Mothers’ Day in Herefordshire
Mother's Day has become a source of huge sadness for me—not due to personal loss, but because I live in Herefordshire.
For years, Herefordshire has had alarmingly high rates of children removed from their families by Social Services, resulting in placements into foster care, residential homes, or adoption. In the ten years from 2012 to 2022, the rate of children in care in Herefordshire doubled.
By July 2023, the rate of children in care in Herefordshire stood at 112 per 10,000 children, 75% higher than the regional rate (see Hereford Times article).
These statistics suggest that of the 404 children in care in July 2023, 173 may not have needed to be in care. In other words, 173 children may have been unnecessarily separated from their mothers.
Some parents do face significant challenges that make it impossible for them to care for their own children safely. In such cases a placement into care is in the child’s best interests. But the law clearly states that removal should always be a last resort undertaken only when absolutely necessary to safeguard the child’s welfare and when the child is at significant risk of harm. (Children’s Act 1989)
In all the soul searching since Ofsted judged Herefordshire Children’s Services inadequate in all areas, there has never been any suggestion that it is the parents of Herefordshire to blame for the sky-high rates of children in care. The parents of Herefordshire are no better or worse than the parents in any other county, but we have lost our children on an industrial scale.
Until I met families in Herefordshire directly affected by the egregious inadequacy of Herefordshire Children’s Services, I would have assumed that children might only be removed if the parents were alcoholics, drug addicts, violent, neglectful or abusive. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that children might be removed from their mothers as a consequence of neurodiversity, post-natal depression, an accident, a genetic disease or a mother leaving a violent partner.
All the mothers I know who have had children removed from them are decent, capable, hard-working women. Many encountered the authorities at a moment of crisis which could affect any of us, only to face an onslaught of vilification and the removal of their children.
Parenting is challenging, and all parents need support at some point or another. When parents seek help from the authorities the response should be compassionate and aim to preserve family unity rather than dismantle it.
This Mother's Day, Herefordshire was once again filled with families mourning separation from their children—a pain which results directly from years of systemic failures within Children's Services. It is long overdue that there is proper scrutiny of how and why the toxic, parent-blaming culture in Herefordshire took root, and why it has continued unchecked for years in parts of the service.
The families affected need answers and their children back.