The operation of secret courts enforcing foregone conclusions is not unique to the UK. America uses a similar system in it's secret court proceedings that are in connection to the 'Family Court'. In these 'courts', a psychologist who may have only spoken with you for a brief interview has the power to write a court order which is endorsed without consultation or evidence being a requirement. The fact that women, because of economic disparities are more often unable to obtain legal advice puts families in a dangerous position. The phenomena of harassment through the courts is a weapon of the unbalanced who understand that, merely an accuzation, in light of the family courts prejudices, is a serious threat and in fact a punishment in and of itself. Wht more perfect mechanism of revenge could a malevolant person enact than to elicite the help of a court and a system that will enact penalty with only accuzation and no requirement of proof?

Mollie Walsh-Stroh, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Incompetence and bias will always flourish when there is no outside scrutiny and accountability.

Family Law is riddled with incompetence and bias precisely because of the blanket 'secrecy' that only protects lawyers, judges, social workers and Cafcass officers from scrutiny and accountability.

Surely it is time to protect children and families, rather than the workers involved in Family Law who can never raise their standards in a culture of 'secrecy'.

Jeff, Surrey,

Place the responsibility for any financial compensation directly on the individuals, ( the social workers, doctors, advisors etc, )rather than allowing them to hide behind the finances of the state. Make them truly reponsible for their decisions.

Roger, Bournemouth, UK

Who are these little quislings who have come to power under this discredited left wing government. The left wing thrive on power and control it is the basis of their insidious ideology and it is time to rid our selves of them and put this ruined country back together. The damage done after ten years of these control freak left wingers affects all our lives and has destroyed true democracy in the UK.

D Case, Newquay,

If bureaucrats are given power you have to expect them to use it. And when there are no controls over their power then you have to expect them to abuse it.

It's not just social workers: there and increasing number of quasi-judicial bodies that have the power to punish us for perceived transgressions. This authoritarian Labour regime has tied up the judicial authorities (police, courts, etc.) in PC red tape, while awarding local authorities and other petty bureaucrats sweeping powers to monitor us, fine us, and run rough shod over us.

We used to have the tradition of innocent until proven guilty. Labour have turned that on it’s head so now, once accused, we’re guilty until proven innocent. It cannot be right that a mother found innocent by the courts has her children taken away regardless. Likewise it cannot be right that a local authority can fine you for a perceived offence, leaving you with the choice of meekly paying up or fighting them in the courts to clear your name.

Ian, London,

why are our taxes wasted on morons like them and the thousands of others employed by the government to keep unemployment down. All these people are doing jobs that don't need doing or because there are so many doing the same job that they get lazy. Wouldn't the money be better spent in key areas of society instead of hiring people to push paperwork?

Keith, london,

Social workers have a tough job to do, the decisions they make can destroy a familes lives forever. They used to say 'doctors bury their mistakes', social services bury theirs under a veil of secrecy, hidden behind closed doors hidden, keeping all calls for openess at bay using their mantra "for the childs protection", whilst in many cases performing legalised child-abduction. Family courts should not be exempt from the clarity, and need for firm evidence that openess can bring to any legal preceedings, prior to judgement being made, without openess you create an autocratic system.

Leslie Corrin, Southport, England.

Surely it can only be correct to describe these dreadful people as crawling 'beneath' the law.

Geoffrey Lake, Carbost, Isle of Skye

The difficulty here is that there are two different burdens of proof operating, and the public and media frequently confuse the two. One is that of beyond reasonable doubt, which is necessary to secure a criminal conviction; the second is that of balance of probability which is used in civil care proceedings and when making decisions to safeguard children. Because of the high burden of proof in criminal cases, very few instances of child abuse result in an actual convictions. However if this standard were transferred to decision-making about safeguarding children there would be a lot more child deaths than there actually are. Social workers are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Moreover, in many high profile cases, while families are free to tell their side of the story to the media, public agencies are bound by confidentiality. The reality of a case is often somewhat different to what is publicized

Richard, Bexhill, UK

Thank New Labour and their Big Brother destruction of our personal liberties.

RB, Aberdeen,

The principle of council officers acting as judge, jury and executioner, regardless of, if not with contempt for, the law is commonplace in the local council.
Accusation is equivalent to guilt, no evidence is required, and proof is never more than unspecified allegation by unnamed persons, the evidence for which is too confidential to reveal.
Totally unlawful cowboy trials / kangaroo courts are held, the outcome of which, with the prescribed sanction, is pre-arranged.
Whilst it is tragic that children are separated from their parents, there are other ways in which families are being routinely destroyed.

martin brighton, sheffield,

We are going thru this similar vein of events here in Canada. A forensic MD named Charles Smith made a whole bunch of mistakes in his autopsies. Some parents and family members went to prison for 5-10+ years for 'murders' they didn't commit. So sad.

e chase, toronto, canada

This is a terrible example of how wrong people can be about SBS, we need to inform social workers and others that are on the front line of "protecting our children" that research is showing that there are other explanations for the symptoms that they see. SBS is an unproven theory! Of course they should wait until after the law are found judgement on a individual. These social workers should be removed from their jobs and the children should be returned to their mother ASAP.

Kupcraft, Oswego, USA