23/7/2007 | Doctors must be free to raise their abuse concerns if the weakest members o |
The Guardian, p31 |
When the government's children's bill was in its draft stage, many paediatricians warned that it would protect children only if doctors were themselves protected from a rising tide of misinformed vilification. That bill is now an act, its drafting greatly informed by the horrors that engulfed the families of Sally Clark and Angela Cannings, who both spent years in prison after having been wrongly convicted of murdering their babies.
From next April, all sudden infant deaths must be investigated according to a new, sensitive protocol that takes as its starting point the presumption of tragedy, not suspicion. This is a worthwhile legacy for the Clarks and the Cannings. The terrible irony is that it may be lost because these cases have become a smokescreen behind which the child protection system is being battered.
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16/4/2007 | Prevention to be focus of safeguarding |
Children Now, p7 |
More safeguarding measures and support will be introduced to help victims of childhood sexual assault. Through the Cross Government Action Plan on Sexual Violence, the Government has outlined plans to improve education in schools and to publish guidance on the model of care for sexually abused children.
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3/4/2007 | 15st boy is taken from grandparents who lost their daughter to anorexia |
The Times, p35 |
He was the apple of his grandparents’ eye, but under their loving care and continual feeding, ten-year-old Daniel reached 100kg (15st 10lb) in weight. Fearing for the boy’s health, social workers in the northern Spanish region of Asturias stepped in, taking him to a hospital where he has been put on a diet. The boy’s grandparents, Con-suelo GarcÍa and José Sánchez – who saw their daughter die of anorexia – have been distraught, unable to comprehend why their youngest grandchild has been taken away. “He was kidnapped by social workers,” said a tearful Ms GarcÍa. “Yes, he was a bit chubby, but he was never ill. That boy was fit as a fiddle.”
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2/4/2007 | Paediatricians accuse General Medical Council of putting children at risk |
The Guardian, p4 |
More than 50 UK paediatricians today launch an unprecedented attack on the General Medical Council, accusing their regulatory body of deterring doctors from speaking out, and arguing that the stance could increase the risk of child abuse.
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16/3/2007 | Jail for couple who let baby starve to death |
The Daily Mirror, p11 |
A couple who allowed their 11 month old daughter to starve slowly to death were jailed yesterday. Health experts who examined Kimberley Baker's body described her as looking like "a famine ravaged third world baby". Her parents, Neil and Alison Baker, of Swindon, were jailed for five years each at Bristol Crown Court. Their other children have been taken into care.
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14/3/2007 | Sadistic dad jailed for life for killing baby |
The Daily Mail, p41 |
A father who abused and battered to death his seven-week-old daughter was jailed yesterday and told he will never be released. According to The Daily Mail, health and social workers were criticised for failing to remove Jessica Randall from her parents, despite being seen by a number of doctors, medical specialists and social workers. Features comments from Diana Sutton of the NSPCC who said "The number of babies killed at the hands of parents or carers has not reduced for 30 years,. It is everyone's responsibility to be vigilant for sings of abuse and report any concerns they have."
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14/3/2007 | Crying for help |
The Daily Mirror, p22-2 |
They make heartbreaking reading, but we make no apology for printing them. Each one is the stuff of nightmares for any caring adult... and a living hell for many thousands of stricken children. A 10-year-old boy who has been abandoned by his mother and is forced to steal to feed himself and his younger brother. A teenage girl who is struggling to cope with school because her violent, drunken father rips up her homework before lashing out. And a young boy who has been bullied to the brink of suicide. In its 21st year ChildLine has granted the Daily Mirror unprecedented access to the 4,500 calls they receive every day from distressed children
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5/3/2007 | The unending nightmare: Ian and Angela Gay speak out |
The Daily Mail, p10-1 |
They were sentenced to five years' imprisonment for manslaughter. But last week, finally, their ordeal ended when they were cleared after a retrial that had been ordered when their original conviction was quashed on appeal.
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28/2/2007 | Time for tough love and a lock on the fridge |
The Daily Telegraph |
Jan Moir comment piece on Connor McCreadie
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28/2/2007 | Our children have less protection now that did Victoria Climbie |
The Guardian |
For five years the system to prevent child abuse have been vanishing before our eyes says Liz Davies, a senior lecturer in social worker at London Metropolitan University
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26/2/2007 | Social workers 'still ignoring straightforward rules that would save childr |
The Daily Telegraph |
The leading authority on child abuse said social workers and managers were still not following straight-forward procedures that would protect and save children. In the run up to what would have been Victoria CLimbie's 16th birthday, Lord Laming said that the Government's overhaul of the child protection system was being delivered at a local level. But there were gaps between "aspirations" and " delivery".
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26/2/2007 | Mother's anger as boy as obese boy, 8, faces care order |
The Guardian |
An eight-year-old boy who weighs 89kg (14st) may be taken into care because of fears for his health. Connor McCreaddie, who is four times the weight of an average child of his age, has difficulty dressing and washing himself and misses school regularly because of poor health.
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29/11/2006 | History revision: How reliable are allegations of child abuse 30 years ago? |
The Guardian, p1 |
Earlier this month, Anver Sheikh, a residential children's home carer in the 1980s, was for the second time acquitted of abuse crimes he never committed but for which he was jailed for eight years in 2002. Fay Wertheimer writes on why her years working in care homes make her question today's name-shame-blame culture.
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30/10/2006 | 18,000 babies harmed by boozy mums-to-be |
The Sun,, p20 |
Up to 18,000 babies a year in the UK are born damaged because thier mothers drank during pregnancy. Previously the number of births affected by foetal alcohol syndrome had been estimated at 6,000 annually. But a new study carried out at St George's hospital, London, said that there was growing evidence that some cases of autism may be linked to alcohol consumed during pregnancy.
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16/10/2006 | Letter: Children’s cost in safety bill |
The Times, p18 |
Letter from writers, academics and professionals stating that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill is a misguided response to a small number of tragic, but fortunately rare, incidents involving the abuse of children.
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5/7/2006 | Ex-council chief denies abusing boy |
The Times, p9 |
A former council leader and police authority chairman went on trial yesterday accused of abusing a boy more than 20 years ago. Colin Inglis, 49, is said to have subjected the 13-year-old boy to a series of assaults when he was a social worker at a children’s home in Hull. Mr Inglis, who later became the leader of Hull City Council and chairman of the Humberside Police Authority, denies 14 charges of indecent assault in 1982 and 1983.
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5/7/2006 | Mum gave baby tea, inquest is told |
The Western Mail, p10 |
A teenage mother gave tea to her newborn baby when she ran out of baby milk, an inquest in Cardiff heard yesterday. Chloe died at 16 weeks, and was found with more than 40 broken bones caused by her parents trying to teach her to walk. The baby had been placed on the child protection register, but the inquest heard that the parents were fearful that Chloe would be taken away from them. The father has been jailed for three months after admitting cruelty, the mother pleased guilty to the same charge ad was given a three-year community rehabilitation order.
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29/6/2006 | Four years for teacher who abused pupil, 14 |
The Daily Mail, p5 |
A female teacher who had a relationship with a pupil has been jailed for four years and three months. Elvira Fairhurst, 49, began a four-month affair with the boy shortly before his 15th birthday, Liverpool Crown Court heard. The boy who is adopted, was in the care of social services at the times.
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28/6/2006 | Minister admits CSA is not working as complaints rise |
The Independent |
The Child Support Agency, which is supposed to protect the interests of children from broken relationships, just is not working, a minister admitted yesterday. We fully acknowledge that the CSA is not fit for purpose," the Works and Pension Minister, Lord Hunt, said yesterday. He went on to promise that a review now under way would improve the payment system for single mothers.
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27/6/2006 | Child database 'will erode parents' rights,' say campaigners |
The Daily Mail |
Civil liberties groups launched a new attack on the national child database today, saying it will erode the rights of parents to look after their own families. Every child in England will be registered on the £200 million "IS (information sharing) Index", which will include basic identifying information for children and young people under 18 and contact details for their parents.
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27/6/2006 | Big brother database to record the lives of all children |
The Daily Mail, p30 |
The personal life of every child is to be recorded on a national database. The £224 million children's index will record whether parents provide a 'positive role model', if the child's grades are slipping and if they eat enough fruit and veg.
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26/6/2006 |
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The Guardian, p31 |
Three letters on the issue, including one from Michelle Elliot, Director of Kidscape
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23/6/2006 | Gay foster couple to be sentenced for abusing boys |
The Daily Telegraph Online |
A gay couple who have been found guilty of sexually abusing boys placed in their foster care have been sentenced to a total of 11 years.Ian Wathey, 40, and his partner Craig Faunch, 32, were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court last month of a series of sex offences against young boys. Wathey has been sentenced to five years and Faunch has been sentenced to six. The sentences begin immediately.The pair were approved as foster carers by Wakefield Council in July 2003, but within months they were using the boys from troubled homes for their own gratification, the court was told.
Judge Sally Cahill QC, remanded the men in custody for the preparation of pre-sentence reports and warned them they were "facing a substantial period in custody". Faunch was found guilty of two charges of making indecent photos of a child. The court was told that he used a camcorder to film two eight-year-old boys in the shower. He was also found guilty of five counts of abuse with a 14-year-old boy. The couple, of Pontefract, were found guilty of the charges following a two-week trial.
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20/6/2006 | Parental drug abuse |
The Scotsman, p20 |
Rosemary Byrne, MSP, responds to the call by Neil McKeaganey and Jim Gallagher for research into the impact of parental drug abuse and children and the implications for the children if they have to be removed from the homes (Focus, 14 June). Byrne points out that consultation process has begun for a private members' bill, Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation (Scotland) Bill, which seeks to provide a care package to help families stay together.
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18/6/2006 | Free nursery places for two-year-olds |
The Scotsman |
Some of Scotland's most vulnerable two-year-olds will be offered free nursery places in an effort to save them from failing parents. Education minister Peter Peacock has signed a multi- million-pound deal with three Scottish councils to pilot the controversial plan within months. Free state nursery places are currently restricted to children aged between three and five, but the pilot scheme will see hundreds of neglected two-year-olds taught basic hygiene, how to eat properly and how to interact with other youngsters. Ministers have taken the decision after research showed that if children, particularly those from deprived communities, were given access to high-quality nursery education, they did better at school.
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15/6/2006 | Mother wins fight to get her baby back |
The Scotsman, p1 & |
Sheriff has condemned social workers who removed a newborn baby from her mother only minutes after the child's umbilical cord was cut. Two social workers and two sheriff officers entered the birthing suite as Corellie Bonhomme went into the final stages of labour. Immediately after her daughter, Fifi, was born, they took her away after obtaining a sheriff's order giving them permission to take custody. But after a five-month fight and a lengthy hearing, another sheriff has ruled the decision and the way it was enforced was wrong, and he ordered the child to be reunited with her mother. Ms Bonhomme has had two previous children removed by social services in the London borough of Camden.
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15/6/2006 | Hutton says charities must take bigger role in welfare provision |
The Independent, p15 |
Charities, voluntary groups and private firms should take on a bigger role in the provision of welfare, the Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton will say today
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13/6/2006 | Tragic mother gases herself and son, five, with barbecue |
The Guardian |
A mother is thought to have killed herself and her five year old son by barricading the two of them in side a bedroom and lighting a disposable barbecue. Anjun Cavanagh was the subject of a social services investigation into the care of her son Dylan.
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13/6/2006 | Business in the community awards for excellence 2006 |
The Financial Times (Responsib, p2 |
The shortlist of all those awarded, including BAAF
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24/5/2006 | No names, no proof, no consensus |
Society Guardian, p6 |
MPs jump the gun in calling for action on mystery report that claims social services 'snatch' children from parents
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18/5/2006 | How can this happen here? |
Times, p20 |
Comment piece by Camilla Cavendish
Imagine a country where parents accused of child abuse are assumed guilty unless proven innocent. Where secret courts need no criminal conviction to remove their children, only the word of a medical expert, and rarely let parents call their own experts in defence. Where even parents who are vindicated on appeal cannot see their children again, because they have been adopted.
And where the “welfare of the child” is used to gag them from discussing the case ever after. I live in that country.
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19/1/2006 | Family is still traumatised by the nightmare of being split up |
Daily Mirror |
Rumours of devil worship, children snatched from their parents at dawn and lives cursed for ever... It sounds like a horror B-movie. But for those families caught up in the Rochdale satanic abuse scandal, which rocked the nation in 1990, it is all too real. Silenced for 16 years by the courts, Caroline Shirley and her parents, John and Lynda, can now finally reveal the shocking toll it took on their family.
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23/11/2005 | NSPCC to take over ChildLine |
Guardian |
The charity helpline ChildLine has ended months of uncertainty about its future after agreeing to be taken over by the NSPCC.
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31/10/2005 | Rise in 'child at risk' referrals |
BBC News |
More children in Scotland have been referred to social workers because of fears that they were at risk of abuse, new figures have shown.
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22/7/5 | Shaken baby ruling may pave way for scores of reviews |
The Times |
SCORES of convictions in so-called shaken baby cases could be reviewed after two people were cleared and a third had his murder conviction reduced to manslaughter in the Court of Appeal.
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22/7/5 | 'Children at risk' after Meadow judgment |
The Times |
THE DECISION to strike off Sir Roy Meadow, one of the country’s leading paediatricians, over evidence he gave at the Sally Clark trial was unjust and could put children at greater risk of abuse and murder, according to The Lancet.
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14/7/5 | Serious failings persist in care of vulnerable children |
The Guardian |
Some of the most vulnerable children in England are still being failed by the services that should protect them, despite a series of high-profile tragedies and inquiries recommending change, according to an official report published today.
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12/7/5 | Sion Jenkins to face third trial |
The Times |
SION JENKINS, the former deputy headmaster, will face a third trial accused of the murder of his teenage foster daughter because a jury failed to agree a verdict yesterday.
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22/6/5 | Cot-death expert gave murder trial jury misleading evidence |
The Times |
PROFESSOR SIR ROY MEADOW, whose evidence helped to send three innocent mothers to jail for killing their babies, misled a murder jury by giving naive and grossly misleading evidence as an expert witness, the General Medical Council was told yesterday.
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20/6/5 | Cot death expert faces disciplinary hearing |
The Guardian |
A senior paediatrician whose expert evidence helped jail Sally Clark, Angela Cannings and other women who were later cleared of murdering their children faces a disciplinary tribunal this week which could strike him off the medical register.
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20/6/5 | After six years, baby murder case expert to face disciplinary panel |
The Times |
SIR ROY MEADOW, one of the most celebrated and controversial doctors of modern times, will finally stand trial on disciplinary charges tomorrow in a case of major importance for the medical and legal professions.
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19/6/5 | Child protection bosses may face jail for failures |
The Sunday Times |
CHIEF constables and social work directors could be jailed for failing to protect vulnerable children under a Scottish executive clampdown.
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10/6/5 | Climbie parents say council chiefs must face action |
The Independent |
The parents of Victoria Climbie have pleaded for disciplinary action to be taken against the senior managers who were criticised over their daughter's death after five years of "hiding" behind the failings of their subordinates.
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9/6/5 | Arrest in child abuse inquiry |
The Guardian |
The chairman of Humberside police authority has been arrested over allegations of child abuse, it was revealed yesterday.
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9/6/5 | Social worker in Climbié case wins job fight |
The Guardian |
Lisa Arthurworrey, the social worker sacked for failing to prevent the murder of child abuse victim Victoria Climbié, won the right to resume a career working with children yesterday.
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8/6/5 | Western couples hit by Russian adoptions revolt |
The Times |
RUSSIA’S laws against foreign adoptions have come under fire after two Western couples had their newly adopted Russian children taken from them on the basis of eyewitness reports that they were abusing them.
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3/6/5 | Jenkins 'discussed death with daughter' |
The Daily Telegraph, p7 |
Sion Jenkins, the former deputy headmaster accused of murdering his foster child, discussed the killing with his eldest daughter after handing her a book to read in bed, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.
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2/6/5 | Campaigners condemn doctors' claims on child protection |
The Guardian |
A parents' support group today condemned claims that complaints over medical evidence in child abuse cases have deterred doctors from working in child protection.
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1/6/5 | I left Billie-Jo alive, Jenkins tells court |
Daily Telegraph, p9 |
Sion Jenkins, the father accused of bludgeoning to death his 13-year-old foster daughter with a metal tent peg, told the Old Bailey yesterday that she was "alive and happy" the last time he saw her.
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14/5/5 | The riddle of 300 young boys missing from London schools |
The Times |
THOUSANDS of young African children are going missing from schools in Britain every year, child welfare experts have said.
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14/5/5 | London schools report 300 African boys disappeared |
The Independent |
Hundreds of African boys have disappeared from schools in London, police investigating the murder of the young boy whose torso was found in the river Thames have revealed.
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13/5/5 | Missing African Boys 'May Highlight New Trafficking Trend' |
The Scotsman |
The disclosure that some 300 African boys disappeared from London schools in just three months has sparked fresh fears about the fate of vulnerable children promised a “better life” in Britain.
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13/5/5 | Hundreds of African boys go missing in London |
The Guardian |
Hundreds of young African boys disappeared from schools in London over a three-month period in 2001, police revealed today, prompting experts to question the effectiveness of the government's child protection measures.
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2/3/5 | Too embarrassed to care for Jacob |
Daily Mirror, p15 |
SAS dad could not cope with disabled son he killed, mum tells court
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17/1/5 | Tsunami orphans |
The Guardian |
Unicef estimates that up to 14,000 of the 350,000 children in Sumatra who were displaced by the tsunami are unaccompanied children.
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14/1/5 | Couple jailed for poisioning child they planned to adopt |
Community Care |
A couple were jailed at Worcester Crown Court for the manslaughter of a three-year-old boy they planned to adopt.
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13/1/5 | Couple killed boy by force feeding him salt |
The Guardian |
A couple found guilty of killing a three-year-old boy they were planning to adopt were today jailed for five years each.
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7/1/5 | Agencies warn on adopting orphans |
The Guardian |
Felicity Collier, Chief Executive of BAAF, said it would be wrong to remove orphans from their home country for a "better life" abroad when their blood relatives might be looking for them.
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7/1/5 | Baaf warns against adopting victims of the asian tsunami tragedy |
Community Care |
Baaf Adoption & Fostering has warned people not to try and adopt victims of the Asian tsunami tragedy to avoid fuelling the child trafficking industry.
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5/1/5 | Guards to protect tsunami orphans from child traffickers |
The Guardian |
Indonesian authorities posted police guards at refugee camps today to protect children orphaned by last week's tsunamis from child traffickers.
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0/0/0 | It is time to act over the failings of forensic scientists |
The Times, p3 |
When Angela and Ian Gay were acquitted of poisoning with salt the three-year-old boy they were adopting, it marked the end of a nightmare that began with Christian Blewitt’s death in December 2002 and the couple’s subsequent arrest. Over the past few years, this has become a disappointingly familiar tale which has recurred in the cases of Sally Clark, Angela Cannings, Donna Anthony and Trupti Patel (sudden infant death syndrome); Lorraine Harris and Michael Faulder (shaken baby syndrome); and Marianne Williams (salt poisoning). In each, the defendant parent was ultimately vindicated.
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