Riot trials; unbelievable!

Indigo8

Being from a deprived background does necessarily mean you will turn out bad. Neither does going to Eton and Oxbridge mean that you will be an honest, caring citizen.

I don't think anyone has said that. But surely a mother going on holiday to Ibiza when her 12 year old is due in court facing serious charges speaks volumes about that child's background. How can anyone say her child is being taught to have any decent values or is being given any proper guidance in life.
The mother may have her own issues but it is clear she is not a suitable parent and her son should never have been left in her sole care (if that's what happened).

She was probably advised that the case would be deferred, that aside there is nothing uncommon about parents allowing 12yr olds out on the street unsupervised.
If there is trouble they will find it!.

I'm not sure what to think. Could it be another family member has arranged to go and she didn't realise it had to be a parent? Has she got other special needs children she has to arrange care for, and this is her only break this year? I guess we just don't know.

That poor boy. Obviously his behaviour was awful, but what chance has he had? I suppose it's possible that his parents are separated and he was with his dad?

Perhaps she took other siblings on holiday, not to loose money and disappointed them.
Only guessing of course, like most of you are.
His uncle took him to court

Having worked as a social worker many years ago I can assure you that the majority of children in secure or residential care homes come out with worse problems than when they entered the system. This is due to peer pressure and copying others misdeeds. Foster care has better results but not always.
I'm also horrified that people posting on social media are being jailed while not taking an active part in the riots. This is limiting free speech and a very slippery slope. It's up to social media to remove offensive comments and a jail sentence for an opinion seems very excessive to me. Many people are against the boat people when we have so many people sleeping on the streets here. Also the gangs don't care if they die crossing just want the money. Imo many of these immigrants should be deported on arrival not put in hotels. If we had many empty social housing properties I would welcome the boat people to our country but we have an enormous housing problem here.

Nobody will be jailed for making comments like the ones in your post.

Those who go further and encourage people to burn hotels with asylum seekers inside will be in trouble, and IMO that's as it should be. We have never had free speech that allows incitement to violence or hatred.

Probably has attention deficit disorder. My friend who was a teacher said every other kid is being diagnosed with the condition as it’s away round the the two child benefit cap- parents can claim all sorts

Doodledog

Nobody will be jailed for making comments like the ones in your post.

Those who go further and encourage people to burn hotels with asylum seekers inside will be in trouble, and IMO that's as it should be. We have never had free speech that allows incitement to violence or hatred.

Heard this morning that’s what she said, terrible comment to make.

Mt61

Probably has attention deficit disorder. My friend who was a teacher said every other kid is being diagnosed with the condition as it’s away round the the two child benefit cap- parents can claim all sorts

I’ve heard that too.

Mt61

Probably has attention deficit disorder. My friend who was a teacher said every other kid is being diagnosed with the condition as it’s away round the the two child benefit cap- parents can claim all sorts

I have (undiagnosed) ADD. I've managed not to be a racist though, and have never been tempted to smash up my neighbourhood.

mae13

The child was accompanied to court by his uncle.
Er, is it pointless to ask ".........and where is the father?"

I read that the father is serving a long prison sentence

What with this and a recent report saying how many children were starting school without being potty trained (and some parents insisting it was a responsibility of the school) I fear for the next generation who have had no moral and social responsibility upbringing

HousePlantQueen

Just heard that the 12 year old who was arrested for being involved in the August riots was in court for sentencing today. He was actively involved in two of the major incidents, which is bad enough, but...today..the judge had to defer sentence because the child's Mother had just gone on holiday to Ibiza!

So had Angela Rayner. Is it the same person?

How many times have you heard a mother saying "I can't do a thing with him" of a 5. 4 or even 2year old. I always wondered what the child would be like as a teenager or young adult.

No one has mentioned the Boys dad

JaneJudge

No one has mentioned the Boys dad

They have. Several times . It's been suggested that he is in prison.

By age 12 and with the kind of childhood we all envisage given his mother clearing off to Ibiza when she should be supporting him, going into the care system is unlikely to help. Having said that, I recently bumped into a 52 year old I first met aged 13 year old when she was abandoned at the social work office. She’d had a catastrophic childhood - first abandoned aged 6 weeks. She went into foster care, was with her eccentric single foster mum to age 17 but continued to spend Christmas and Sunday dinners there until her foster mum died recently. She’s done brilliantly, got a degree as a mature student etc. So maybe this boy can have a better alternative

What can be done to make 'care' less damaging? It seems so wrong that children are taken from difficult backgrounds to be put in worse ones. There is no obvious reason why the care system should be bad for children, as there are lots of people who would be happy to look after children who need carers.

sazz1

Having worked as a social worker many years ago I can assure you that the majority of children in secure or residential care homes come out with worse problems than when they entered the system. This is due to peer pressure and copying others misdeeds. Foster care has better results but not always.
I'm also horrified that people posting on social media are being jailed while not taking an active part in the riots. This is limiting free speech and a very slippery slope. It's up to social media to remove offensive comments and a jail sentence for an opinion seems very excessive to me. Many people are against the boat people when we have so many people sleeping on the streets here. Also the gangs don't care if they die crossing just want the money. Imo many of these immigrants should be deported on arrival not put in hotels. If we had many empty social housing properties I would welcome the boat people to our country but we have an enormous housing problem here.

Yes, I agree, my daughter is a foster carer. She's been able to help some foster children do well and go to university or apprenticeships. Some have been trouble from the word go, stealing from her, staying out beyond their curfew time etc. and despite all her training and patience she has not been able to help them much. Many of her children have been in care since birth but for various reasons have not been adopted. The latest foster daughter has Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and, at 16, has little chance of achieving qualifications or living independently any time soon.
What often is not mentioned is that quite a few children in care have parents who were immigrants but now live back in their own countries, having left their children here to be fostered or adopted.

Doodledog

Mt61

Probably has attention deficit disorder. My friend who was a teacher said every other kid is being diagnosed with the condition as it’s away round the the two child benefit cap- parents can claim all sorts

I have (undiagnosed) ADD. I've managed not to be a racist though, and have never been tempted to smash up my neighbourhood.

M granddaughter is ADHD, and would be more likely to befriend of a diffeent culture and to tidy up and reorganise the entire neighbourhood than to trash it and terrorise minorities.

Well said, Elegran. My GS may well have ADHD (we are waiting on a diagnosis), but he's the same. You cannot tar everyone with ADHD with the same brush.

I missed out a word in the previous post - it should be "befriend someone of a different culture"

Mt61

Probably has attention deficit disorder. My friend who was a teacher said every other kid is being diagnosed with the condition as it’s away round the the two child benefit cap- parents can claim all sorts

My daughter has it, she was diagnosed recently as an adult having had no problems in school, gained good qualifications and has always had good jobs. Being diagnosed is not that simple either.

One of my sons in law was diagnosed adhd a couple of years ago. Hes a lovely dad, immensely kind, runs his own business and doesn’t have an aggressive personality but is easily distracted
People and children with adhd/asd etc are like the rest of us, they have their own personalities.

Care could be made less damaging if it was owned by the local authorities with statutory responsibilities. Increasingly political interference and policies led to private foster agencies and residential care, whose purpose is to maximise profit. Care of the most vulnerable children shouldn’t be for profit.
Over the last ten years the numbers of children in care/looked after had grown enormously. No surprise that happened alongside closure of family centres. Cuts left la’s struggling to meet statutory duties so preventive support work went. So did mental health, substance misuse teams. Housing depts no longer worked in partnership with sw teams trying to prevent homeless families
Tony Blair’s Every Child Matters initiative feels like a golden age in contrast with the issues facing the new government