21 March (Part 2) - Pause for thought
Attending more Council meetings than most Councillors is a bit of a drag if I am honest
and last Tuesday I really didn’t feel up to going to Cafer Munur’s Joint
Children’s and Adult’s Services Scrutiny meeting. A quick glance at the Agenda
was enough to convince me that the webcast would be good enough.
The
first speaker was from an organisation called Pause which has partnered with Bexley Council and aims to
reduce the number of children taken into care by offering wide ranging support to mothers. I’m all for that. Soon after Bonkers started I met up at least
three times with a very nice lady whose son had been taken into Bexley’s dubious care.
Her husband was clearly a thoroughly bad lot who had among other things had
notices and cards printed and distributed with his wife’s mobile number
advertising her services as, what shall we say, a good time girl.
She reported it to the police who were as one has come to expect, absolutely
useless, and all they did was report the matter to Bexley Council. Bexley
Council promptly took the child away. I looked through the file of papers.
One of the reasons cited for the removal was that the lady’s house was spotless.
Apparently normal people do not have tidy houses and it was a sign of poor parenting skills.
Bexley Council Social Workers gained the support of the Courts by lying
outrageously to them. No one did anything about the errant husband.
Nothing will convince me that Bexley’s Social Services were at the time
comprised of anyone other than despicable individuals.
What did the Director of Communications for Pause have to say?
There are 94 women in Bexley who have had two or more children removed and have
none left in their care. Five of the very young ladies affected had since died.
26 of the 94 had had 82 children removed from their care, several
of them more than five children each. Experience suggested that such
mothers will go on to have seven or more children with intervals between
pregnancies of under two years. The intervention of Social Services is thought in some cases
to create more pregnancies which mothers attempt to keep secret from them.
85% of the women involved admit to experiencing domestic abuse, some of it as children, but the real
figure is believed to be close to 100%. In Bexley half have issues with drugs and a third with alcohol.
Some have mental health issues too.
A slide presentation had been given to Councillors before the meeting began but
like so many on Bexley’s website, the two links provided are broken.
Chairman Munur asked what happens to mothers who refuse contraception. Ms. Tanner said it was
always the woman’s choice.
Both Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Director Tiotto welcomed Pause to the borough.
Rachel Bates is the Pause Manager for Bexley.