Disabled Mothers’ Rights Campaign, Support Not Separation, and Winvisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) had the pleasure of attending the House of Lords launch of the Children & Families Truth Commission report on 15 November. We welcome the report, the first of its kind in the UK scrutinising the ways in which the human hights of mums, families and children are routinely breaced by Children’s and Adult social services.
See below for a summary of the presentations. In the discussion, Anne Neale of SNS raised how social workers/judges & other professionals ignoring or downgrading the importance of the mother-child bond when taking children itno “care” must be challenged as a human rights violation. Tracey Norton of DMRC pointed out the little known fact that the previous government publicly insisted the Children Act 1989 trumps even human rights legislation, and this has to stop being hidden behind the closed doors of family court, which we are campaiging to open. Claire Glasman from WinVisible highlighted how outrageous it is that Councils are paying private companies millions of pounds for children in residential “care” while at the same time threatening to put disabled people into care homes if their care needs at home were “too high”. Profiteering from children and mothers’ misery is another human rights breach!
Report by Natasha
The Children and Families Truth Commission held a launch for its first report about the state of child protection in the UK on 15th November, in the House of Lords.
The report shows serious human rights violations inside children’s social care which have become embedded into the child protection system, causing children and their families significant harm. It also offers ways to stop these violations and make the system better for families.
The event took place from 4.30pm to 6pm and a live stream had been organised for people unable to attend the launch in Westminster. However, the connection cut out shortly after the online streaming began, and the commission was unable to get it back up and running. The commission is incredibly sorry for the online blackout. In an effort to address the live stream being disrupted, we have produced a summary of the event, which is added in this post.
Summary of the Children and Families Truth Commission Report Launch, 15 November 2024, House of Lords
The Children and Families Truth Commission launched their report ‘Eroding the right to family life: Human rights violations in Britain’s child protection systems’ at the House of Lords on the 15th November 2024. The launch event was hosted by Baroness Grey-Thompson. It was attended by a range of stakeholders, most importantly families themselves.
The report was based on two surveys distributed to families in the United Kingdom. The surveys gathered over 600 responses. The report explores families’ experiences of children’s social care through a human rights lens, identifying where there have been human rights violations.
The panel for the launch event consisted of Baroness Grey-Thompson, David Tobis, sociologist and founder of the Fund for Social Change in the US, and key members of the Commission, Michele Simmons, Natasha Phillips and Simon Haworth.
Baroness Grey-Thompson introduced the event and the report, and her support for it. Michele discussed some of the key findings, noting the troubling violations of human rights, especially in regard to the right to family life. Michele shared that ‘The findings of this report are a call to action. It is time to build a social care system that genuinely cares, one that empowers families and protects the fundamental rights of children’.
Natasha then discussed the human rights violations identified in the report. She stated that human rights violations have become endemic in our child protection systems, systems characterized by a lack of care and compassion. Natasha set out how the Commission’s report explored these systems through the Human Rights Act, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children Act 1989.
Simon focused on the report’s recommendations. He shared that these aim to promote holistic early support for families within a human rights framework. Simon identified that families must be genuinely informed of their rights at all stages, that independent advocacy is vital, and that reunification must be prioritized. Simon shared that the recommendations can support social work ‘to do what it says it’s going to do, which is to tackle disadvantage, poverty and cruel government policies’.
David Tobis discussed his ground-breaking work in New York, where parents and allies transformed the system, pushed government to change, and drastically reduced the numbers of children in care. David provided an optimistic note, that peer-to-peer parent advocacy, a bedrock of the changes in New York, is starting to take off in the UK. He stated that ‘Parliament can support parents to be trained parent advocates, and can encourage local authorities to work with parents who have been trained, who can help others’.
The launch event then opened for questions and comments from attendees. A number of parents, family members and allies shared deeply saddening and moving accounts of the harms caused by systems that tend to punish rather than effectively support. They shared some insightful recommendations and a desire to work with the Commission to focus on the next steps for change.
Baroness Grey-Thompson closed the event and reiterated her commitment to be a part of this journey to change. The Commission is deeply grateful to all involved and who kindly attended.
Many thanks to Dr. Haworth for producing the summary.
The summary, press releases for the event and the report itself can also be found on the commission’s website
Support Not Separation 