In the News

It is high time the veils of secrecy were ripped from this national outrage; that politicians intervened to call the system to order; and that the press was free to bring properly to light family tragedies...

A Nottingham County Court judge made an interim care order in favour of Nottingham City Council authorising [the twins] transfer to temporary foster care.

But in a hearing at the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Thorpe said there had been "no welfare concerns" brought up about the parents' ability to raise the boys "on a day-to-day basis". [.. ..]

John Hemming, a Birmingham MP and chairman of the Justice For Families Campaign Group, welcomed the Court of Appeal's verdict.

But he said social workers were still focusing too much on "minor cases"...

John Hemming, the Lib Dem MP and critic of the family courts, has compared David Southall to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.

A mother alleged to have 'emotionally abused' her daughter by telling her she was born by caesarean has fled to Ireland with the child. [.. ..]

[John Hemming] said: 'This whole case is madness. There is no reason for the state to be involved in this little girl's life in this way.'

A couple have won a legal battle to prevent social workers taking their five-year-old son into care after the authorities claimed that his health had been damaged by a meat-and-dairy-free diet.

Rachael’s case illustrates the dilemma facing social services. Inadequate parents who have had their children removed often go on to have more children to fill the void in their lives — thus multiplying the human and financial cost.

The number of babies not in care who have died as a result of serious neglect or abuse has risen significantly in the wake of the Baby Peter case, CYP Now has learned.

Last week we were subjected to the dreadful details of two children raped and abused by their father and let down again and again by the child protection system.

Shahnaz Malik was accused of “emotional abuse” following allegations that also included cuddling her daughter, Amaani, for too long when dropping her off at nursery.

A couple who fled the UK to ensure their unborn child would not be taken away by social services have had their two-week-old son removed by Spanish authorities.

John Hemming, a Lib Dem MP and chairman of Justice for Families, believes [this] is a growing phenomenon. “It is clear that nothing is being done to sort the family courts out and so more people are thinking of simply emigrating,” he said

A couple who fled to Ireland after social workers threatened to remove their baby at birth have had the newborn snatched after all.

New proposals were unveiled by the Ministry of Justice last week which were intended to contribute further towards the contentious opening of the family courts ...

The newly proposed system of naming experts has also been extolled by those such as John Hemming ...

There has been a major increase in the adoption of children in Britain since Government's incentive to social workers. [.. ..]

Mr Hemming has said that he has evidence from parents that children are separated from families without proper grounds and is unable to publicize this because fo the court laws.

A Birmingham MP has taken an on-the-run whistleblower into his home after he claimed asylum in the UK.[.. ..]

John Hemming says Stuart Syvret will be arrested “over his dead body” after the former Jersey health minister holed up at his London flat.

George and Liz McCulloch committed one simple crime in the eyes of the authorities. They fought for a better standard of education for their disabled daughter;[.. ..]

Partner Paul, 43, said he watched in horror as mum and baby were whisked off to hospital separately after the dramatic social services swoop on September 15.

Birmingham MP John Hemming is calling for an independent inquiry into how councils, police and health trusts investigate suspicious child deaths.

The author of a damning report into “systematic failure” by Birmingham children’s social services today challenges city council leaders to provide new investment to turn the troubled department around.[.. ..]

Yardley Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, a family rights campaigner, said: “This report confirms what I have known for a long time. There is a lot of really bad practice going on.

Victims of domestic violence are having their children snatched away from them to prevent the youngsters witnessing the abuse.[.. ..]

Birmingham Lib Dem MP Mr Hemming, said: “This is a situation in which the state punishes rather than protects victims of domestic violence. The Government needs to urgently review this policy as it is doing untold harm to hundreds of families.”

Parents are being threatened with having their children taken into care after questioning doctors’ diagnoses or objecting to their medical care. [.. ..]

Cases are emerging across the UK:

Angela Wileman never thought this day would come. She wraps her arms around her seven-year-old son Lucas, as if she cannot let go. 'I have fought to keep him and I have won. At last we can stop running away,' she says with relief in her voice.

Birmingham city council officials were left red-faced last night after a pledge to reveal the findings of investigations into the cases of eight children who died from suspected abuse or neglect backfired. [.. ..]

John Hemming (Lib Dem Yardley) added: “Whoever devised the rules for the safeguarding children website does not understand it’s about communicating with people not about keeping things secret.” [.. ..]

A father of four who was forced out of his own home by social workers over unfounded allegations of sexual abuse has been reunited with his family.[.. ..]

[.. ..] John Hemming said social workers were spending too much time in the office “in front of computers” and failing to get out and talk to parents and young people thought to be at risk of physical or sexual abuse. [.. ..]

< Includes video footage >

An inquiry into the poor performance of Birmingham children’s social services will expose systemic failure in a department unfit to cope with the growing pressures of looking after vulnerable young people in the 21st century...

A three-day-old girl is at the centre of an emotional custody battle after a British couple fled to Ireland to have their baby only to have it siezed by social workers in the Republic.

A mother who has been told her daughter will be adopted because she does not have the mental capacity to look after her claims the child has been "stolen".

A young mother who was judged too stupid to care for her own baby has accused social workers of 'stealing' the child from her.

Parents fighting in the family courts for contact with their children are being denied access to their personal files by a corrupt system, a leading parental rights campaigner has said.

Today sees the opening up of family courts to the media as a result of new legislation. From now on, according to the amended Family Proceedings Rules, “accredited representatives of news-gathering and reporting organizations” will be allowed inside all family proceedings courts, whether divorce or private or public children law.

The politician arrested last week for allegedly breaking data protection laws says Jersey police have erased numbers from his mobile phone.

This month, her three-year campaign with John Hemming MP to open up family courts will pay off, as journalists and charity representatives such as herself are finally allowed to attend case conferences, enabling greater public scrutiny of procedures.

Jack Straw has been accused of a confidence trick over plans to open the family courts to the media.

John Hemming, MP, has warned that although the Justice Secretary’s new rules will allow the media to attend family court proceedings for the first time, reports cannot be published without the judge’s permission.

A bid to secure a judicial review into the Jersey child abuse inquiry has been rejected at London's High Court.

It was brought by Jersey senator Stuart Syvret and UK Lib Dem MP John Hemming, who say the law has been subverted by a "cover-up and political interference".

A group of MPs, led by John Hemming, has organised a meeting at the House of Commons with a group of journalists and media agony aunts to discuss the care system and family courts.

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming agrees: "There are two issues here. One is that the press will be prevented from reporting cases like the Websters with their names and faces. The other is that, at the moment, children who are in care are entitled to speak out if they are unhappy, although it doesn't happen very often because nobody knows how to do it. The effect of this change will be to gag them."

Social Services could be failing to prevent the deaths of almost 50 children a year at the hands of their parents and guardians.

The biggest-ever media investigation into lethal child abuse, published in The Mail on Sunday’s Live magazine today, reveals the shocking hidden toll of children who die of suspected neglect or abuse in their families’ care

On July 1 last year, John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, wrote under the Freedom of Information Act to all local authorities in England that deal with child protection. He wanted to know the number of child death SCRs commissioned by the authorities, along with the ages of the children and the dates of their deaths. Hemming's findings - which he has shared with us exclusively and form part of our investigation- are important.

The shadow minister for children, Tim Loughton, and Plaid Cymru's Parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd are among the signatories of the early day motion tabled by John Hemming MP a week ago.

Social services maintained that the boy, who has to be known as Boy L to protect his identity, had been in danger of "emotional harm" after witnessing his father's alcoholic rages against his mother, and had to be removed from her care. ...

...John Hemming, Lib-Dem MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has long campaigned for greater transparency in the working of the family courts, agrees. He told me: "If social services had the best interest of Boy L at heart, they would let him stay with his mother. She poses no threat to him at all. ...

Mr Straw has indicated that media reporting will now be permitted provided it does not compromise the identities of the children involved...

The case of Baby P has captured more public and political attention than any since the murder of Victoria Climbie in 2000, yet such cases are far from rare... ...The campaigner and MP John Hemming has said that the inquiry ordered by the Government in the wake of the Baby P case should look not only at "false negatives", ... ...but also "false positives", where blameless parents lose their children to council care.

A Midland MP’s campaign to end secrecy in family law courts appears set for victory. ...Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, is to announce a change of policy, allowing press and broadcasters to report on hearings which decide whether children should be taken into care.

It has emerged that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is to announce a change of policy next month, allowing press and broadcasters to report on hearings which decide whether children should be taken into care.

The attorney general launched a review yesterday of criminal cases over the last decade in which the controversial paediatrician David Southall acted as a prosecution witness, amid concerns about nearly 4,500 secret files he kept on patients and former patients....

John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, who helped to persuade Lord Goldsmith to launch the review, called for it to be expanded to cover earlier prosecutions and child protection cases in the family courts where children were taken into care.

Babies are being removed from their parents so that councils can meet adoption targets, John Hemming MP has claimed.

John Hemming MP has lodged an official complaint with the Speaker of the House of Commons after the University Hospital of North Staffordshire said it was prepared to sue him for thousands of pounds over the release of secret hospital files on children who were the subject of controversial medical research.

John Hemming MP, the Chairman of Justice for Families, has challenged the GMC to demonstrate why families who want to talk to the press about the GMC hearing currently going on cannot do so openly.

John Hemming tabled a Commons motion asking the University Hospital of North Staffordshire to release the notes by Professor David Southall.

Have you or a member of your family been accused of MSBP/FII? Do you know of someone who has? Have you been threatened with an accusation of MSbP / FII? If so, a cross-party group of Members of Parliament needs your help.