On March 25th we considered what happened to people who refused to abide by orders made by the family courts and the powers family courts have to send them to prison in punishment.
That blog post prompted comments along the lines of what happened when the professionals in family cases – the local authority, social worker or CAFCASS – don’t obey court orders? Why don’t we see any professionals going to prison for contempt of court?
‘Administrative failings’ versus deliberate contempt
The first response to this question is that when individual professionals or large organisations don’t obey court orders, this is more likely to be due to administrative failings rather than a deliberate decision by an individual to demonstrate contempt for the authority of the court.
Any failure to comply with court orders has the potential to cause serious damage to the proper resolution of court proceedings, but the ‘administrative failings’ are more often properly punished by making costs orders then sending someone to prison. The bigger the organisation, the more difficult it may be to identify particular individuals as ‘to blame’ and the less appropriate it may be to subject them to serious punishment.
Such situations are very different to those where an angry parent has declared that he or she will deliberately flout a court order – that person is clearly identifiable, clearly blameworthy and the consequences of allowing people to be openly and deliberately contemptuous of court orders are very serious.
But what about the professionals who lie?
This is all very well; however we are aware that there are some chilling examples of individual professionals who have behaved very badly in court, were found to have behaved very badly and yet were not punished for their apparent contempt of the court process.
Once such example is the Hampshire case. At a hearing in Portsmouth in 2015 before HHJ Mark Horton, he recorded that the children’s social worker lied twice to the judge on oath; she was then promoted to Team Manager. Her Manager initiated the wholesale alteration of an original report and attempted to keep the truth from the parties and the judge; she remained District Manager for the Isle of Wight. He was concerned to note that none of the social workers who had been dishonest had been subject to disciplinary proceedings and directed that this judgment be sent to the Director for Children’s Services, Ofsted and those social workers’ supervisory bodies with a view to them considering whether further action against them was required.
However, in February 2017, the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) found that the social workers had ‘no case to answer’ and they would not publish the reasons for their decision. This prompted The Transparency Project to send an open letter to the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees the HCPC. Our Chair Lucy Reed argued:
Ordinarily there would be limited public interest in the publication of information about charges which have not been pursued or upheld, but in circumstances where the Family Court has made serious adverse findings which would clearly amount to serious professional misconduct and where the HCPC has made a decision that is prima facie inconsistent with that there is a significant public interest in the basis for that decision.”
Therefore, not only are we faced with a situation where it appears that social workers may lie to the court with impunity, we are not able to examine the decision making process behind that. Just what is going on?
Yet in another case which we have previously written about a social worker was (eventually) cautioned by the regulator the HCPC some years after her inappropriate editing of records and inaccurate evidence in care proceedings (see here).
What if the bad behaviour is less obvious?
Not every case will involve such apparently clear cut examples of dishonesty as in the Hampshire case. The case of Dent, Mackay, Harman v H [2015] EWHC 2090 is a useful illustration of the difficulties facing private individuals who allege wrongdoing by professionals.
Procedural hurdles
In the Dent case, H was a father seeking contact with his daughter. He ended up a litigant in person and tried to have the mother’s solicitor and two Cafcass officers sent to prison for alleged breaches of court orders.
He alleged the mother’s solicitor had abused her position as a ‘trusted officer’
…to act in what was effectively a quasi-judicial manner when persuading [H] towards a slanted outcome’ by giving false legal advice in relation to H and Ms McKay in relation to international and/or European law and using deception and threats to achieve the outcome she sought for her client.
The court struck out H’s applications. He had failed to meet the relevant procedural requirements in FPR r 37.10 as his application notice did not provide full details of allegations; an application to commit someone to prison is very serious and the defendants were entitled to know what they were defending themselves against.
The court wasn’t willing to overlook these procedural irregularities because it can only do so when it is satisfied that no injustice has been caused to the defendant by the defect. The judge said:
62. Here, the defects go to the very heart of the matter. Far from setting out in full the grounds on which each application against each Defendant is made with specific details of the alleged act or acts of contempt and the dates upon which they are said to have been committed, there is no specific information at all save for a series of very general allegations. I take the view that the notices as they stand would not provide any of these Defendants with the full particulars to which they are properly entitled. Serious allegations have been put before the court and H invites me to impose upon each a sentence of imprisonment which would have far-reaching and potentially devastating consequences in respect of their professional careers and livelihoods, quite apart from the deprivation of their personal liberty. Each has a right to know the case which is put against him or her.
Identifying the behaviour complained about with sufficient detail is likely to be a significant hurdle in such cases, particularly for a litigant in person who feels a general sense of grievance about the proceedings as a whole.
In S v SP and CAFCASS [2016] EWHC 3673 (Fam) (09 December 2016) another father sought the committal of a CAFCASS Officer for breaching court privacy rules by disclosing information about a case to the police in the course of discussions. His application failed because the rules permitted ‘disclosure in furtherance of the protection’, which this was.
Allegations that statements made are deliberately false
The court in the Dent case noted with approval the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of KJM Superbikes Ltd v Hinton : Practice Note [2008] EWCA Civ 1280, [2009] 1 WLR 2406. That case identified the ultimate question as whether it is in the public interest to continue with the proceedings to commit someone to prison. When considering a complaint about false statements, the following factors were identified as particularly relevant.
- was the statement known at the time to be false?
- the circumstances in which it was made
- what is the evidence of the maker’s state of mind, including his understanding of the likely effect of the statement and the use to which it was actually put in the proceedings
- do the proceedings justify the resources that would have to be devoted to them
Further, the court must guard against the risk of allowing ‘vindictive litigants’ to use such proceedings to harass persons against whom they have a grievance.
Lord Justice Moore-Blick stated:
In my view there is also a danger of reducing the usefulness of proceedings for contempt if they are pursued where the case is weak or the contempt, if proved, trivial. I would therefore echo the observation of Pumfrey J in the Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer case [2004] EWHC 1192 (Ch), that the court should exercise great caution before giving permission to bring proceedings. In my view it should not do so unless there is a strong case both that the statement in question was untrue and that the maker knew that it was untrue at the time he made it. All other relevant factors, including those to which I have referred, will then have to be taken into account in making the final decision.’
To whom does the professional owe a duty?
A serious difficulty for H in Dent was that the solicitor he complained about was representing the child’s mother and her professional duties were owed to her client. H needed to demonstrate that the solicitor’s behaviour crossed over from trying to do the best for her client into deliberate dishonesty and that is always a difficult hurdle. The court commented about the solicitor’s role:
She had no contractual relationship with H and at no time was her professional relationship with him impressed with any fiduciary or legal obligations. She had a professional obligation to act in the best interests of her client who, relying on the content of the Cafcass report, was unwilling to agree to an order for direct contact when such an order ran contrary to B’s clearly expressed views. Ms Harman had an obligation not to mislead the court. There is no evidence before me that she did so, still less that she fraudulently or knowingly practised a deliberate deception on the court.
Conclusions
It is clear that the ‘public interest’ test will be a high one in such cases and the court is likely to want to protect those who exercise public functions. For example, the President of the Family Division In Re J (Reporting Restriction: Internet: Video) [2013] EWHC 2694 (Fam), [2014] 1 FLR 523 highlighted some important points when considering if parents should be prevented from talking about their experiences of the family court system:
- the recognition of ‘the importance in a free society of parents who feel aggrieved at their experiences of the family justice system being able to express their views publicly about what they conceive to be failings on the part of individual judges or failings in the judicial system’.
- the acknowledgement that the ‘fear of … criticism, however justified that fear may be, and however unjustified the criticism, is, however, not of itself a justification for prior restraint by injunction … even if the criticism is expressed in vigorous, trenchant or outspoken terms … or even in language which is crude, insulting and vulgar’.
- But there is a fundamental difference between ideas, views, opinions, comments or criticisms, however strongly or even offensively expressed, and harassment, intimidation, threats or menaces. The one is and must be jealously safeguarded; the other can legitimately be prevented.
- The freedom of speech of those who criticise public officials or those exercising public functions, their right to criticise, is fundamental to any democratic society governed by the rule of law. Public officials and those exercising public functions must, in the public interest, endure criticism, however strongly expressed, unfair and unjustified that criticism may be. But there is no reason why public officials and those exercising public functions should have to endure harassment, intimidation, threats or menaces.’
There is clearly a risk that some angry parents might want to try and get professionals sent to prison for reasons which may have more to do with their own sense of grievance than any justified proceedings for contempt. However, that risk cannot be used to stifle proper criticism and punishment of a professional who is found to have acted deliberately dishonestly – for example, by lying to the court or altering documents as in the Hampshire case discussed above. Their actions undermine the authority of the court and the rule of law every bit as effectively as is done by any angry parent who won’t obey an order.
Why don’t they go to prison?
It may be that the family courts are currently undergoing the same period of evolution that we have seen in attitudes to the police. For example, in 1980 Lord Denning upheld an appeal by West Midlands police against a civil action by the Birmingham Six over injuries they received in police custody, saying that to accept that the police were lying would open an “appalling vista,” Now, section 26 of The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 provides that a police constable commits an offence by corrupt or other improper exercise of police powers and privileges, and is liable to a maximum term of imprisonment of 14 years.
There is no such corresponding provision in the criminal law to cover social workers or guardians. However, it is difficult to see why a dishonest social worker is any less dangerous than a dishonest police officer – the outcome of family law proceedings is rarely loss of liberty but often ends in the restriction or even ending of a parent’s relationship with their children. If parents are expected to be honest, open and co-operative with the court process then it is difficult to see why professionals should be held to any lower standard.
There are a variety of possible avenues in litigation to highlight professional misconduct and to seek redress and compensation but all of these are fraught with evidential difficulties and will cost time and money to pursue. See this post from the Child Protection Resource which discusses these in more detail.
Complaints about regulated professionals can be referred their regulatory body – but as we can see from the Hampshire case there appears to be a worrying disconnect between how the court and the HCPC treated social workers who lied.
We are hopefully going to see a continuing evolution of the family court’s willingness to both recognise and to punish appropriately any individual who acts to impede the court process. While it is clear that in many cases it is not going to be in the public interest to allow aggrieved parents to pursue applications to commit professionals to prison, there have been a number of recent cases where the dishonest behaviour of the professionals involved should have attracted serious punishment. A continued failure to recognise that will cause further significant erosion to public trust and confidence in the system as a whole.
A Sheriff (judge) in Scotland charged two social workers with contempt of court for failing to follow an order for contact she has made between a mother and her children. They disagreed and had cancelled contact without going back to the court. The sheriff’s action was overturned by higher court. Judgment seemed to give carte blanche to social workers to replace courts judgement with their own.
I have been treated with contempt by all of the people there to protect children . Cafcass officer was totally awful ….didn’t know anything about me ,spoke to me for 15 mins but decidedshe wouldn’t reccomend the children come to myself (their grandmother). Social Worker was incompetent and a liar ….wrote a report of lies about myself ,knowing they were lies and have since been proven to be ,yet she produced this report to a judge who used it against me. The barrister who ,when I entered the court building ,told me there was no point in going intointo court as their minds were made up . I have since been accused of not going into court when I had the chance . The Social worker after court implied there would be no point in complaining as she was leaving for Australia. The complaints procedure is too one sided …each department defends each other ,leaving the victim to look the person in the wrong . The judge to whom I asked to give my opinion to at the opposing of adoption hearing was not interested in hearing my side ,even though I had written everything done against me in a letter . I was more or less told to go away and shut up. If I spoke to the media . newspapers or put anything on face book I could be held in contempt of court and could go to prison. And this is a free country ….I don’t think so . This system is rotten to the core . Children being taken for no good reason so someone needs to ACT fast as there is a great big can of worms ready to explode .
I don’t recognise this system but your comment is not unusual – which is sad. Either things are a lot worse than I realise or people perceive them as being much worse than they really are. Either way – we have a problem. Quite a few people comment that they are told ‘not to come into court’ by their barrister and I find this really odd. I have certainly advised parents that I didn’t see any point in them contesting the case against them in a court but I have never told a parent not to come into court, unless it was obvious that they were so distressed it would have been unkind to make them.
I also note Maggie’s comment and I would be interested to read a judgment, if there is one, which outlines why the higher court over-ruled the sheriff.
I am a grandparent and I am currently going through a child custody case. I have been put through hell by [redacted] local Authority and they have told repeated lies about myself and my husband. My grandsons went into care last year. I had proven the children’s social worker to be lying as I had recorded her call and she had said my viability assessment was 90 minutes long when in fact it was only 19 minutes 28 seconds and carried out over what’s app. I sent the details of the whole viability assessment to my barrister with the attached mobile phone number and the social worker said [redacted for legal reasons]. No she was lying. Just like she has lied throughout and made outrageous claims. I have both this social worker and her manager on recording telling lies about both myself and my husband and I am determined to bring a civil suit against both of these in small claims court or just send paperwork to the sun newspaper
Hi we are Grandparents going through the same do you know any way of getting the children’s services into the civil court where a oath is taken and perjury is an offence.
Martyn,
Witnesses swear an oath (or give an affirmation) in the Family Court just as they do in a civil court. A perjury charge (a criminal charge) can be brought, if appropriate, as a result of evidence given in civil or family proceedings, though it doesn’t happen very often. You would need to seek legal advice about any perjury that may have taken place in your case, which we cannot give here.
TP Team
The issue is dusty of castle they exicute to suit them selves and protect them selves they hide behind it and don’t care if the way they use it helps the pachent or puts the pachent at risk all they care about is keeping there job and hate to im olve the pachent in wat is best for the pachent or derimemtalto that person so any thing the pachent try to explain to them falls on deaf ears so they want to be top dog and settle for nothing less and don’t care what will help or hurt
My family have had same problems. GAL solicitor advised i should write any failings down. But when i raise concerns all the social worker and other professionals have to say is its me thats lying and then write in the reports that im not cooperating. We have showed that there arelies in reports but even our legal representation is wary about saying anything as we been told if we dispute to many things the Judge might not be happy and could go against us. As a Christian i believe in the truth and it hurts knowing that Social Workers etc can lie in court about us and nothing much we can do. They even said my daughter was a fantasist because she told them positive things about home. She also stated i used to drive a Mercedes which is true but because i live in a housing estate they said she was making this up. The system needs changing as families are being torn apart and ignored due to the way the system is set up.
My child was sexually abuse 7times as a result of failing then they managed to cover up from other professionals too and stopped my child from talking to, allowed my mother to leave her home alone for a week whilst she went to hospital too sick to look after her. We’re all back together now and on a mission to prove everything, the complaints process is a farce and professionals lie all the way through. They will use professionals they know are leaving as scapegoats if they can. I don’t expect to get anywhere in court because they’re so good at covering their tracks m. But my daughter needs to do this to recover
Hi, my granddaughter has been in foster care for three years, and the local authority are still trying to place her, even though it states in the court order that the care and placement order would be for one year. That order was made in 2020. Any advice please?
We can’t give legal advice unfortunately, but if a local authority has not been able to implement its plan for adoption this is something that a family solicitor should be able to advise on.
Yes the system is Rotten to the Core and Jeremy Corbin even stated that the system is Rigged against the public.
As for Complaints against Social workers and others, well thats a major gripe with thousands of parents all over the UK. the 3 stage complaints procedure at councils is nothing but a farce as the outcome is completely controlled by that council. even the Ombudsman is known for closing a case very quickly even when the evidence clearly shows Wrongdoing. Family court Judges never take action against Social workers committing perjury on Oath and falsifying case files. the usual action is to announce to the court to have that information removed from the record and continue like nothing ever happened and the Judges simply agree to that.
My family have been failed multiple times, court orders not kept to. Lies and false statements from the local authority. Telling me what my children have voices which turned out they hadn’t even spoke to my children. Allowed my child to stay in the home of an abuser saying checks had been done which I find out hadn’t. Oh and I get told to shut up and put up after opposing my childrens adoption. Threatened if I even spoke their name, not allowed to put photos of my children whilst they were in my care. I then find out that sw in my case suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth and cant be dealt with by complaints procedure. I’ve had evidence hidden and shoved in many sw drawers and told nothing irrelevant. It’s taken my 5yrs and an enquiry by police for something else has now got them questioning the authorities. The cases that are going on in the last 5yrs and many more years need to be looked at and investigated. It is destroying families forever and justice never happens. Us parents are being threatened to be gagged and even prison. When will it stop enough is enough
Ok so what happens when the judge removes a child wrongfully a mother tries to appeal the wrongful decision then stripped of uk rights and remedies to appeal the decision where evidence is outstandingly clearly corrupted what happens when a mother is stripped of her UK born rights and the only way to appeal is in france at the european courts of human rights? What happens when uk legal aid doesn’t stretch to France and France doesn’t provide legal aid for UK citizens what is expected for a person if stripped of rights after 1st attempt to appeal a decision that is clearly wrong
I did not even know this is how far these devils will go, all I will say is that we should protect our children from these child traffickers from the start, so we never even get to the stage where they can just easily take our children. People need to stop trusting these people on any level. They come to you like they are your friends and unfortunately some parents fall for this, We all need to rise up to these people’s agendas. They are child traffickers, stealing children to sell them, but making it look legal and legitimate.
What do I do if my childrens social worker has put lies in her report about event that never happened.
Excellent!! I don’t think prison is the answer but being struck off and put on a vulnerable persons register is quite acceptable. If not a register, a court order banning them from employment working with vulnerable adults and any children
Abuse of power when working with vulnerable people should not be tolerated.
Paramedics get struck off for Human Resources related issues so I don’t know why these people working in trusted positions get away with it
Personally abuse of power is the most dangerous abuse and should be dealt with accordingly
A lot of this article makes no sense. It is the social workers who write the reports and decide the outcome of the case. Surely if they get is wrong it should be the social workers who are obliged to put it right.
My comment is about fundamentals -When someone lies to the court for whatever reason or ignores a court decision because they can or simply does not have the skills they hold themselves out as having ( fraud?), why are they still considered safe around children and families even though it is manifestly evident they are not? Does everyone involved think that families don’t deserve anything better than incompetent and unethical practice just because..
If so, then where to from here other than an unending spiral down to the bottom…….?
I am so sorry to hear that you are going through almost exactly what I did!!
If you do or say anything good, it’s just ignored, yet if you say something that they personally can put a negative spin on it, it’s The Truth!!
There Must be a way that we can get Justice for our Children!!
My 5 year old son was taken into care by lies and manipulation of the truth in a Parenting Assessment by a [redacted] social worker.
I complained the social worker was replaced.But the manipulated parenting assessment which was full of lies still stood.
The judge stated at [redacted] Court that Professionals Do not lie….
This Social worker did….As i know what i said in the parenting assessment But who believes a loving father? I was made out to be a Monster.Not only my 5 year old has lost his Father he is upset and does Not understand what he has Done or sadly were he lives…
I have edited your comment for legal reasons.
Surely it depends on your definition of the truth. Is the truth something that actually happened, or something that was made up by a group of social workers who were not there made up.
Also, as regards ‘state of mind’ of the liar:
Monroe v Hopkins [2017] EWHC 433 (QB)
[66] I remain of the view I expressed in Barron v Vines [2016] EWHC 1226 (QB) [22], that when malice is alleged in aggravation of damages,
“… the issue is not the actual state of mind of the defendant. It is whether the claimants have suffered additional injury to feelings as a result of the defendant’s outward behaviour. If the defendant has behaved in a way which leads the claimants reasonably to believe he acted maliciously that is enough.”
No one is accountable at any stage. Its unlikely that many of the families’ cases arriving at Child protection conferences right though to family court would even be be there if the investigation had actually followed policies, and the reasons why familes were stuggling were properly identified. If multi agency meeting are to work, there needs to be more understanding of how each agency works. A school cannot expect a child to be well and fit to attend school if the NHS waiting times are years rather than months, and Doctors would assume that children’s SEN are being met at school when they aren’t. Some simple questions and proper investigation would make all the difference and actually mean familes would have access to the support they need, not have their difftulties made harder by the agencies who have a duty to support.
The Doctor who examined my son, who was apparently Very Underweight, even though he wasn’t, Did say that he was exactly his correct weight,,,
This didn’t even make the Court report, what was the very Worst thing was at 2 years old, he kept on Saying “Sorry”!! To the GP, and it Breaks my heart to think about that!! I had never asked for an apology from him, but I can only think that he must have thought He had done something wrong!!
well, it would seem the great SS can cure osteoporosis with a word and a whole lot more than that! I really think they should share their methods with the NHS, think of the money it would save!
I reported to the HSPC a social worker who pretended to be registered when giving evidence in the Family Court but was unregistered at that time and was therefore committing an offence. They did nothing.
In contrast, Waney Squier, a neuro-pathologist with an impeccable reputation was struck off by the GMC after giving evidence to defend parents accused of Shaken Baby Syndrome. The real crime is going against the establishment, not committing perjury. though she was not accused of that.
Dishonesty is institutionalised in social work. I have yet to see accurate and honest minutes of a meeting I have attended with a parent or child.
True and if you want we do complain…. It goes against us!
“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” – Stephen King
“This is all very well” what an odd comment to make in response to the header “But what about the professionals who lie?”!
HCPC covers for social workers and most of their FTPs only show details of the offence when it is other professionals, most social worker ones are blank. Funny that.
Family courts appear to be almost quasi-courts because of how they behave. Social workers are 99% of the time allowed to get away with the most objectionable behaviour such as lying and falsifying records. They do it, because they can. Because the courts don’t make findings of perjury.
It’s absolutely true as Dr Manhatten says that the system is rotten to the core and also that it’s rigged against the public.
“Either things are a lot worse than I realise or people perceive them as being much worse than they really are.”
Are you that naive? Of course it’s a lot worse than you seem to think. So many people saying the same…heard of Occam’s razor? There simply isn’t this ocean of awful parents who make things up and it’s backed up by people such as Jean Robinson of AIM and Maggie Mellon above, along with plenty of other professionals, such as Louise Tickle and Lauren Devine et al.
We’re not quite sure what you mean by the ‘odd comment ‘ bit at the outset of your comment but approving the comment for publication regardless so your views are heard
I have evidence, in writing, and in Audio, but I have totally lost any faith in the Justice system!!
And all that I can hope, is my Child, whom I love and miss so much, will be taking these people, and their Employers to Court, for A HUGE amount of Compensation!!
Already its starting!!
Family lawyers charges are in 10’s of 1000’s of pounds. This much money sloshing about and a complete lack of oversight is inevitably going to lead to corruption – the payment of money to individuals deciding the future of children.
My experience of the administration of family courts has been that they are only interested in the money paid to their ‘friends’ and they are even prepared to break the law.
The elephant in the room being ignored is UK family law staggering £1.6 billon annual turn over in the UK – according to market information companies. Between 30 and 40% of these cases involve children.
It would be naive to believe that companies with that sort of money coming in annually are going to permit mere care for children to get in their way. This is why Cafcass insist there should be no oversight of them ‘for the sake of the children’
This money (and the fact that these firms can supply their own free legal advice) is easily enough to control the HCPC and any other supervising organisations. These companies are rich and powerful enough to prevent the police from investigating them.
This is simply any area that has become shot through with corruption due to the amount of money being thrown at it.
Not quite sure I understand the logic of your comment Andy. Which companies are you talking about?
The problem with regulators is that for the most part are operated by former child social workers.
They already know what happens and the amount of false information submitted into court. No surprise hardly anything gets upheld.
The best way to deal with child social workers and family courts is to highlight and increase public awareness of what actually happens behind closed doors.
This includes the useless legal professionals hired to defend not wanting to disagree with CS as they probably want to win contracts for the LA in the future.
It’s a very corrupt, incompetent money generating system messing with children’s lives. The family court should be removed , guardian replaced by a professional who is not a social worker including a new regulator who have no links to social care.
I say all this as someone indirectly effected by their way of operating.
What is needed is s petition with so many people wronged with this process.surely if we could get enough signatures someone in government would have to look at it and bring it to the public’s attention.i agree it has become a cash cow.there is so much money involved nobody cares what the truth is anymore
Sorry for belated reply. The logic is simple. The companies that benefit from this huge flow of cash are not going to allow the system to be improved. A market research company gave a total of £1.6 Billion in revenue for 2016, expected to grow to £1.7 Billion in 2017. We are now in 2020.
My logic is that the managers of these companies are going to do their best to prevent any change to the system that gives them this kind of cash flowing in. Trivial details like protecting children or staying legal will evaporate when faced by money on this scale.
(previous post had an error)
Exactly! I know that what you say is True!! I hope that they’ll be able to Afford the Compensation money,,,, Most of these Children deserve!!
Social services are a law onto themselves. It has been proved beyond doubt that they have no respect for the orders of courts and will commit contempt of court with no qualms whatsoever. The social workers will lie, commit perjury, ruin the reputations of accusers and destroy families to get their way. It gets to a point where every conversation has to be recorded and every contact witnessed. They often behave in an aggressive manner if questioned. The whole system has become a morass that requires cleansing.
Absolutely! 100 % Agreed!!
My daughters socaial worker is a liar as grandparents we were assessed to take care of children but she said were not viable she says I have other care commitments and sYs she has it on there records but its a lie she lied and said she was sorting out paperwork for us to take care of children but I fact she was getting an emergency removal as I had the children so when she turned up with police obviously it was a shock i couldn’t believe it so my husband I and 2 family members were arguing with her as we were a.l crying and she got called a few bad words no arrests were made but now she has Sked the courts to see the footage of cbody cam from police so thats just something else for her to use against us its bloody outrag what goes on i only hope the judge sees it for what it was and doesn’t keep children in care but all I keep hearing is the judges always go with socail services
Hi DR,
Judges do not always go with social services, but it sounds as if it would be a good idea to get some legal advice if you can.
TP Team
Totally agree about lying social workers. I was a foster carer for fourteen years, i made a mistake which i divulged, the agency took no notice but when i made it official the lies were non stop to save their own skins. Unbelievable untruths were told and they even tried to get an ex foster child of mine to say i assaulted him, he refused, eventually my wife and i were cleared and told we could continue to foster.
After our experience at the hands of these people we would never ever consider it again. I am writing a book to expose these people.
I Truly hope that you will be Finished with the book writing, very soon!!
This has been going on for Far too long, and the Money involved, is what makes it possible!!
Best wishes to you.
Social workers do break the rules and they do lie. Two of my children were removed unlawfully from my home for one night. There has been a cover up ever since. I have gone to the press and it should be in the papers this week.
I had a joint Parenting Assessment with my wife after the S.W. recommended this should happen. I and my Wife had problems. She was a hoarder and I was (and still am) to a degree disabled. The Family Worker who did the report slaughtered us and came up with the most negative report possible. The child in question has grandparents who have a hatred for me and they constantly bombarded Social Services with negative anonymous calls. After many months of my child and wife living with my child’s grandparents, (placed there against my wife’s wishes by the S.W.) and it being well documented that they were getting on dreadfully with the Grandparents, I was given an assessment by an I.S.W. The result of this assessment was positive as long as I did some safe guarding courses and courses recognising abuse. The problem was that the same Family Worker provided the courses and the same result came from her in her report. I have been told that I have to work with the Family Worker because she is the L.A. Family Worker for my region. I don’t see the point of going through an independent parenting assessment for the original assessor to be allowed to make the same derogatory remarks. to make things worse the first joint Parenting Assessment was rushed, in my opinion biased, especially against me and did not include an observation of my child interacting with myself. Or for that matter with my wife. In fact the Family Worker never even met my daughter. I believe this is against government guidelines I have been told by both the S.W. in charge and the Guardian that they are both going to support my daughters Grandparents as they have applied for a Special Guardianship Order. I am not sure if this is right, however I have read that the Judge finds in favour of the court officials, (the S.W. and the Guardian) in about 96% of all cases. It is my understanding that not including an Observation in a parenting assessment is against government guidelines. I also don’t see the point of having an independent assessment if it’s going to have no effect regarding the Court Officials. In fact, why have a judge when 96% of the time he is just going to rubber stamp their recommendations. My Daughter who is now nine has repeatedly told both of them that she wants to be placed with either myself or her mum as main carer. Does this sound like Social Justice to anyone?
Kangaroo Courts story #752
I’ve just had a refusal from the LGO to investigate perjury s.5 by social workers in their response to a previous complaint made to the LGO, outside of proceedings.
The LGO response? ‘ It’s a matter for the courts’.
Police, ‘it’s civil litigation, the CPS won’t press charges.try citizens advice.’
SWE, ‘we’re not sure this is our remit, can’t you complain to the courts….. no, no we don’t know which court you would complain to….we can’t say that if we found them guilty of perjury, we would pursue criminal charges.’
To be fair CG, I don’t think it IS for the LGO to investigate a criminal offence like perjury. that would be for the police and in due course the courts.
The police are unwilling to investigate SS and even if they do they cannot prove to CPS that a social worker has lied rather than just made a mistake. Social workers know this very well and that is why there will be some thread of truth from which the lie is spun – so social workers can claim mistake, miscommunication or misunderstanding. We basically live in a country where often childless, often women, often young people are given immense power and absolute impunity. Abusive men, who seek to have power and control over others can easily find a vulnerable victim in a female partner. For naturally abusive women social work is the perfect profession in which to exert power and control over others and enjoy witnessing first hand the devastation they are able to cause.
If a dysfunctional, lying , alcoholic , manipulative social worker that was involved with your children on Child protection and removing them and force adoption of another , later got proved on video her blind drunk with children , after 20 years service and her boss took the phone off person and promised to get it investigated, and just paid him 70 quid to buy another, she later got sacked and her own kids removed.
Are we not entitled to know the outcome? Why is not on the sw register with hearings ?
Why all her cases not reinvestigated and mine , and they covered it to staff by making out she was promoted ?
I now want truth , justice and access to my records and everything on file
How do I request this about her and also the records on children were all on her say so and was abusing her position/ power / use of company phone drunk
Bribery / falsifying records the lot
You should be able to find out how to do a ‘Subject Access Request’ request on your local authorities web site. Ask for any and all information held by Children’s Services relating to yourself or your child. You have a legal right to this information.
Thank you, thank you and thank you again, this is exactly what I need.
You have been of enormous help to me.
My daughter is currently in family court , social workers have lied as have foster carers and other professionals,her solicitor is useless and she has had 4 different barristers throughout this , because of the lies told by professionals it’s likely she will not get the children back.i have tried complaining to local authority on her behalf the legal ombudsman our mp and social work England I even wrote a letter to the judge directly who said he was not going to consider anything I said and threatened my daughter she would be in contempt of court if she told me anything else,I’m her mum who else is she supposed to talk to.This all began when my eldest granddaughter accused mums then partner of sexual abuse.And mum was bullied into signing a section 20 for the eldest first they then came back the day after and took the other two girls.My daughter was a victim of domestic violence and knew nothing of what was going on at the time as she was either at work or sleeping at the time it supposedly occurred .How are they allowed to lie blatantly and get away with it .Its completely tore our family apart at the seams.
There should be a body who wrongfully accused and lied about people can complain to about it and know it will be investigated,they have this in other countries why not here???
We have tried everything we can think of but to no avail it’s heartbreaking to see my daughters suffering at the hands of these so called professionals .
I Truly hope that you will be Finished with the book writing, very soon!!
This has been going on for Far too long, and the Money involved, is what makes it possible!!
Best wishes to you.
This is horrific . I’m so sorry! There is something VERY off in our society now that seems to absolutely destroy women
At all costs ! Even if children suffer. If the DA perp has gone what is the problem ? Mind you if would be nice if the authorities would help with that!
The Secrecy and huge amount of money involved, are why they have been able to Lie and get away with kidnappings, (legally,!)
The Lawyer’s Are in their pockets, financially and you have my utmost empathy!!
I wish I could be of help. X
My ex has lied repeatedly under oath and in his written statements. His barrister has repeated his lies in position statements even when he has paperwork so that he knows what he is writing to court is a lie. The whole culture of family court, including the judges, is corrupt and rotten to the core. My own barrister tells me that knowingly lying to the court is not an issue of contempt but of ex being dishonest. This is gaslighting. I have lost all confidence in a judicial process that allows perjury openly and where its own officers lie to cover their own backsides. The Harms Report shows how rotten and misogynist male justice is.
I so relate ! So sorry to hear this . The work of Emma Katz clearly quantifies the harmful effects of child abuse yet few seem aware in family court and certainly don’t care. I’ve not met one victim of DA whose children have been protected and considering research shows DA perps have a high incidence of abusing their kids it’s staggering! Did you know the UN felt compelled (an extraordinary event) to look at the UKs attitudes to abuse in Nov 2022!
I found the article interesting but the comments even more so.. I’m cautious about putting anything about my situation here in too much detail but will say I was 3/4 way through my assessment for having my granddaughter and it got paused and then deemed negative. The social worker doing the assessment had made her mind up the minute she met me. She had believed everything she had heard before even meeting me from the parents who one had not seen the child for almost 3 years and had been deemed a danger to her and the other had had all 3 of her children removed from her care. Later in court all fabricated stories about myself were dismissed. The younger two of the children were returned to the mother as there were no further placements available for them even though at the previous couplet date it had been made very clear she had months of work and many hoops to jump through to even be considered for reunification! Nothing further to say here at this time. I have so far reached stage 2 complaints regarding the social worker who did the assessment of myself but as I see in the above comments this seems like a pointless exercise as they are all singing from the same hymn sheet.. I feel I should still pursue this however as I don’t want to give up on my granddaughter. Court orders were made in my favour where contact is concerned but these are not being upheld by the social workers as my granddaughter is still under a care order to the county council. However I seem to be fighting a loosing battle there too and NOBODY wants to help me but again I will NOT give up on my granddaughter I have and still am the only genuine positive in her life.. can anyone advice me?Also until reading this I thought I was going nuts and that I was the only person this was happening too so thank you I now don’t feel alone but if this is happening so much why is nothing being done about it.. why is nobody fighting.. I know there is a problem in family courts I saw a documentary onBBC and I have heard some awful things about mothers suffering to some awful degrees.. suicide. heart attacks outside courtrooms and fleeing the country but not what I have seen on here… something has to change this is children’s lives? Why is nothing being done.. is there nobody we can contact? No campaigns nothing???