Social authorities monitor their living conditions closely

The County of Wales prefers caring for children outside of their families

  • Foster homes and nurseries are a refuge for many of the county’s children.

    Archives

  • Social services deprive families of their children in order to protect them.

    Archives

  • A child can be withdrawn from their mother at any age.

    Archives

picture

Social workers have always been present in Jane's life. The British mother lives with her five-year-old son and one-year-old daughter in a small town in South Wales, where jobs are scarce and visits from social services are common. Jane, now 34, was three years old when she was transferred to kindergarten and spent her childhood moving between private centers and children's homes. And at the age of seventeen she gave birth to her first child, which was quickly taken to the care center. She was unable to raise her children until she gave birth to the fifth child. Her two children now live with her.

Still, the mother worries that social services will take them away, and the county is caring for one in 100 children, in Wales. Cardiff University social work professor Donald Forrester, who has studied the care system for decades, believes Wells may be at the forefront, globally, in terms of the proportion of children receiving care. "We don't know the correct rate of children receiving care, but these numbers raise difficult questions about how to help families and protect children," Forrester said.

Of the 629,000 children in the British province of Wales, 7,172 are receiving care by the state, according to data in March of last year, an annual increase of 5%.

Most of them are found in nurseries, while the rest are in children's homes, or with families under court supervision.

International comparisons are difficult, but in America, for example, it appears that the rate is half the rate in Wales, with 424,000 children, out of 73 million, receiving care, or being in government institutions, in 2019. While there is concern in England On increasing state sponsorship of children, the phenomenon in Wales is more evident.

In 1994, England and Wales each had 0.4% of children receiving care.

Over the next 26 years, the rate of children under the age of 18 in care homes in Wales increased by 153%, compared to 58% in England.

For Ms. Jane, the threat of the authorities to intervene is never far away.

The mother says that social workers placed the children in a care plan during the lockdown and threatened to take custody of them due to the humidity in her home, although this is the responsibility of the Housing Association.

"The social workers weren't really great at giving me help or advice," she explained. "The house was 63% damp, and that was blamed."

Jane says that her experience makes her know how to organize daily activities with her children. “I love nothing more than going to school with my daughter and watching my son run towards me, because I know how precious he is, and I can lose him at any moment.”

Tense stage

Jane lived a tense phase as a young woman, suffering from mental health issues as well as alcoholism.

But she gave up alcohol, got married in 2018, and with support from Voices from Charitable Care, an organization that works with those who grew up in the care system;

Social Services convinced that she was a good enough mother to take care of her two children.

Jane has no doubts that care was the right place for her to grow;

She describes her mother as "extremely unstable", and her father was found guilty of mistreating her older brother.

But she feels the care system has made it difficult for her to succeed as a mother.

Her experience highlights the way in which mothers who grow up in care are subject to greater state scrutiny and are more likely to lose custody of their children.

Scandalous practice

A book, "Children in Care," was published last month by Louise Roberts Academy, Cardiff University.

The book deals with the phenomenon of care, whereby one in four children who are adopted in Wales is born to a mother who is herself brought up in care.

"The authorities take children from their families when there is no need to do so," said Deborah Jones, who runs the Voices from Care website, explaining, "I think this is an outrageous practice."

The National Director for Wales, Alison Holmes, of the British Association of Social Workers, believes that families in cities that were built after the industrial renaissance faced special challenges.

• Of the 629,000 children in the British province of Wales, 7,172 are receiving care by the state, according to data in March of last year, an annual increase of 5%.

• 153% increase in the rate of children under the age of 18 years in care homes, County of Wales.

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news