Camden New Journal - Letters: Stigma haunts children with state as parents

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Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 04 October 2007

Stigma haunts children with state as parents

• LONDON district judge Nicholas Crichton made some interesting points in his opinion piece (Salma, and why we must find right balance in family courts, September 27). It is encouraging to read that at long last Camden is backing a pilot project particularly aimed at trying to help the children of drug and alcohol misusing parents remain within their birth families rather than taking them away to languish in care.
I am cautiously optimistic that this initiative will be a success, but it will be particularly galling to the increasing number of children who have been taken into care in recent years that the political will was not there to support them then to stay with their family.
The statistics on outcomes of children in care confirm that the state makes a very poor parent and the majority will be stigmatised until well into their adult life as well as being emotionally and psychologically less well developed than if they had stayed with their family.
Further measures of support to keep families together are needed if we are to proclaim ourselves a civilised society when it comes to protecting vulnerable children.
Trevor Jones
Parents Against Injustice
Hanley Road, N4

• NICHOLAS Crichton does not seem to know what happens behind the scenes in cases involving children in care. He appears to be writing about another country.
Family courts accept the evidence only of social workers, and people paid by the local authorities, and have no respect for what families have to say.
My daughter wrote to magistrates, judges and all kinds of people to get them to understand how she was suffering but it was only the point of view of social workers that was accepted.
The district judge talks about the multi-million-pound business of child trafficking as if we’re in a country where human rights are respected.
When I appealed for my daughter to be returned to her home, all sorts of things were said in court by witnesses that had no basis in fact. I was judged in court to know nothing about Islam even though I am a scholar and know a great deal about my faith.
It is difficult to imagine how courts reach an assessment sufficient to grant the removal of kids from their homes.
Currently, a top professor has offered to check my daughter’s diary in a matter I am pursuing but the local authority is insisting on using its own resources.
As a result, the true nature and contents of the diary are at risk of being covered up.
The child-in-care industry is keeping a multi-million-pounds business going. How can I trust such people who are making millions out of families’ misery?
Walid ElSharkawy
NW1

Editor’s note: Mr ElSharkawy’s12-year-old daughter Salma was taken into care by Camden Council and moved to a children’s home in Derbyshire, where she died in a car accident.

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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