ListenSCOTLAND
'I needed to go into care. I needed to be taken out
of that situation'
As the Scottish Parliament launches an investigation into the system for
taking children in care, a woman has told STV News how it took years to come
to terms with being separated from her mother.
Jade Roy, now 38, was taken into care when she was five years old after her
mother became involved with drugs.
MSPs on Holyrood's Education and Culture Committee are to examine the
process by which social workers decide whether to take children away from
their parents.
Committee convener Stewart Maxwell said the inquiry would help ensure "that
we are making the best decisions for children who may be abused or
neglected".
Mr Maxwell said: "There is a sensitive and difficult balance to be struck
between supporting families at home and intervening to remove children from
harmful situations".
Ms Roy, from Edinburgh, told STV News that being taken away from her mother
was a hugely stressful experience that she only fully understood years
afterwards.
She said: "I really loved my family that adopted me... but it always hung
over me that I still loved my mum.
"It wasn't I suppose until I was maybe 18 or 19 that I asked for my papers
from the social work to find out exactly what had happened, because you
remember things differently when you're little.
When I read it all I was just really shocked about what it was saying about
me: I wet the bed, I didn't play, I didn't talk, I was just really unusual,
withdrawn child, and I don't remember being like that.
"Just reading it back reaffirmed to me that it was absolutely the right
thing to do for me. I needed to be taken out of that situation."
The committee says it will not rush to judgment, but consider in detail the
current system to decide if it is working for children and their families.
The inquiry will also look at whether decisions are being made consistently
across the country.
Over the last 10 years the number of children in care has risen from under
11,000 to more than 16,000. Last year 5,437 looked-after children remained
in the family home.
News feature
29 June 2012
http://local.stv.tv/edinburgh/108471-i-needed-to-go-into-care-i-needed-to-be-taken-out-of-that-situation/
