Foster care and it's horrible truth
- Details
- Category: Australian child protection authorities
- Created: Wednesday, 28 September 2016 21:39
- Written by Alecomm2
Every day we see more and more horror stories about foster care, more and more children are either dying or being abused while in care. The public may think that these children would be abused if they had of stayed with their biological parent and in some cases this is in fact very true. However, we have things call 4 week, 6 week, 6 month and 12 month orders we also have 18 year orders of which go through the judicial system called the family youth court. A lot of people may be surprised to hear this but for any child protection order, the claims do not have to be proven beyond reasonable doubt but simply on a balance of probabilities. This means that children are court ordered away from their parents because there is a chance something may happen. This does not mean it will, ever has or ever would happen. Now, this means that claims from phone line and in person complaints can be used and called evidence against you in the court room. This means that anyone can call in and say that you're taking drugs, abusing your children, not feeding them & beating them without any of these things actually happening. It is assumed that CPS will not involve themselves unless it is an absolutely terrible situation, however this assumption is incorrect. How come we see so many children dying in foster care or being abused but yet when the parents of the children being removed and placed in these dangerous homes cry out asking for help or publicity everyone turns a blind eye to what is going on? There is an assumption that parents who's kids have been removed are bad people. This is not true, in 4 week orders CPS apply to have children removed from their parents home to do an "assessment" one of the things that they assess the parent on is a thing called parental capacity, this process of assessing parental capacity is literally going to an appointment with a physcologist who is "trained in the field". You only have to go here once for them to say that they either need further assessment or that they do not think you should have your child. This is a 1 and a half hour process that decides your childs future for the rest of their and your lives. Now if this physcologist says they need to further assess you CPS will then apply for a 6 week, 6 month or 12 month order to get the assessment done. Now, this is 4 weeks of being ripped away from their parent and on top of that another 6 more because CPS failed to complete their job properly. I would like you all to think about the kind of damage this does to a child. On top of this any false allegations they wish to make, for example if they were to lie and say your house was disgusting and unfit for a child to live in they do not need to provide proof of this only case notes which are exactly what they sound like they are notes written on a notebook. ANYTHING can be written in case notes, these are the notes they use in court and call proof. This along with whatever the physcologist has said that they think of you from your 1 and a half hour visit determines whether or not you get your children back or they go for a 12 month or 18 year order. In a 12 month order they can either decide to go for an extended 6 months or 18 year order. This so called "evidence" is nothing more then hear say and whatever those workers feel like writting about it.
If you think that this is fair then you may ignore what I'm about to say however, this at the least in my opinion is extremely unfair. I believe that accesses should be 100% recorded and that those tapes in their entirety should be seen by a jury and judge when applying for 18 year orders. Infact your entire case should be over seen by a jury if CPS wish to go for 18 year orders, this along with changing the standard from a balance of probabilities to beyond reasonable doubt will cause an extremely positive outcome for all australian families and their children. Any evidential information should be taken seriously and be able to be presented before a jury in 18 year orders. I call for justice within our judicial system and to stop the corruptness we now know as CPS. No one want children to be used like bargaining chips and to be used as nothing mroe then a number these are australias most vulnerable and helpless.. We need to be doing right by them, their families and our county.
