SCREAMING CHILDREN (from age 10) will be heard, promises Family Justice Minister Simon Hughes MP

This video also published on Robin Hood Revival is an amazing collection of snippets about accusations, abusers, media reports, victims and campaigners. 44 seconds of my 6 minutes at the EU Petitions Committee in Brussels are clipped into 21.03 of the total of 48 minutes.

I got the link on the day of this promising news: children will be given a greater voice in the family justice system so they can tell judges how they feel and what they think about the family disputes they are involved in.

As always, noble intentions:

Children and young people should be at the centre of all proceedings.

At the moment, it is still too often that their views are not heard.

Of course how we move from the present court practice to one which implements this change will need careful discussion with all those with proper interests, including the President of the Family Division, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and Cafcass.

BUT: he talks as if children end up in care only because of custody issues between parents, i.e. PRIVATE law, when, in fact, PUBLIC law applies, when Social Services get Police to snatch children every 20 minutes. Therefore: what about all those children over 10

who are currently in care and have not been heard?
who have written to their judges and were ignored?
who are in care NOT as a result of custody disputes but adoption targets and institutionalised child snatching such that a child is taken by Social Services every 20 minutes?

Well, change has to start somewhere.

At least it sounds as if the screaming of some of the children has been heard!

Today I also got this letter from the Home Office regarding the National Inquiry into Organised Child Sexual Abuse – to be headed by Norman Baker, Minister of State for Crime Prevention. The letter suggests: Don’t worry. Everything is under control. Everything is hunky dory…

And here, John Hemming MP is speaking about the Care Abuse inquiry.