PAR Magazine Issue 1

More and more children are being drawn into children’s hearings, child protection investigations and a rising number are being taken into care. Scotland has the highest rate of children in care in the UK.

Mostly the reasons that social workers give are “neglect” or “emotional abuse”. Parents often report finding that they are not heard. It seems as though professionals often start from a position of automatic belief in parents’ guilt. Some parents are completely cleared of causing any harm to their children – but only after going through the most harrowing and stigmatising experience that any parent can suffer. Some parents have asked for help with domestic violence, illness, stress, and poverty but then find that they get no help, instead their requests are used against them as evidence of guilt.

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