Damned if you do......

(apologies for draft nature)

As Bart Simpson rightly concluded, you cannot win sometimes. Social workers have one of the most difficult jobs going. Let me put the fish on the hook here. I've dealt with social services on many occasions on a professional basis. I've seen it from the side of the parent eager to keep their child, and I've seen it from the side of the agencies looking to safeguard the interests of children.

I feel that this will be a longer post when I consider it further. Basically, Social Services cannot win, as shown by the Cleveland, Orkney and Climbie cases.

Today's news has rightly been dominated by the tragedy of the death of Child P.

Some papers are more than willing to apportion the blame at the door of social services departments failing to take action. The Inquiry to be held may yield some answers; whether its conclusions will prevent another tragedy is a moot point.

Some initial observations.........

The Daily Mail Jan 31st 2008

How Social Services Are Paid Bonuses To Snatch Babies For Adoption

The story itself says nothing of the sort.

• National disgrace: The number of babies taken from their mothers and put up for adoption is rising sharply

• Imagine a baby growing in your body for nine months, imagine going through the emotion of bringing it into the world, only to have social workers seize the newborn, sometimes within minutes of its first cry and often on the flimsiest of excuses.

• Some of these may have been willingly given up for adoption, but critics of the Government's policy are convinced that the vast majority are taken by force.

• Meanwhile, millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has been given to councils to encourage them to meet high Government targets on child adoptions.

• One mother's son was adopted on the grounds that there was a chance she might shout at him when he was older.

Before people say that there are cases of injustice, I'll interject and agree. I've seen injustice and I've seen it happen to parents and children of all socio-economic groups. What is disturbing about the Mail's stance is that it only really matters if it happens to 'people like us'. Remember their concern over Madeleine McCann compared to Shannon Matthews. As the mother of shannon now stands trial for allegedly concocting a kidnap story for the promise of a newspaper reward, we need to ask a few questions here. When newspapers dangle rewards like an offer of free Big Macs or Bingo, is it any wonder that some may be tempted to take them up?

Has any newspaper reward ever been paid out? What is the net effect on paper sales and advertising revenue? Rewards?

SELL YOUR PRIVATE HEARTACHE HERE

• Paul Lamb and his partner Michelle Thomas contacted us to tell the chilling story of how their children were wrongly taken away by Social Services.

  The couple wanted the public to hear of their horrific experience in case there had been other similar miscarriages of justice.

  The story appeared in the Daily Mail newspaper for which we secured the pair a very good fee so they could enjoy a well-deserved family holiday.

Do you have a miscarriage of justice that you want to tell the world about? Whatever story you have we will get you the best deal and the best coverage.

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