More new-born children need to be taken into care to stop them being damaged beyond repair by poor parents, according to Martin Narey, chief executive of the children's charity Barnardo's.

Telegraph
Published: 5:41AM BST 06 Sep 2009



Mr Narey called for less focus on ''fixing families that can't be fixed'' and for social workers to be more pro-active about removing children at risk.

His comments come in the wake of last week's court case involving two young brothers from Doncaster who viciously attacked an 11-year-old boy and his nine-year-old nephew. The siblings were under the care of social services at the time.

Mr Narey told The Observer: ''We can't keep trying to fix families that are completely broken. It sounds terrible, but I think we try too hard with birth parents.

''I have seen children sent back to homes that I certainly wouldn't have sent them back to. I have been extremely surprised at decisions taken.

''If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families, where we know they will have the best possible outcome.'

The former director general of the Prison Service added: ''If you can take a baby very young and get them quickly into a permanent adoptive home, then we know that is where we have success.

''That's a view that is seen as a heresy among social services, where the thinking is that if someone, a parent, has failed, they deserve another chance. My own view is that we just need to take more children into care if we really want to put the interests of the child first.''

Mr Narey acknowledged his views would be seen as ''illiberal heresy'' but argued that if social workers intervened quickly, ''we would see far fewer problems''.

Doncaster Council is carrying out a Serious Case Review into the circumstances of the brothers, who lived in Edlington, South Yorkshire.

The pair admitted causing their victims grievous bodily harm with intent. They denied a more serious charge of attempted murder but the prosecution accepted their pleas and said there would be no trial.

The boys will be sentenced at a later date, probably in early November, after a series of reports have been prepared.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader who has established the Centre for Social Justice, repeated his calls for early intervention after the case came to light.

Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/6145313/More-babies-should-be-taken-into-care-to-protect-them-from-poor-parents.html

Fluff.....

These are the news articles I don't like but I am glad their published. It makes us more aware of the radical thinking..

In no uncertain terms should a policy of families in struggle and new-born children to be taken into care, The two young brothers from Doncaster who viciously attacked an 11-year-old boy and his nine-year-old nephew were under the care of social services at the time. Do we have full confidence in social services to get things right? well not me..

When public sector work is driven by KPIs and stats the human caring can take a back seat and as we have seen clearly things get missed.

It is awful to think of babies being wrongly taken away from their families ...

also note: Martin Narey is the Chief Executive of Barnardo’s. Previously he was
Director General of the Prison Service and then the Chief Executive of
the National Offender Management Service.

Note: Jan 24th 09
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/baby-p/4334287/Take-more-children-into-care-says-Barnardos-chief-Martin-Narey.html