'Removing a child is terrible'

Sallyanne Jones is a social worker specializing in child protection. Where is the neglect, abuse or cruelty, it may have to split up families. Now she has a baby of their own, making the approach work differently?

Sallyanne Jones is cradling her seven month old baby on her lap, smiling at her face. But how would you feel if you were to give your child this evening, knowing he would never see at least 18 years, maybe ever?

is a question that is often attached to a new mother, but Sallyanne not know why I ask. She spent the last 13 years as a social worker, many of whom specialize in child protection. She has been involved in hundreds of cases where children were removed from their parents - and where it led to its eventual adoption, they lost the right to see his son until the child reaches the age adult, and then only if agreed to make contact. So yes, it is a relevant question.

She winces and holds his daughter a little harder. "I can not really imagine," he said. "I do not even try."

Sallyanne is at the center of a fly on the wall new documentary on the protection of children in the first round upset, she is shown working with a young couple, Mike and Tiffany, which are clearly taken with the effort of trying to take care of their three year old son. She and her team are trying to support the family, but when Tiffany becomes pregnant with another child, the writing is on the wall.

First, the child is in foster care and the new baby, a girl, is taken directly from the hospital to another host family. Later, when she left Mike, that social workers consider the greatest threat to their children, Tiffany took the momentous decision at hand and striking both children for adoption. "There will be a day when I will not think about them, but they will have a happier life where they go," he said through tears.

As a spectator, I can not help but think that this is a terrible indictment of our system of social care, and Tiffany's mother, who loves his children very much , you can not support the care itself. But Sallyanne said about Tiffany's decision as courageous. She is so rude to say, but I feel he has seen many over-emotional, wool liberals like me who think removing children from their mother is almost always a tragedy.

The truth is, he says, it's always ugly - but when you saw what he saw and knows the difficulties that many children suffer, you know that sometimes the adoption , though forced, it is the right path to follow. As for my protest Tiffany loves her children, Sallyanne has news for me: all parents, even those who abuse and neglect their children, loves his children. "In 13 years in this business, I have only once encountered a case where the parents did not really seem to love their children," she said.

"Thus, even in the most desperate cases, no love. It is not enough. Just not enough. I have to do is to analyze the life of the family and work to determine whether. the child's needs met through a series of requirements are the basic needs of the child do? - Do you have a bed that feeds you go to school than be served and their parents emotionally involved with him and interact with him? put their needs before yours? "

Sallyanne has just initiated a proceeding in court when she was convinced that the removal of the child was the right thing to do and now she has her own child away to regret one of actions you have taken, who thinks that children need more protection than could have been done in the past. "Removing a child is terrible, and all the time to do this job you never get used to it. On one occasion I had to peel the hands of a mother of four, and it's not something that has never forgotten or do not want to repeat.

"But even the terrible incidents are not the worst of my work. The worst is when you know a child is at risk, but you can not do something. For example, occasions when a judge will not accept your request to remove children from their parents, and think you should go home, what will happen tonight, baby It's very hard not gender work that can be disconnected -?. your concerns with you at home "

Sallyanne said she agreed to participate in the film - recorded in Bristol, where he leads a team of eight children of those responsible for protecting the welfare of 200 children with problems - because, as many social workers, who often feel professionally in the pillory for the work that is desperately difficult and society often chooses to forget that face.

• "I often feel damned if you do, damned if you do not," she said. "People do not understand the social work - only 5% of the population ever known to social workers, as opposed to health professionals or the police, who are the workers doing work hidden in his most secret and often misunderstood. "

daughter of a pastor who grew up knowing that he would like to work with children, Sallyanne, 35, fell in social work about 20 years and I loved from the start . "You feel you can really make a difference - you can actually change the lives of children better," said

Only a minority of cases that children should be removed from their parents - most often, Sallyanne said, parents can receive support to make changes that means you can keep the child. "Never thought to visit family, I have to take the kids to go think. I need to understand this family. "

She says her work is not focused on getting children, but in agreement with their parents - sometimes against all odds. "I had a case in which the mother had tried to kill her son, but what happened three years of therapy and rehabilitation, and I really felt I could go back to the mother of the child, but it was a tough decision .. - Even my friends office said, "Surely we will not put the child to the mother? And if he does it again ?'"

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