{"id":12788,"date":"2018-06-11T14:55:50","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T13:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=12788"},"modified":"2018-06-12T16:39:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T15:39:31","slug":"southampton-heads-adoption-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/southampton-heads-adoption-lottery\/","title":{"rendered":"Southampton heads adoption lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Southampton<\/a>
Southampton City Council heads the adoption lottery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Research into adoption and care rates has revealed a postcode lottery.\u00a0 Children in some areas in England are 12 times more likely to be removed and adopted by child protection units.<\/p>\n

The BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism sent Freedom of Information Act enquiries to all English local authorities.\u00a0 Half provided full responses.\u00a0 The BBC reported the results in this article<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 The data reveal significant variation in adoption rates.<\/p>\n

Twelve times higher<\/h2>\n

For children born in 2011-12 the chances of being placed for adoption by the age of five were 12 times higher in Southampton than Greenwich.<\/p>\n

Twenty authorities had significantly increased adoption rates compared with children born five years before.<\/p>\n

Andy Bilson, emeritus professor of social work at the University of Central Lancashire, wanted to compare child protection practice across all local authorities in England.<\/p>\n

He sent a series of detailed questions to all 152 bodies, asking how many children, born between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, had by the age of five been investigated by social services, and how many had been permanently removed from their families, adopted or given placement orders by family courts.\u00a0 He asked the same questions about children born five years before.<\/p>\n

Huge variation<\/h2>\n

Professor Bilson received full responses from 70 local authorities and used ONS data to calculate adoption rates.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Southampton Coat of Arms is surmounted by a figure of justice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This revealed a huge variation: in Southampton, almost one in 50 children had been adopted or had placement orders imposed.\u00a0 In Greenwich, which has a similar socio-economic profile, the rate was a twelfth of that – more like 1 in 600.<\/p>\n

In Southampton there was a marked rise in adoption rates for the age group, compared with children born five years before. The FOI response also showed the authority had investigated many more families. The number of detailed investigations, carried out under section 47 of the children act, had risen from 215 to 454.\u00a0 There was a similar pattern in 19 other authorities.<\/p>\n

Adoption promoted<\/h2>\n

For nearly 20 years, both Labour and Conservative governments have promoted adoption as a way of getting children out of care.\u00a0 Children, they said, often move from one foster family to another.\u00a0 They fare poorly in education. Some are abuse in care.\u00a0 Girls in care have figured highly in all the grooming scandals, from Rotherham, to Rochdale, to Bradford and Oxford. Outcomes for children in care are poor.\u00a0 Adopted children do much better than children in care.<\/p>\n

The Blair Government set targets to get children into adoption.\u00a0 They gave local authorities financial incentives.\u00a0 All local authorities did was take more potentially adoptable children into care to chase the money.\u00a0 Children were too often taken by force from parents who wanted to keep their children.\u00a0 But the system was more interested in taking their children for financial gain than helping them to stay together as a family.<\/p>\n

The mindset persists today.\u00a0 Professor Bilson found in the authorities where adoption had risen, the numbers in care had risen too.\u00a0 In authorities where adoption was stable or had fallen, care numbers had fallen.<\/p>\n

“This is the exact opposite of what you’d expect,” he told the BBC.\u00a0 “It points instead to a difference in the way that children are being removed from parents.”<\/p>\n

Southampton’s Blake Fowler<\/h2>\n
\"Blake<\/a>
Blake Fowler’s sad case drove social workers to take more children into care ‘just in case’.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The BBC asked Southampton why it had changed its approach.\u00a0 The authority responded: “All children who were adopted were subject to rigorous scrutiny by the legal system and the Family Court, both of which agreed with the Local Authority that not only had the threshold for a Care Order been met, but that the Local Authority had exhausted all opportunity and support for any potential family or other carers: adoption was therefore the only realistic option.”<\/p>\n

However, the BBC suggests another influence may be at work in Southampton. In 2011, there were four child deaths, one especially high profile.\u00a0\u00a0Blake Fowler died of a head injury aged seven<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Concerns had been raised about him since he was a toddler: the authority were later severely criticised for failing to act.<\/p>\n

Sir Mark Hedley, who for many years was a High Court judge in the Family Division, told the BBC: “It would be wrong to suggest that one is the cause of the other. But there is no doubt that public criticism of social workers if children have suffered will lead to an increased priority being given to child protection at the expense of maintaining family groups.”<\/p>\n

Action varies<\/h2>\n

Social workers have to intervene if they believe a child is at risk of significant harm. But ‘significant’ is not defined in statute. Sir Mark says action will vary from one authority to another.<\/p>\n

“There will inevitably be a wide range of views in relation to what is significant harm,” he said.\u00a0 “Just as there will be a range of views about the desirability of intervening in families in the first place.”<\/p>\n

Professor Bilson found that far more children are being put on child protection plans because of “emotional abuse” and neglect – 82% of the children in the younger group. Again, these are terms which can be subject to interpretation.<\/p>\n

Medway’s emotional abuse<\/h2>\n

Last year, Christian Voice uncovered wide discrepancies in practice for the ill-defined category of ’emotional abuse’.\u00a0\u00a0The Government\u2019s most recent figures<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0showed wide variations in numbers of children taken into care and reasons given. The discrepancy showed up widely in the contrast between the two councils in Kent. They were Kent County Council and Medway Council.\u00a0 \u00a0We have been following some terrible cases of injustice in Medway<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kent County Council took 1,049 children into care in 2015-2016.\u00a0The population of Kent CC area at the last census<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was 1,541,900. Under 20\u2019s were 360,605. So a Kent child has a 0.29% chance of being \u2018in care\u2019.<\/p>\n

Medway Council took 539 children into care in 2015-2016.\u00a0The population of Medway\u2019s council area at the last census<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was 263,925. Under 20\u2019s were 74,000. So a Medway child has a 0.73% chance of being \u2018in care\u2019.
\nIn Kent County Council, 656 children were taken for neglect, 63% of the total and higher than the national average for England. The Council took 203 children for \u2018emotional abuse\u2019. That is 19%, lower than England\u2019s national average.<\/p>\n

But in Medway, 237 children (44%) were taken for neglect and 257 (48%) for emotional abuse. Given Medway\u2019s far lower population, are we really being asked to accept that children in Chatham and Rochester are suffering \u2018emotional abuse\u2019 (whatever that is) over six times more than children in Canterbury and Ramsgate?<\/p>\n

Dramatic picture<\/h2>\n

Over the last decade, the number of children in care has risen by 134%.\u00a0 That means for every four cases then there are seven now.\u00a0 Many talk of the crisis in the care system, the family courts overwhelmed by cases.<\/p>\n

Why this happens is less clear, though council support for families, so-called early intervention, has been dramatically reduced thanks to cuts, and rising poverty increases the pressure. For many months now local authorities have been warning that more families are in crisis, and that child protection is becoming an emergency service.<\/p>\n

Professor Bilson’s research provides a dramatic picture of varying approaches in different authorities.<\/p>\n

Best interests of the system<\/h2>\n

The Department for Education said: “Every decision regarding adoption is made with the best interests of the child at its heart. Many children and their adoptive families have had their lives transformed by adoption, and we are determined to support them every step of the way.<\/p>\n

“On top of this, there are of course a number of alternative options available, including long-term fostering and special guardianship, which may be chosen when it is best for the child.”<\/p>\n

But many parents tell Christian Voice care decisions are too often made in the best interests of the system.\u00a0 We have seen outrageous injustice in what is now a child protection industry.\u00a0 Social workers, solicitors, barristers, court psychologists, even judges all depend on this industry for their income.<\/p>\n

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Research into adoption and care rates has revealed a postcode lottery.\u00a0 Children in some areas in England are 12 times more likely to be removed and adopted by child protection units. The BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism sent Freedom of Information Act enquiries to all English local authorities.\u00a0 Half provided full responses.\u00a0 The 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