As a single father of 3 children, 2 of whom are currently under social services involvement, I have fought tooth and nail to change myself, my lifestyle, and address every concern raised by the authorities. Despite completing numerous parenting courses, various courses including domestic issues, mental health awareness and even enrolling in a university course in health and social care, they still seek to repeatedly undermine my efforts and keep my children from me.

Our system is supposed to be one of innocent until proven guilty. Yet the local authority can destroy families based on assumptions, rumors, and outdated or unevidenced historical factors. It is far too difficult for families to get justice when social workers lie or create untrue reports that are taken as gospel.

The Local Authorities are somehow able to use protected characteristics such as neuro diversity and mental health against parents and families thus violating their rights under the mental health act and equality act. Such people are treated significantly different to those without such characteristics being present.

By being able to use historical factors against families even if they have been addressed and if the families have worked hard to correct the issues is a violation of the rehabilitation act as people can and do change but the local authority in many cases seem to refuse to acknowledge or accept that these changes have been made, even when presented with significant evidence of such.

Mothers, fathers and entire families have fallen victim to this draconian and outdated system for far to long and something has to change before more children's futures are destroyed and more families are torn apart. 

Parents who are involved in families court proceedings and local authority involvement are strictly forbidden to share information about their cases with other family members or professionals that support them. Whilst this is done on the basis that it does protect the information about the children which ofcourse should always be considered. It also leaves parents isolated from their support networks and unable to get help to change or dispute the cases against them. By doing this the local authority are taking away the voices of the families they persecute and isolate them from their wider families, who are obviously directly effected when their relatives have children removed from their care and forcibly put into care or adopted by strangers.

Professionals supporting these families are left unable to grasp the full extent of the situation as these families and parents are told they can be prosecuted for being in contempt of court for sharing the details of their case with anyone, even families members and supporting professionals. Thus isolating these parents and leaving them unable to speak out without fear of being prosecuted and even getting a prison sentence in some cases, just for speaking out to get help and justice. 

We need urgent reform in how social services conduct their cases to ensure fairness and protect the rights of parents like me who are striving to do everything right. Please sign this petition to demand accountability and transparency from our local authorities!