The shocking rise of fascism

From the Telegraph:

" "We feel that we were meeting the cultural needs of these children. We were actively encouraging these children to speak their own language and to teach us their language. We enjoyed singing one of their folk songs in their native language.

"Having been told of the religious denomination of these children, we also took steps to ensure that a school of their denomination was found." - the foster parents deemed unsuitable.

There is no debate POGS. Sorry. But its just a bunch of narrow minded lefties sticking to what they consider to be pc, and sod the children involved.

JO5

Amen to that it would appear.

I do think debate will follow though.

I suspected the children had been separated when it was reported that one child was moved first and the other two a few days later. It's an indefensible decision. Made by people who should be ashamed of themselves. Blinkered, knee jerk reaction made by unimaginative professionals who have betrayed not only the children in their care but their social work values and principles. Makes me despair.

nightowl

Well said.

I must add to my previous comment, I do not mean to 'tar and feather' all Child Care/Social Workers as uncaring. I fully appreciate there are good and bad in all professions. It is a very challenging job and they have to deal with some very unhappy circumstances the rest of us can only talk about, similar to the police and other services who have equally difficult jobs.

Don't worry about it POGS I am far less defensive of social work than I used to be. There are still some excellent social workers but I fear the profession itself is in danger of losing its way. I don't take any criticism personally, I can only try to do my best.

Winding down now anyway, looking to the future

nightowl

White dove emoticon. Nice to know it's not required.

'Narrow-minded lefties'?

I'm sure the social workers had the children's interests at heart. We do not know the details. Anything in the press cannot to be relied on as being a full and accurate account. Remember the number of fictitious stories that were made up about the McCanns.
So any discussion of these stories can only be based on partial information - the full story is , after all, confidential and the social workers are unable to set the record straight. The fosterers on the other hand are not so bound and can make any statements they want.
jo4 you do make these provocative remarks from time to time. Whether they are "off the cuff" or deliberately provocative is not clear and it is confusing to people. It also, regularly, causes unhappiness on this site. Remember a lot of people have got in trouble recently on Twitter for posting things about people they do not know, without thinking of the implications. Some of them might yet get sued. Gransnet is also a public arena but neither trial by twitter nor trial by Gransnet is appropriate or wise.

Well said, Jess.

Jess, completely agree.

I am well aware that the actions of social workers are all too often misrepresented by the media, but my views are based on the statements made by Joyce Thacker, the director of children and young people's services and other factual information. I am sure the professionals involved acted in good faith but they were wrong. This was NOT a child focused decision and I stand by everything I said. There is rarely any good reason to move children so hastily or to separate siblings. These are facts in this case. I will be interested to hear the outcome of the inquiries and if I have been too hasty in reaching this view I will eat my words.

I am not saying that chidren's service never cock things up but the trouble is with this, is that we don't really know about what may have gone on in this case as the department cannot talk about the details for confidentiality reasons.
The main thrust of concerns have come from UKIP.
Where there are serious case reviews on a children's safe guarding issue these are published on line. They make an analysis of what went wrong with the processes in the department. Salutory reading indeed for social workers .

Separating siblings is so cruel - I would love to know the reasons behind that.

But Joyce Thacker has given factual information about the basis of this decision and has said the foster carers were providing good care. It has been confirmed that they will be allowed to carry on fostering. The placement was only ever a temporary placement. So why the need to remove the children with no planning or preparation. It makes no sense to me.

Greatnan the reason for separating the siblings was probably because there are few foster carers who can take larger sibling groups. It seems particularly cruel in this case when the children do not speak English as their first language. They are likely to have a limited understanding of what has happened to them and reduced opportunities to communicate at all in their first language.

I agree with the posters who have spoken up in defence of social workers. They can't win once the news hits the streets because they are accused of not acting when they should or of acting too quickly. BUT this is the same authority where it was recently found that young girls were being prostituted and one was murdered even though 'known to social services'. There is something going wrong.

The dread of being considered racist has certainly inhibited some people from facing the fact that the men tageting vulnerable girls were mainly Muslims.

Muslim is not a 'race'. There was a lot of coverage /debate in the press & wider media about the fact that most, but not all, men involved were Muslim. I thought it was the judge who said that the religion of the men was irrelevant to the case. Think he was thinking of it from a purely legal aspect. Also if the general public think it is a problem only in areas where there is a large Muslim community it might leave 'space' for other men to exploit vulnerable girls.

I didn't say it was a race - but I think that was what inhibited many social workers and police officers from speaking out.

A fear of being accused of racism may well have played a part in that extraordinarily sad and sorry tale as I think I am right that most, if not all of the perpetrators were of Pakistani origin. Once again, it was almost certainly irrelevant in legal terms but may have been an issue in the minds of others.

Lilygran and other posters who have spoken in defence of social workers....thank you.
Tragically, 'known to Social Services' does not mean 'watched over by Social Services 24 hours a day, with limitless resources and facilities to keep them safe from evil people'.
I wish it did.