1. please take this into consideration when dong the presentation, this is a msg from my tutor, The presentation is NOT about presenting ‘information’. There is a
difference between Knowledge, Understanding, Information
“Information becomes knowledge when it is organised into fruitful patterns, and knowledge yields understanding when careful, clear-eyed appreciation of what it means
and what its uses are have been attained” . (AC Grayling, Independent, 17.2.06 p.8- )
“Abundantly available information…leads to diminished capacity for understanding”. (Tsoukas, 2005, p24, in Complex Knowledge: Studies of Organisational Epistemology
OUP)
The aim of the exercise is to make links between the prompt material and wider themes we have looked at in the course. So, instead of having the same perspective as
the journalist, you are able to use your learning from this course to put the problem in a wider context and to think about why things are framed as they are in this
particular prompt of article.
Here are some questions to guide your thinking and approach.
1. How is the problem you have chosen framed?
2. Why is it considered to be a problem? Is it a problem?
3. What does it tell us notions of childhood and the times we live in that it is thought of as a problem?
4. How might ideas from the course illuminate the way in which we think about and conceptualise the issue? (You can draw in ideas from sociology, criminology, child
development, social policy, psychotherapeutic understanding).
It is not, repeat NOT, about collecting ‘information’ but rather about understanding and synthesizing it – and having something to say about it from an informed
perspective
My chosen topic for the presention is this
13 January 2014 Last updated at 04:20
Parents ‘should go abroad to avoid family courts’
Parents suspected of child abuse should flee the country rather than face justice in the family courts, one MP has told BBC Panorama.
Liberal Democrat John Hemming, chairman of the Justice for Families campaign group, said parents should “go abroad”, if it is legal. But the courts advisory service,
Cafcass, said going abroad did not solve the problem for most parents. The government said family justice reform was a “critical priority”. In 2012, local authorities
made a record 10,218 applications to take children away from parents.
This figure was 11% higher than in 2010-11 and 61.6% higher than in 2007-08, according to Cafcass, which said applications had been rising since the case of Baby P in
2008.
In some high profile cases where children died, local authorities were criticised for not acting quickly enough and for believing what they had been told by parents.
But John Hemming, MP for Birmingham Yardley, said the system had become unfair to parents. He has been contacted by hundreds of parents suspected of harming their
children who are going through the family courts. He said the process was so unfair that parents should leave the country to avoid social services and the courts. “All
the cards are held by the local authority. It has large resources to fight the cases – it does all the assessments,” he said. My advice to people – if they can afford
it – is just to go abroad. You can’t get a fair trial here, because you can’t rely on the evidence being fair. It’s best simply to go if you can, at the right time,
lawfully.”
But Cafcass, the organisation that looks after the interests of children in the family courts, said the rise in care applications meant that more children were being
protected.
“We can’t play poker with children’s safety, we’ve got to have a system that plays it safe to begin with,” said chief executive Anthony Douglas. I do think we have a
responsibility to make our family courts better, to make them more transparent, to build public confidence in them. To advocate leaving altogether doesn’t solve the
problem for the vast majority of children and parents who need our courts to be as good as they possibly can be.”
When the child protection system makes a mistake it can have devastating effects for the family involved. Amy Howell, from Bristol, took her six-week-old baby boy,
Harrison, to hospital because he was unwell in February 2008. X-rays taken to assess him showed he had multiple fractures that Amy could not explain. Blood tests
showed Harrison had severe vitamin D deficiency, a condition that can lead to rickets and weaker bones. But medical experts said the fractures were evidence of abuse
and Harrison and his older sister were taken into care.
The children were placed with Amy’s mother, but Harrison continued to be unwell.
The court eventually allowed Amy to appoint an alternative expert, a professor of genetics, who discovered that the family had an unusual history of broken bones and
fractures.
Harrison was treated for rickets and a genetic bone disorder. The professor convinced the court and 18 months after they were taken away, Amy got her children back.
“We weren’t even aware it was going to happen,” said Amy. “I phoned social services and they dropped in, ‘Oh, by the way, I suppose we better tell you that we’re
actually going to drop the case against you’.
“I sort of fell to the floor and everyone stared at me. I just sat there crying with the phone in my hand. Obviously things do happen, people do abuse their children,
and I’m not denying that, but at the same time they need to be being vigilant because these conditions can go unnoticed.”
South Gloucestershire Council said: “We have a duty to ensure that children are safeguarded until the circumstances are clear. The children in this case were always in
the care of their family. “We regret the distress this investigation caused to the family, but we do not enter into this sort of action lightly and we do so on the
basis of the evidence we have.”
Family Justice Minister Lord McNally said the reform of family justice and child protection was a “critical priority” for the government. We are changing the system so
there are new standards for expert witnesses, more effective court processes and more efficient provision of advice for families. We have also been clear that there
needs to be more openness in the family courts.”