“The Role of Government Edicts in False
Accusations of Child Abuse”.
Blue paragraphs
and extracts may be cut through shortage of time.
Red italic items are reference materials
not intended to be read out.
When our son was three and joined a playgroup I could no longer
convince myself that everything was ok with him and asked my GP
for a referral to the local Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. Unbeknown
to me her referral letter suggested that our son’s problems
lay in my need for attention. This was our first “gossamer
breath”. For the next six years this letter thwarted our every
attempt to get medical or educational assessment or support for
our son.
In 1998 our son’s bilateral pneumonia and pleurisy were missed
by GPs who believed him to be a “snotty nosed kid” with
an over- anxious mother.
In 1999 we took the Local Education Authority to a Special Educational
Needs Tribunal to ask for a Statutory Assessment of our son’s
difficulties. The LEA Educational Psychologist, convinced the LEA
Tribunal Officer that she was protecting our son from my potential
abuse, by blocking medical reports and a diagnosis of his Dyslexia.
The Tribunal officer assisted the Educational Psychologist in her
tactics. We failed at Tribunal because we lacked the evidence contained
in the blocked reports. A senior local councillor reported our experiences
to the chief executive of our Local Council who was not pleased
as he did not consider this to be in the spirit of Tribunal or the
best interests of the child.
The educational psychologist used our failure at Tribunal as supposed
evidence of my attempt to draw attention to myself by exaggerating
or fantasising about our son’s problems. She linked up with
a head-teacher who didn’t like our son’s effect on her
attendance statistics and the GP who was embarrassed that she had
missed the pneumonia and feared a possible claim for medical negligence.
They conspired to accuse me of causing “significant harm”
to our son by seeking unnecessary medical and educational tests.
Both children were placed on the “At Risk” register
until our MP and the Leader of the Lib Dem group on the hung council
both intervened on our behalf. I determined to fight to clear my
name and ensure that other families were spared similar or worse
trauma, often triggered by failures in SEN assessment and support.
A 1979 report by Baroness Mary Warnock, on integration of SEN children
into mainstream schools, formed the basis of the 1981 Education
Act. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”
and Lady Warnock said recently (TES 19
09 03) “It has ceased to be about what the child
needs and has just become a battle for resources”. She spoke
of the huge amounts of money wasted on litigation over Statements
“This is what has been so tragic. It’s a huge industry,
it’s wasteful and unproductive.” She suggested that
the changes had left some children worse off than 26 years ago.
I am hearing increasing numbers of stories, like our own, where
schools and education authorities make social services referrals
on the basis of supposed parental harm or fantasy, instead of assessing
and supporting children with special educational needs.
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© Jan Loxley Blount 05 11 04 London
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