Category Archives: Support not Separation
Seminar: DO NO HARM
6-8pm Tues 11 September House of Commons, Westminster, Committee Room 14 All welcome
DO NO HARM
A seminar to gather evidence of the significant harm caused to children by separating them from their mothers and families, and which families are targeted for child removal and forced adoption.
Hosted by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP
Organised by Legal Action for Women
Speakers so far:
Andy Bilson, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire – new research into rising levels of investigation of families by social services and of children taken ‘into care’
Victoria Childs, Psychotherapy and Counsellors Union – the (lifelong) impact of separation from birth families
Emma Lewell-Buck MP, Shadow Minister for Children & Families
Lisa Longstaff, Women Against Rape – separation can be worse than witnessing domestic violence: a New York court ruling
Anne Neale, Legal Action for Women, Suffer the Little Children & their Mothers – updated findings from the past year’s self-help case work
SHODA RACKAL, Breastfeeding Peer Supporter – protecting the bond between mother and child
Jean Robinson, Association for Improvement in the Maternity Services – the threat of having children taken stops mothers accessing services
A mother who kept her child, a mother who got her child back, and a grandmother whose grandchild was forcibly adopted.
Contact: law@allwomencount.net 020 7482 2496
Filed under Support not Separation, Workshop
If you are contacting LAW about a family matter:
Thank you for contacting us.
Over the summer holiday we are not available as usual, so we hope the information here will be helpful.
We will get back to you at the beginning of September.
For our Self-help Guide to the family court please see here.
If your case is urgent, please contact your nearest Law Centre or Citizens Advice Bureau and see if they can help. There is general information about the family court process here.
If you are involved with Social Services in a public law case please contact theFamily Rights Group – they have a phone help-line and information online.
If you are in London, the Personal Support Unit at the Central Family Court can help you with understanding the court process and filling in forms, but NOT legal advice. You can call 0207421 8534/3 to make an appointment to see an advisor. There is also an advice service at the Royal Courts of Justice. You can apply to the Bar Pro Bono Unit for a barrister to represent you (they need at least 3 weeks notice of a hearing).
Our next self-help meeting for mothers/primary carers will be in September – please send an email and we’ll get back to you. If you haven’t been before, in preparation for the meeting, please answer the questions on our website and send them back to us so we will have a better idea of what help you need.
Our next picket of the Central Family Court is on Wednesday 5 September from 12.30 – 1.30pm. Everyone is welcome.
Filed under Support not Separation
Family Courts on Trial
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Dear All, We hope you will join us outside Parliament on 8 March to put the Family Courts on Trial – all are welcome. Please note this means that on Wednesday 7 March we will NOT be outside the central family court in Holborn for our monthly picket. (Next picket outside the central family court will be Wednesday 5 September 2018.) |
Filed under Support not Separation
Evidence to the Care Crisis Review
Evidence by Legal Action for Women to the Care Crisis Review being conducted by the Family Rights Group. For full evidence see here
Excerpt:
Our evidence is based on collective self-help and campaigning. We run monthly self-help meetings where mothers share their experiences and a number of organisations contribute their expertise. They are: All African Women’s Group, Black Women’s Rape Action Project, English Collective of Prostitutes, Global Women’s Strike and Women of Colour GWS, Single Mothers Self Defence, WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities), Women Against Rape and Payday men’s network.
Legal Action for Women co-ordinates the Support not Separation Coalition whose members so far are: Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services; Black Women’s Rape Action Project; Centre for Social Work Practice; Global Women’s Strike; Lactation Consultants of Great Britain; Milk of Human Kindness; Movement for an Adoption Apology; Psychotherapy and Counselling Union; Scottish Kinship Care Alliance; Single Mothers’ Self-Defence; WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities); Women Against Rape; former social workers, teachers and other professionals.
In our experience, the main reasons for the increase of children being taken into care are:
– Devaluing of the bond between mother and child.
– Increased poverty as a result of “austerity” cuts particularly affecting single mothers, leading to wrongful accusations of “neglect”.
– Victims of rape and domestic violence being held responsible for causing their children “emotional harm.
– Men’s “right” to their children being prioritised over women and children’s right to protection from violence.
– Bias against mothers/families who are poor, working class, of colour, have disabilities and/or mental health problems . . . resulting in sexist, racist and anti-working class assumptions/judgements/prejudices by social workers, children’s guardians and psychologists as well as family court judges.
– Refusal by local authorities and professionals to prioritise support for vulnerable families (e.g. not using powers under S17 of the 1989 Children Act and the Care Act to provide financial or other support to enable families to stay together).
– Promotion of adoption as the “gold standard”.
– Privatisation of children’s services so that taking children into care has become a highly profitable business.
– Secrecy of the family courts so that local authorities, professionals and judges are not held publicly accountable for decisions they make and mothers/families are prevented from going public with what has happened to them and seeking support.
– Denial of legal aid as well as poor legal advice.
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The FRG is now circulating two surveys, one for parents whose children have been taken awayand one for those working in this field, whether as professionals or voluntary groups like ours. The surveys have to be done online, and the deadline for responding is midnight on Sunday 11 February.
Filed under Support not Separation
FAMILY COURT ON TRIAL
FAMILY COURT ON TRIAL FOR UNJUSTLY TAKING CHILDREN FROM THEIR MOTHERS
Protest outside family court first Wednesday of every month.
12.30-1.30pm
London court First Avenue Hse, 42-49 High Holborn, WC1V 6NP
Brighton court 1 Edward St, BN2 0JD
Mothers and other carers protest outside Holborn and Brighton family court against the increasing numbers of children taken into care, court secrecy, cuts to legal aid for family cases, forced adoptions, mothers’ and children’s poverty and destitution, sexism, racism and other bias. Join us.
| Contact: Legal Action for Women
Single Mothers’ Self-Defence |
JOIN US TO DEMAND:
- An end to sexist judgements which deny the bond between mother and child, and downgrade the crimes of violent fathers.
- Fathers who are violent should not have unsupervised contact.
- An end to the secrecy of the family courts; there must be public scrutiny.
- Legal aid for all family court matters; no mother should have to represent herself.
- An end to institutional discrimination on grounds of income, race, nationality, disability, religious affiliation and/or occupation.
- An end to forced adoptions.
- Courts and social services must prioritise keeping children with their mother or other primary carer wherever possible. The state must support mothers doing their best for their children.
FACTS
- 80% of UK women are mothers. Women are primary carers in 90% of households.
- 28% of children live in poverty
- There are more children “in care” now than at any time since 1985
- Children from poor areas are 10 times more likely to be taken into care than those in rich areas
- Domestic abuse features in 70-90% of cases in the family courts yet less than 1% of child contact applications are refused – violent fathers who request contact nearly always get it.
- One in five children are now referred to children’s services yet the proportion of identified cases of abuse by parents has dropped from 24% to under 8%.
- Adoptions are at their highest point since complete data collection started: 90% of adoptions are without parental consent.
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Suffer the little Children & their Mothers: A dossier on the unjust separation of children from their mothers is available at http://legalactionforwomen.net |
Filed under Support not Separation
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Support not Separation: News bulletin 1 |
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IMPORTANT VICTORIES! Landmark Supreme Court ruling: children who were abused in foster care can sue the local authority! Great is the movement for justice and we shall prevail. Make sure everyone in your network knows about this. A grandmother who came to us for help has won: her grandchildren will be living with her and spending weekends with dad with weekly contact with mum – what they all wanted. And she’ll be getting Special Guardianship Allowances for the children! FORTHCOMING EVENTS
RECENT ACTIVITIES Women in Brighton have formed a group and are picketing the family court there to coincide with our London court picket onthe first Wednesday of every month. Our workshop Another Handmaid’s Tale was packed and the speakers were great. It was held at The World Transformed (events organised concurrently with the Labour Party conference in Brighton). Emma Lewell-Buck MP (shadow minister for children and families) spoke strongly on the need to support children staying with their families, giving weight and credibility to our demands. You can watch it here. Another three stunning workshops (with organisations based at the Crossroads Women’s Centre) also raised the impoverishment of mothers and the taking of children by the state. You can watch them here: Radical demands from the grassroots; Whose job is it anyway? Radical childcare; andLiving on the edge: claimants, asylum seekers, pensioners, zero-hour workers, sex workers . . . refusing Dickensian destitution and other social murder. Friends, Families and Travellers invited us to speak at their meeting in Parliament raising concerns about discrimination by children services. We wrote an open letter to CAFCASS and NSPCC protesting their speaking at a Families Need Fathers conference. Children charities which receive public money should not give credence to domestic violence deniers. We’ve had no response from them so far. We picketed the conference and you can watch the lively exchanges we had. We are objecting to a news programme The Adoption which is part of The World At One every day this week. It claims to be a thorough look at one adoption case but so far it is just promoting adoption as the ‘gold standard’. It uncritically reports on social workers who took two young children who, by their own admission, were ‘loved and wanted’ by their birth parents and extended family. Write in and object too! IN THE NEWS The mass taking of children by the state is in the news like never before. Some recent examples: · Research by Lancaster University shows the very high number of mothers who have had more than one child taken away were themselves in care and got no support. · An exhibition by young mums (‘Taken: because love wasn’t enough’) whom we are hoping to be in touch with. · In the US, Disabled parents are suing New York City for discrimination in child removal. · A US for-profit foster contractor has been exposed after 86 children died while in their care. How many more have died at the hands of other foster contractors? JOIN OUR COURT PICKETS We continue to picket the court in Holborn and now also in Brighton the first Wednesday of every month. Join us or picket the court in your town or area! |
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Filed under Support not Separation
Support not Separation launched at moving powerful meeting
Thank you to all who attended the launch of the coalition Support not Separation (SnS) on 11 July. The room was packed. People spoke movingly and with great power from their own experience. Four MPs attended: Emma Lewell-Buck, shadow minister for children and families; Sarah Champion, shadow minister for women and equalities; shadow chancellor John McDonnell; and Mohammad Yasin, newly elected to represent Bedford.
The detailed report below has quotes from those who spoke and lists the proposals made; you can also watch the speeches.
If you would like to join or to be involved in other ways, including by helping with case work, please let us know. SnS’s statement of aims, members so far are on LAW’s website and you can download the dossier Suffer the little Children & their Mothers.