Children Leaving Care

[squidge]

Information released today suggests that as a society we are failing the most vulnerable of our children - those who need care because they are unable to live at home.

The link is here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5363432.stm and you should read it.

Some of the key findings are that 75% of children leave care with no qualifications, 50% will end up unemployed and 25 % homeless. What are we doing???? What can we change to ensure that we start to change this - these children have been failed by their parents and then they are failed again by the system which is supposed to be there to look after them. its shocking

[martin macdonald]

Information released today suggests that as a society we are failing the most vulnerable of our children - those who need care because they are unable to live at home.

The link is here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5363432.stm and you should read it.

Some of the key findings are that 75% of children leave care with no qualifications, 50% will end up unemployed and 25 % homeless. What are we doing???? What can we change to ensure that we start to change this - these children have been failed by their parents and then they are failed again by the system which is supposed to be there to look after them. its shockingyes i agree it is very sad to say that we live in Britain and see these figures.i believe that our country is in a spiritual, moral and family values decline and is slipping fast in to desperate times. we have all these goodie two shoes and experts tellng us that times are good,with their heads in the sand.

[changilass]

The proposed changes in regards to making childrens courts more open is going to make matters worse.

The biggest reason for all the moves is to do with giving families every oportunity to parent their kids in an acceptable maner.

The previous priority of looking at what is in the best interest of the child should be brought back. I am all for keeping families together if possible but a lot of these parents just can't change.

Some kids that could have been adopted or fostered on a long term basis are in short term foster placements because of all the red tape that is involved in the system, and it just is not fair on the kids.

[j4bberw0ck]

It's a disgrace. I suspect it'll be a tough nut to crack, though, because if 62% are going in because of abuse or neglect the damage is already done. The "system", like all government systems, will be about the "system" first and the kids second, regarding them as the grist in the mill.

I have to agree with a number of the points Martin MacDonald made. People have become convinced IMHO that having children is a right (it isn't), and that they can "have it all" (they can't). The Scandinavian system of paying mothers to stay at home might be a workable alternative that would be better than pouring money into a system that fails dismally.

Some hard, and very definitely politically incorrect decisions - ones which would have the human rights brigade howling - need to be taken. I'm thinking compulsory contraceptive implants, for instance - age 11 to age 25, or earlier marriage. Males and females. Some obvious problems, dosing adolescents with hormones, but I can't imagine any 14 year old having a human right to pregnancy or a child; maybe that's just me. If we can't stop them copulating, we can maybe stop some of them having babies they're not equipped to care for.

People need to stop thinking of their parental rights and start thinking of their child's rights and their own responsibilities.

[squidge]

People need to stop thinking of their parental rights and start thinking of their child's rights and their own responsibilities.

Dont we ( society) have a duty to teach people these things though. How do they learn when they may very well have been brought up in care as well?

[j4bberw0ck]

Absolutely agree. The problem is how are they to be taught? Schools? Curricula are under pressure as it is. College course? The people most in need are the least likely to attend. How do you force them to, and if you do, how do you make sure they learn something?

The seeds of it lie in the Welfare State itself (and I'm not advocating unwinding it); the minute everything became "the Guvvamint's problem" people (some people) decided that they didn't have to do anything for themselves any more and someone else would pick up the pieces. To that extent I agree with Dreadnought's comments in the Wick General thread (he may be surprised to learn :lol: ).

It's terribly difficult not to over-simplify this, but add to Welfare State issues the post "Summer of Love" generation with reliable contraception, the Seventies habit of housing single mothers first, the Eighties illusion that all women "can have everything", the Nineties burden of taxation and the loss of any advantage in being married, and the age-old persistence of the British in viewing houses as investments, so forcing prices up, so two incomes plus overtime become necessities (especially in lower income groups) and bingo! Problems all round.

It is possible to shift public perceptions over time, given resource. Once upon a time, drink-driving was a lighthearted game of "dodge the coppers". These days opinions have shifted somewhat and people will actually phone the police to report a drunk behind a wheel. So education will eventually work, but back to the first question - where and how?

TV soaps might be a good start and in this celeb-crazy age, get a few celebs onside too. Articles in gossip magazines..... Mills and Boon-ish books? And for heaven's sake, lets find a politician prepared to charge Capital Gains Tax on house sale profits where houses are sold within say 5 years of purchase, to try to damp down the market. And use the revenues to reduce income tax by raising the earnings point at which people pay tax.