Anarchy Rules OK?

Sorry to be banging on again about the two monsters from Doncaster, but Jayne Dowle takes up the battle for children such as these to be removed from their parents in her Thursday column in this morning’s Yorkshire Post.

Whilst not really supporting the idea of removing children from their parents, she is honest enough to state that in the case of the two brothers from Edlington this would have been the only realistic solution. She quotes their family background as “corrosive neglect” and agrees with Martin Narey (the chief executive of the children’s charity Barnado’s) who says that children should be taken away from bad parents to prevent them growing up in terrible situations, suffering unspeakably, and then repeating the cycle with their own children.

Martin Narey was a former director of prison services and has seen at first hand the outcome of families who have failed their sons and daughters. He does not subscribe to the current whims and fashions that removal of children from their families should only take place as a last resort. He has stated that social workers should not be trying to work with families that can’t be fixed, but should be more pro-active in removing children who are at risk.

Millions of pounds have been pumped into supporting the policy that believes that children should only be separated from their parents as a last resort, yet here is proof that is just does not work with “families that can’t be fixed.” Social workers, doctors, health visitors, and teachers are all drawn into a multi agency support system to support parents who through addiction, unemployment, or sheer fecklessness can’t or won’t look after their own children and provide a safe and caring environment for them.

The support system has failed because it can’t support those who won’t accept that they have responsibilities to their children.

To quote, once again the former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Keith Hellawell:

“Society as we know it is collapsing about us and no one appears to be doing anything about it. There are still many families who bring up their children to respect others in the way they would wish to be respected themselves. However they are in danger of being outnumbered by those who care for little but themselves.”


As I said on Tuesday,

The attitude of children like these two brothers leads to anarchy. Do we really want that?