Reforming the child protection system:
Parents and their Allies Together
On 25 February 2020, an exciting event launched a new and innovative parent partnership project for families involved with West Midlands.
The day shared the experiences of engagement with parents in the United States and across the UK, that showed how parent partnership can reduce the need for children to be in care; develop better help for families; and create better cooperation and partnership between parents and social workers.
Speakers included a range of parents with child protection experiences, but also Professor Andy Bilson, ATD Fourth World, Hope Newton from Rise magazine in New York, Camden Family Group Conferencing and Southwark Parents Panel.
Sadly this wasn’t played due to technical problems
Read Becca Dove and Tim Fisher’s moving account of the conference:
Amanda got up out of her chair. She had watched the young parent activist in tears telling her story; her anguish and anger at the way services had treated her and her child was clear – as was the extraordinary courage it had taken to tell her story in the first place.
Amanda, a peer advocate with ATD Fourth World, walked from the audience to the front of the room, took a chair beside the mother and put a hand on her shoulder. Read More
Read the accounts of 3 ATD speakers
The first thing that ATD Fourth World offers is what we call “parent-led advocacy”. A member of the ATD core team might not have lived experience of poverty. But the support they offer is not like the role played by professionals because … Read more