10 May 2018 sales@youradvertiser.

net

What is “forced adoption”?

TMy name is Yolande
Kenward, all my life I
have cared about chil-
dren and wanting the
very best start for them
in life and a better world
for all. My public volun-
tary work for children
started in September
1997 with a campaign
for children to have good
role models, sadly over
that time the role model
situation has deterio-
rated. I got the award of
which practices “forced adop- family dog, her son aged 4, her
Kent Businesswoman of
tion”. What this happens is that daughter aged 2 and a baby
the Year on 24.11.95.
the wishes of the state over-rides boy in a buggy. Motor bikes are
the wishes of a child’s parents not allowed in the park but the
My daughter and my son are
and family. In reality when a Mum became aware that a
both parents themselves now, so
judge decides that a baby or motor bike was driving towards
I have 3 grandchildren who are
child should be forcibly adopted her family; her 4 year-old son
aged 3, 19 months and 4
(freed for adoption) this severs was taken to hospital with a
months. My private voluntary
all contact between a child and broken leg. By Monday
work for children started nearly
its birth family for many years. lunchtime the Mum had had all
40 years ago with respite care
3 of her children removed from
for children who were disabled
Parents used to have more rights, her. The boy in hospital went to
or had learning needs, I
but Baroness Butler-Sloss and live with a male foster carer at
was also a "Brown Owl". I
Baroness Hale were architects of the request of his father. The 2
understand the pain of being
child protection legislation that younger children were at home
avoidably separated from a
has transferred the balance of with their Nan and aunt when
much-loved child. Many young
power from the parents to the the police stormed in taking the 2
Mums have not got their own
state. Much publicity has been younger children from the arms
Mum around and they just need
given to the cases of Ashya King of their family. These 2 children
support from a substitute Mum,
whose parents “abducted” him never came home again and
and not the state who they do not
from Southampton General were adopted. A police protec-
trust and who they experience as
Hospital and took him abroad. tion order is used to remove
uncaring. Like many Mums I feel
The case of “Alfie’s Army” and children, in this case the authori-
that I am a Mum to all children
Alder Hay Children’s Hospital in sation came from Norman
at risk.
Liverpool is currently in the news. Bettison who is due on trial later
this year at the Preston Crown
The term “forced adoption” was
My interest in children’s cases in Court over freemason favours re
first coined by an ex-Tory Kent
the family courts started 15 years the Hillsborough disaster. The
County Councillor, Ian Joseph in
ago with a case involving Alder way that children are removed
2003; before that time the
Hay Hospital. This case is quite from families often damages the
expression used was “adoption
well-known. It involves a single- child; it happens unexpectedly
without parental consent”. The
parent Mum walking in a Liver- – the child being removed is
UK is the only European country
pool Park one Friday with the often very distressed and often
10 May 2018
then suffers from “anxiety sepa-
ration disorder”.
The statistics tells us that one in 3
adoptions break down ie the
adopters return a child to the
local authority that took them
into care in the first place. The
LBGT interest in adoption has
steadily increased with one in 6
forced adoptions going to that
group. Increasing numbers of
babies and children are going
into care year on year. New
laws have changed the adoption
market ie “Cinderella’s law”
which came into force in 2015
which is where parents who
deprive their children of love and
kindness can be punished for
emotional abuse. From
22.4.2014 the law changed so
that public children’s cases
coming before the courts had to
be completed within 26 weeks,
whereas previously they usually
took longer than a year to com-
plete. Miscarriages of justice are
rife in our courts and where this
happens in a children’s case it
causes great upset due to
adoption being final. With these
news laws adopters want
undamaged healthy babies.
One of the reasons given to give
up a baby for adoption is the risk
of future emotional harm. Judges
often use court medical expert
reports as a basis for their
decisions re a child. It is illegal
for a parent to record a court-
ordered medical assessment, but
some parents do this covertly. I
accompanied one Mum to a Met
Police Station in 2016 to report
with her a conspiracy to defraud
her of her 3 children, via a fake
psychiatric report. The PS
advised the Mum to make a
complaint to the GMC before the
police could intervene. The GMC
ignored the evidence compiled
and supported the right of the
court-approved psychiatrist to
fake court expert reports so that
a (good-looking baby) was
adopted, and his 2 sisters were
to stay in care until they are 18.
In another case a (good-looking)
baby was adopted because
social workers said that if there
was any evidence of contact with
the baby’s father the baby would
be adopted. The baby’s father
turned up unexpectedly at the
family home, so the baby boy
was adopted. The father then
started a relationship with
another woman who gave birth
to his twin daughters who social
workers said that he could bring
up.
I spent years doing free legal
work on children’s cases, all the
cases that were referred to me
were because parents no longer
trusted their legally aided
solicitor and barrister. I am a lay
legal adviser, who campaigns
for justice for all. On 26.4.2016
I refused to take on any more
new children’s cases after my
experiences working on the case
of Desmond Tutu’s grandson (my
interviews with the boy and his
Mum are on youtube). My
decision was based on the need
to reform the family court
process and children’s laws in
order to have a fair hearing, as
per the Human Rights Act 1998.
My 4 attempts to get into the
Supreme Court to do this in
2016 all failed. I legally repre-
sent 2 Mums at the moment
whose babies were adopted in
breach of the Human Rights Act
by the same judge in 2017. We
have not appealed the adoption
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orders as the appeals process is
flawed and rarely puts right a
miscarriage of justice in a lower
court. Moreover once an appeal
gets to the Court of Appeal
children’s cases get dealt with
before all other cases to
minimise the cost in care of a
child to a local authority.
What is particularly alarming
about these 2 Mums via Judge H
is that both of these Mums have
genuine claims themselves
against their differing local
authority. Mum A had her
education as a child misman-
aged by the local authority who
then proceeded to get her much-
loved baby adopted after social
workers and a judge had made
disastrous decisions regarding
her daughter’s care that left her
emotionally damaged and
needing specialist support. Mum
B went into respite care as a
child aged 9 and never came
home; she was raped in a
children’s home between the
ages of 11-13. I reported
historic child sexual abuse in
care to the police last August,
this seemed to be the best way to
get the adoption order re her
daughter over-turned. All
started to go well; with both of
these Mums I involved local
politicians saying that adoption
to settle once and for all these
Mums financial claims is a
heinous business practice. But
votes are more important than
scandals and compensation
getting media attention. The
police investigation stalled. I
phoned the Independent Inquiry
into Child Sexual Abuse re their
Truth Project and got Mum B
onto that. On 28.1.2018 I made
a complaint to the Office of the
10 May 2018 sales@youradvertiser.net

Prosecutor at the International

Criminal Court in the Hague re
various matters but under the
heading of crimes against hu-
manity, I include some adop-
tions.

Many of those who find

themselves caught up in the
family courts are from working
class families; they do not
understand that “children” are
now big business and provide a
stream of steady income for the
traditional upper class profes-
sions. From birth a Mum and
her baby can be sent into a
Mother and baby unit at a cost
of £3300 a week, by the end of
26 weeks a judge has to decide
whether a Mum can go home
with her much-loved baby or the
baby is to be adopted. The cost
of one baby being in care for 26
weeks can easily mount up to
£100,000 a baby. It would be
much better if the Mum and
baby could be supported at
home eg by some “Grannies”
seeking to give much needed
support in the early stages. There
is a national shortage of social
workers with many now
employed from all over the
world. Children’s Services was
intended to give support to
struggling families but the
resources are not there and
the emphasis has changed.
Children can come out of the
care system damaged eg one 19
year-old Mum went into care at
birth, she was methadone ad-
dicted when born, she had had
21 foster placements by the time
she was 3 when she was
adopted. The adoptive father
moved out when she was 5 and
when she was 11 her adopter
Mum returned her and the child
felt so unloved that she over-
dosed and by the time she was
16 she was homeless. This Mum
is a good Mum but social work-
ers state that the bad parenting
of her via the local authority and
her adopters means that she
poses a risk of further emotional
harm to her son.
When local authorities have a
Child Protection scandal they go
to the Royal Courts of Justice and
get a media reporting restriction
order, what matters most is not
the child who suffered avoidably
but protecting “votes”. The LB of
Sutton did this twice re Ellie
Butler & the Tutu boy. We have
all seen the Rotherham and other
scandals; the number of children
running away from care is really
concerning. Fostering Agencies,
Mother & Baby Units, Children’s
Homes are all big business. I live
in Kent, a year ago Kent County
Council privatised 120 of its
solicitors with 30 support
workers; they were given a
10 year contract. Children’s
legislation needs amending so
that we no longer have to accept
another government’s child
dumped in Calais to look after
until they are 25 at an annual
cost per child of £68,000pa
(current cost in Kent is £30
million pa). A child in a
children’s home cost £2,900 per
week.
In summary child protection in
the UK is in urgent need of re-
form. How should this be done?
Yolande Kenward
Email: yolandekenward@hot
mail.co.uk