The Problem

The previous posts have been background really what I want to shout about is the continued use of power by social workers that prevent families from being together. I don't mean parents that are abusive, I mean siblings! There should never be a time when kids don't know about their siblings or know they can get in touch with them if they need to. After Roy left the children s home Paul and him were settled for the following 8 years. Roy could talk for such a long time about those years and what happened but it is not relevant to this tale or the problem that he feels is still happening in our society. The only relevant factor's during those years he supposes was this. Social workers who came to visit him not very frequently decided that he couldn't talk freely in the foster home so they would meet at a local hall where he could talk more openly. During one of these sessions he was told that he could not have any contact with the twins for the following reason. When part of a family is adopted and part of it is fostered the system back then made the assumption that, the children who are in foster care were part of an abusive relationship within the family set up. This meant that after such a decision the foster kids could never contact the adopted ones. Since the death of his gran really Roy had struggled with self worth and believing that he was worthy of having a family. This statement by social workers created such a down for him that he really struggled with life. this meant he no longer felt he had the speak to his siblings. It did continue to trouble him and cause problems between Paul and Roy. It became obvious that Paul felt Roy being the eldest it was his responsibility to create contact between the family so he tried again. During his time in foster care Roy had been told that the twins had been homed with a farming family near St Andrews. As he had worked on farms since age 12 he felt a possible solution to his problems and the difficulty social services had re- foster and adoptive care was. He could work on the farm as a casual laborer for free just to see that the twins were OK. That they were being cared for properly and were turning out OK. Once again the social services stopped that happening. The social worker he spoke to stated that it was her decision alone. She would decide if he could have any contact with the twins and her reply shocked him to tears. This is what she said 'I have to decide if you are a suitable person to be in touch with his siblings. In her opinion he was not suitable for such contact because he was not of sounds character and judgement to be allowed contact. So he would have to forget about them and improve his life on his own'. At this point Roy was around 15 years old he had had a traumatic start in life and now these people who had controlled all of it were saying they'd made such a great job of it that he had turned out to be a nasty kid and not trustworthy enough to be in touch with his own family. There were other issues that Roy would not discover for many years after this but can you imagine being told that at 15? This shows the way social services treat kids and the power they hold over the children's future. Thinking about these things now some 40+ years later is still upsetting. However Roy now has contact with both the twins and they have an awesome relationship. What he struggles with is that these things are still happening and social services still have similar wide ranging power over our young vulnerable people. Is it right they have this sort of power over our children? I don't think so and I think these laws should be changed to prevent separations like this from happening in the future.