Council
rejects 'child snatcher' claims
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,9061,1546989,00.html
Guardian
- 11th August 2005
Essex
county council today attacked media coverage of an adoption case which
saw social workers branded as "child snatchers" for removing
two children from a couple with low IQs.
A high court
judge yesterday ruled that the couple must give up their four-year-old
daughter and 14-month-old son because they were incapable of parenting.
Mrs Justice Pauffley agreed with Essex social services that the children
would be at risk if they continued to live at home.
The children
were placed with foster parents last year. Essex councillor Tracey Chapman,
cabinet member for children and families, rejected reports that the
family was targeted by social services merely because the mother, 28,
has learning difficulties. She can read and write, but has an IQ of
60 and difficulty in understanding ideas.
The councillor
said the father, aged 37, also has a low IQ. Ms Chapman said the Daily
Mail's coverage of the case, which referred to social workers as child
snatchers, was unjustified. "It's incredibly demoralising for social
workers to be attacked in this way.
The judge commended
our handling of this case." The councillor said social services
had done everything they could to keep the family together and provided
them with up to 30 hours of support per week. But she said the parents
had not been able to develop the skills to adequately care for their
offspring.
The councillor
said: "We put in as much support as we could to this family. Wherever
possible we try to enable families to remain together, and that is what
social workers tried to do in this case."
The case has
highlighted concern that parents with learning disabilities are disproportionately
likely to have their children taken into care. Recent research by retired
academic Tim Booth, formerly chairman in sociological studies at Sheffield
University, found that 15% of local authority care proceedings involved
parents with learning disabilities.
