This week I have written an article for Halsbury’s Law Exchange on the Transparency Guidance. If you care to saunter over there you will find it here, nestling next to a rather interesting article about the voice of P in the Court of Protection.
I am also in the process of writing some considerably more banal nonsense. And so the order of the universe will be restored soon enough.
Whilst I am writing, there is an interesting series of pieces on Community Care following the recent Panorama “I want my baby back” episode. A social worker wrote a strongly worded letter to John Hemming for “utterly undermining [social workers] work and profession”. He has responded in an article I don’t pretend to fully understand. There are comments. You should read the whole chabang, comments, letter ‘n’ all.
Bring on Friday…
As for Esther Clarke’s letter, if just one person (even if it’s a high-placed person, as JH is) can UNDERMINE a whole institution of the state (which is what child protection is in the first place), wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that something can be profoundly wrong with this institution?
Look at the silver lining of JHs extreme viewpoint. If the parents want the child/children/baby to have a better life than emigrate to Sweden and have them adopted there. If the they are bad parents or soon to be parents and British SS tips off Swedish SS than Swedish SS can take them into custody and adopt them out in Sweden. Either way England is the only country that seems to force birth parents out of the picture completely. Not saying emigrating is the right thing to do, just that I can see way they might do so.
It is not illegal to emigrate to another country unless they have a court order against them. Once they are out of the UK it is really no longer the UK’s concern unless they come back.