UKIP Foster Care Row: Investigation Launched

Rotherham Council has launched an investigation into the decision to remove three foster children from a couple because of their membership of the UK Independence Party.

Councillor Paul Lakin, cabinet member for children, young people and family services, made the announcement following widespread criticism from across the political spectrum.

"This was a decision taken by social services professionals and I have ordered an immediate investigation to establish the full facts of this decision and asked for the report to be on my desk on Monday morning," he said.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage condemned the case as "outrageous", while Education Secretary Michael Gove, who was himself adopted as a child, said the Labour-controlled council's decision was "indefensible".

Three children were removed from the care of an unnamed couple from South Yorkshire who have been fostering for seven years.

They took on a baby girl, a boy and an older girl from an ethnic and troubled family background in September.

Less than eight weeks into the placement they were visited by a Rotherham social worker and foster agency official who accused them of belonging to a party with "racist policies" which meant they were unsuitable to look after the children.

Michael Gove has said the council was "wrong" to remove the foster children

The husband and wife told The Daily Telegraph they were left "dumbfounded" and "offended".

The visit followed an anonymous tip-off about the couple's party membership.

Rotherham Council said earlier it needed to consider the children's "cultural and ethnic needs" and highlighted UKIP's policy on multiculturalism.

Mr Gove said: "Rotherham Council have made the wrong decision in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. Rotherham's reasons for denying this family the chance to foster are indefensible.

"The ideology behind their decision is actively harmful to children. We should not allow considerations of ethnic or cultural background to prevent children being placed with loving and stable families. We need more parents to foster, and many more to adopt.

"Any council which decides that supporting a mainstream UK political party disbars an individual from looking after children in care is sending a dreadful signal that will only decrease the number of loving homes available to children in need. I will be investigating just how this decision came to be made and what steps we need to take to deal with this situation," he added.

The couple say the children were take away because of their UKIP membership

Joyce Thacker, strategic director of children and young people's services at the council, said the children had been placed with the couple as an emergency and it was never going to be a long-term arrangement.

"These children are from EU migrant backgrounds and UKIP has very clear statements on ending multiculturalism, not having that going forward, and I have to think about how sensitive I am being to those children," she told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Farage demanded the council apologise "wholeheartedly for the "concern and the upset they have caused".

He told Sky News he had spoken to the couple, who were "very upset and distressed" by what had happened.

"My first and primary concern is that they get a fair deal and these three children get a fair deal because what has happened is outrageous," he said.

"UKIP is a non-racist, non-sectarian political party. I mean, for goodness sake, we have got the Croydon North by-election going on at the moment where Jamaican-born Winston McKenzie is our candidate, so there are absolutely no grounds for this at all."

He said the council was now "backtracking" and had decided the couple can foster again.

"I am pleased that at least they have done that, but what they've said is rather insulting - they've said the couple may foster again, but only white children," Mr Farage continued.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has condemned the decision "outrageous"

"That, frankly, is pursuing an apartheid-style policy, dividing up children and categorising adults. That simply isn't good enough ... heads should roll within that council."

He added: "I think we should be colourblind in these things ... it's the interest of the child that matters, not some politically-correct theory."

Labour leader Ed Milband told Sky News: "Being a member of UKIP should not be a bar to adopting or fostering children."

The Daily Telegraph said the couple denied they were racist and told the officials they would not have taken them on if they were.

The wife said: "I was dumbfounded. Then my question to both of them was, 'What has UKIP got to do with having the children removed?'

"Then one of them said, 'Well, UKIP have got racist policies'. The implication was that we were racist."

"I said, 'I am absolutely offended that you could come in my house and accuse me of being a member of a racist party'."

The youngsters were taken away from the couple, who are former Labour voters, within a week last Friday.

She said she was left "bereft", adding: "We felt like we were criminals. From having a little baby in my arms, suddenly there was an empty cot."

Parliamentary by-elections for Rotherham, Middlesbrough and Croydon North are due to take place next Thursday.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

UKIP Foster Care Row: Investigation Launched

Dengan url

http://terjunbebasopan.blogspot.com/2012/11/ukip-foster-care-row-investigation.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

UKIP Foster Care Row: Investigation Launched

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

UKIP Foster Care Row: Investigation Launched

sebagai sumbernya