Forced adoptions in Herefordshire
Heartbreaking unjust forced adoption: evidence published by Parliament
Parliament’s Education Committee asked for written evidence to an inquiry into children’s social care. One submission is about the heartbreakingly unjust and unnecessary adoption of “Tom” after intervention by Herefordshire Children’s Services.
The evidence is worth reading in full and can be found here: Written-evidence-from-Anonymous-CSC-195.pdf file. The same text is here with the mother’s experiences highlighted in yellow and information about the council highlighted in grey.)
But for those who want a flavour of the contents here are some key excerpts and summaries from the mother’s evidence:
“When I had been in the [mother and baby] unit for about one month, the social worker and her manager visited me in hospital to inform me that care proceedings were going to be commenced with the aim of adoption. … I had no previous history of mental illness and had looked after Tom well before (as attested by his health visitor) and when we were in the unit. There were no other risk factors: I was not in an abusive relationship and I do not drink nor take illegal drugs nor have any addiction. As we were observed 24/7 by the staff, he was safe. … I was recovering [from post‑natal depression] and if I had been allowed to fully recover, after about a further month, I could have been discharged home with him.”
In page 2 of her evidence to Parliament, the mother affirms that Herefordshire Council have more or less conceded the following bad practice:
Insufficient support
Misleading records
No contact by the Independent Reviewing Officer
No contact with Tom for 9 months before adoption
Disregard of parental rights pre-adoption
The mother argues that since the tragic death of Baby P, many Children’s Services including Herefordshire Council Children’s Services have become risk-averse and overzealous. There should be greater investment in relatively inexpensive support to prevent children being separated from their families in very expensive care. The average yearly cost of each child in care in Herefordshire was in January 2023:
• In-house fostering: over £16,000
• Fostering agencies: over £46,000
• Children's homes: over £260,000
At 31 March 2024, the rates of children in care per 10,000 children were:
114 in Herefordshire
67 average for statistical neighbours (similar areas)
In other words, the rate of children in care was still 70% higher than statistical neighbours.
The mother’s evidence also includes two illuminating appendices:
A comparison of the framework in which criminal and family courts operate, which explains why injustices are more likely to occur in a family court than in a criminal court.
A table of Ofsted assessment grades set against placement order rates. A placement order is a court order for a child to be put up for adoption. The general trend is that the better the Ofsted assessment the fewer children are placed for adoption.
Finally, she comments on the need for a statutory public inquiry into the chronic failures in Herefordshire Council Children’s Services and agrees with Professor Luke Clements who argues:
"... what is needed is an independent process that can call leaders to account for what has occurred – force disclosure of all relevant materials and compel witnesses to testify. At present the only show in town that does this is a statutory public inquiry ... the spectrum of Herefordshire’s corporate failings and its hostility to criticism could act as a paradigm case study: an example of what has gone wrong and act as a case study as to what needs to be done [by other councils].”
The full text of his article can be found here:
Finally, even more heartbreaking is that in her evidence the mother affirms that she is:
“familiar with the cases of two other children from Herefordshire whom [she is] sure were unnecessarily and unjustly adopted.”
FAC Herefordshire can confirm they are aware of other cases of forced adoption.
If you are affected by forced adoption in Herefordshire, please contact us on our secure email address at facherefordshire@proton.me