14 March 2003
The government is in danger of leaving more children in care and custody than ever before, despite its good intentions to tackle anti-social behaviour, the children's charity Barnardo's warned this week.
The charity was responding to the government's white paper, Respect and responsibility, taking a stand against anti-social behaviour, launched by Home Secretary David Blunkett on March 12.
Blunkett said he was determined to get rid of the thuggish behaviour, vandalism and begging in Britain's communities, which he claimed could lead to a 'climate of lawlessness' that criminals were able to exploit.
Departing from current practice, which tries to keep families together, the white paper recommends the introduction of compulsory, intensive foster placements.
But Barnardo's principal policy officer, Pam Hibbert, said separating families was contrary to the spirit of the 1989 Children Act, which said that children should not be removed from their families unless there were serious grounds of risk to the child or others.
She said: 'If the aim of intensive fostering is, firstly, to change criminal and antisocial behaviour and, secondly, to provide good parenting experience, then the breaking of strong familial attachments could be counter-productive. Children respond to such detachment by "acting out", and if they are already engaging in criminal behaviour, it is likely that this will increase.'
Entire families could be placed in residential care to teach them better parenting skills, according to the white paper, which also proposes that persistent bad behaviour could be an automatic trigger to stop benefits.
For the first time, begging could lead to a criminal record, and police should be allowed to take fingerprints from such offenders, the white paper says.
A Bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament within weeks.
PFmar2003