SUPPORT  NOT  SEPARATION

A coalition to end the unwarranted and damaging separation

of children from their mother or other primary carer

 

LAUNCH:

Tuesday 11 July 6-8pm

Wilson Room in Portcullis House, Westminster,  SW1A 2JR

Westminster tube   Wheelchair accessible

(Please allow time to go through security.)

All welcome

SPEAKERS:

Organisations and individuals directly affected.

Hosted by Emma Lewell-Buck MP

For information contact: Legal Action for Women

law@allwomencount.net  020 7482 2496

The unwarranted removal of children is not an aberration of the past or The Handmaid’s Tale of the future. Thousands of mothers are being labelled ‘unfit’ and treated as mere surrogates right now.

 

Parliament, 18 Jan 2017

MP Emma Lewell-Buck speaking, Jan 2017

 

Protest outside family court

Successive governments promoting adoption, financial and other pressures on social services, family court secrecy, and cuts in legal aid have led to a 65% rise in children taken into care – 143,440 in 2016! Since the publication of our dossier Suffer the Little Children and their Mothers in January and monthly protests outside the family court, more primary carers are speaking out.

The welfare of the child is central to the Children Act 1989. But the lifelong trauma suffered by children separated from their primary carer is often ignored by decision makers. Vague charges of ‘neglect’ and ‘future emotional harm’ are used to remove children, especially from low income families. Mothers who are single, young, of colour, immigrant, disabled, have suffered domestic violence and/or need help with depression or isolation are targeted. With nearly four million UK children (28%) living in poverty, the potential for social engineering is huge.

We are determined to change this. Labour’s manifesto commitments to keep child protection services out of private hands, “refocus social care to work with families … to prevent children becoming at risk of going into care,” and increase support for kinship carers are important steps in the right direction.

Support Not Separation is co-ordinated by
Legal Action for Women.

Members so far include:
Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services

Black Women’s Rape Action Project

Global Women’s Strike

Milk of Human Kindness

Movement for an Adoption Apology

Scottish Kinship Care Alliance

Single Mothers’ Self-Defence

WinVisible (women with visible & invisible disabilities)

Women Against Rape

Mothers, grandmothers, children who suffered historic separation, former social workers, the founder of a support service for the children of prisoners, teachers and other professionals.

 

legalactionforwomen.net