P-06-1199 Place Cardiff Children's Services into special measures and conduct an urgent independent review

This petition was submitted by Stephen Pearce, having collected a total of 325 signatures.

Text of Petition:                     

Cardiff Social Services and in particular Children’s Services are in complete meltdown. A recent inspection by CIW has been described as a whitewash with staff being told "to toe the party line". Families are being failed and torn apart, children are being removed from loving parents and victims of domestic abuse then forced to have contact with the abuser.

Additional Information:

One family whose daughter was the victim of horrendous physical and sexual domestic abuse at the hands of her ex partner has had her child removed following a Family Court process where selective evidence was used to pass the threshold. The victim had no less than 9 different social workers in a 12 month period and 4 in 3 weeks after the birth of her child. Most recently a social worker that had been with the lady for less than 6 weeks left telling the lady that "she could no longer work for Cardiff Children’s services as they were in turmoil and failing" This situation cannot continue, families should not be destroyed because an organisation or its staff cannot manage workloads and have an agenda to take all cases to court offering no support and intervention or work to keep families together.

Status

This petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on 04/10/2021.

The Committee noted the role of Care Inspectorate Wales in assessing performance of local authorities, and that there is a clear process for them to raise concerns directly with Welsh Government. Members agreeing to note and close the petition.

Full details of the consideration of this petition by the Committee and related documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.

It was first considered by the Petitions Committee on 04/10/2021.

Senedd Constituency and Region

• Cardiff North
• South Wales Central

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