Dear Sir,
As a Christian social worker in the area of child protection, I would like to respond to two articles in the June 2017 en.
I accept there is an increasingly aggressive secularisation happening in society. I also have little knowledge of the incidents, and the only information I could find was online reports from the Daily Mail / Telegraph.
The first was in the News in Brief section on page 3, where the Christian Institute reported how a social worker was criticised for advising a couple against baptising their baby as it hindered the chances of adoption. I accept it was unwise for this to have been said.
The second was from Dr Lisa Nolland’s article on ‘Standing against the revolution’, where she reports how a 13-year-old girl was distressed at a fellow pupil masturbating in class and that when her mother complained, she was reported to social services and advised that she was fortunate her child had not been taken into care.
As mentioned, I have no knowledge of this case, but having worked for two local authorities, I know that, had this case been referred to us, we would have considered the mother protective and would have been concerned at the incident taking place in school.
I feel that these two articles, although they may be true, are also misleading. Whenever a child is open to social services, there has to be clear evidence that the child is at risk of harm and, when a child goes into care, there are strong legal guidelines. In these cases the reports follow the misrepresentation of the secular media, which is unhelpful. A frequent part of my work is to reassure parents that I am not going to remove their children.
Also, I know of cases where non-Christian social workers, who would describe themselves as atheists, have ensured that, when a child has had to go into foster care, they have attended church if that is their wish, which happened in the church I attend.
Yours sincerely,
