My story, and sadly the story of countless others, is a heartbreaking testament to the urgent need for reform within Children's Social Services. Across our country, many of us have experienced dreadful mistreatment, with our children unjustly removed from our homes by the very system designed to protect them. Instead of providing families with the support they need, social services far too often choose the easier path: taking the child out of the home, with horrendous consequences for both parents and children.

Foster homes are at capacity, while hundreds of children, who should not have been plucked from their families, end up in situations far worse than they started in. This is an untenable reality that has emerged from a system failing to prioritize support for families, choosing instead to disrupt them. Our families deserve better. Our children deserve better.

It is high time we push for a reform in our social services system. We demand change in their training, their decision-making process, and the laws that too easily enable the separation of families. Children should only be removed from their homes when absolutely necessary, not as a knee-jerk reaction to complex challenges. Supportive measures should be the first line of action to help families maintain their unity.

Removing a child from their home should be a measure of last resort and not a standard practice. Any legislation sparking such traumatic upheaval in our lives needs clearer boundaries and stricter guidelines. We urge our lawmakers to listen to our lived experiences and realise the actual harm that is being done.

Please stand with us in our fight for justice and change. Sign this petition to demand an overhaul of our current children's social services practices. Let's ensure our children stay where they belong, with their families, except in the instances where it's definitively deemed that they shouldn't. Your signature is a step towards making this change happen.