A peek into the Scottish situation shows where the road to child “safeguarding” is actually heading, and it doesn't look like a good thing. Check out East Renfrewshire Scotland's multi-agency overview guidance for practitioners and managers on fabricated or induced illness (FII).
On November 22, 2014, the Daily Mail reported the story of Ms. Kidston, a mother accused by Hereford Social Services of attempting to poison her teenage daughter. In reality, Ms. Kidston had simply sought medical advice at the clinic of Dr. Thierry Hartoghe in Brussels. Ms. Kidston's daughter was suffering from a number of ailments, including chronic fatigue, low blood pressure, and muscle and joint pain, and her mother was desperately searching for a cure. What would any loving mother not do?
In March last year, after being unable to contact Ms Kidston, police and social workers went to her home, arrested her and handed her daughter over to foster parents. The mother was acquitted but the girl has still not been allowed to return home.
On the surface this is another example of the extraordinary and uncontrollable power of social services and child “protection” teams. But a look at the situation in Scotland shows where the road to child “protection” is actually heading, and it's not a good thing. East Renfrewshire Scotland Multi-agency overview guidance for practitioners and managers FII on fabricated or induced illnesses
This dangerous little document provides “guidance and advice for practitioners at all institutions on how to respond to concerns about FIIs.”
So what is FII? According to Renfrewshire, this includes but is not limited to the fabrication of signs and symptoms, the fabrication and falsification of hospital documents, records and specimens, and the induction of illness by various means. Worryingly, FII is simply a reinvention of the widely discredited label Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which was used by paediatrician Sir Roy Meadows to provide false and misleading evidence at the trial of Sally Clarke. Convicted and jailed for murder, Sally was released after three years but never recovered from her horrific experience and died an alcoholic.
The East Renfrewshire report makes it a priority to report the allegations against them as soon as possible. However, parents may not be informed of the allegations against them. That said, the allegations will be discussed widely and in confidence by various “child protection” agencies from day one. If the agencies decide that the child's life is at risk, the child will be taken into “child protection”, which has already happened to thousands of children with just the label “risk of psychological harm”. FII gives state agencies yet another powerful tool to remove children. Once removed, parents face virtually insurmountable difficulties against the power of the family courts. Facing a panoply of publicly funded and state-sponsored social services, psychiatrists, psychologists, Cafcass child guardians, legal teams and charities such as Barnados and the NSPCC, very few parents are able to get custody back.
It was precisely this pattern that allowed Neath Port Talbot social services to take custody of Linda Lewis' daughter. Desperately seeking a diagnosis and treatment for her young daughter, who was in considerable pain, Linda was falsely accused of Müchhausen syndrome by proxy and of intending to kill her daughter and then commit suicide. Although Linda succeeded in obtaining the correct diagnosis of Zollinger's disease (multiple perforations of the intestine) in a Florida hospital, which was extremely painful, her daughter was taken from her by NPT social workers supported by American police officers with guns drawn. The girl was flown back to the UK on a false passport and placed in a psychiatric ward where she was told her pain was imaginary. Although Neath Social Services later admitted that the Zollinger's diagnosis had been correct, the girl was never returned to her mother. Now an adult, she I deliberately rebelled against my mother. She threatened to murder her daughter and then commit suicide after falsely accusing her of Munchausen.
In Scotland, proposals have been made to give every child a designated social worker at birth. Combined with the excessive and growing power of the state to take children away through current child “protection” powers, the nominee system will create a further gulf between parents and children. Many will be surprised to know that the Family Court in England has already determined that parents have responsibilities but no rights over their children. The next step will be to openly declare that children are the property of the state. Our children are part of us, our future. If children are taken from us, there is no future. It is up to us to fight for our families and children, or to give in and agree to the abduction of our children by the British government. While you ponder this question, why not read the heartbreaking letters written by children to judges, pleading for their cries to be heard, to be healed and to come home… but they never came home.
