with the present must be greater than the tolerance of it - Robert Rowland Smith, philosopher. And the purpose of this quote is that if you analyse what`s happening: huge turbulence, bullying, stress, anxiety are being put on the staff in hospitals. Create the failure and then you can create the privatised system."

http://www.ukcolumn.org/ [10 January 2017]

See: The NHS Common Purpose: towards a million change agents http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/nhs-common-purpose-towards-million-change-agents