Saturday, February 28, 2009

AHEd press release: NSPCC should withdraw from government review into home education.

OUTRAGIOUS COMMENTS BY NSPCC SPOKESPERSON SMEAR HOME EDUCATORS AS CHILD ABUSERS.

Home education action group, AHEd [1] has written to the NSPCC Chief Executive decrying libellous public comments made by their Child Protection Policy Advisor, Mr. Vijay Patel, smearing home educators as child abusers.

Mr. Patel recently admitted publicly that he has no evidence of a link between child abuse and home education, yet in outrageous comments reported in the Independent [2] he linked home education with the death of Victoria Climbie [3] despite the fact that the enquiry found the NSPCC partly responsible for her death. The NSPCC then apologised for their part in failing to keep Victoria alive because they were planning a party [4].

The Victoria Climbie Foundation yesterday said [5] that they are "...genuinely concerned about the link being made between Victoria Climbié and home education, and Victoria as a hidden child. Victoria was neither home-educated nor hidden.

“The reality is that there is no such thing as a 'hidden' child, only children who are allowed to fall through the gaps. The key issue here is how statutory services interact with children that are known within the child protection system."

In a speech to the National Social Services Conference 2003 Lord Laming also commented that Victoria was “known to no fewer than four Social Services Departments, three Housing Departments and two specialist Police Child Protection Teams. Furthermore she was admitted to two different hospitals because of suspicions she was being deliberately harmed and she was referred to a specialist Child and Family Centre managed by the NSPCC.”

AHEd has called for a public apology to the HE community from the NSPCC and for them to distance themselves from Mr. Patel's comments or withdraw from the current Review of Home Education.

Contact: (Chair, AHEd) email: tel:

[1] http://ahed.pbwiki.com

[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/is-the-government-right-to-be-concerned-about-homeschooling-1631969.html

[3] http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2009/01/transcript-of-radio-2-jeremy-vine-show.html

[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/head-of-nspcc-apologises-for-climbie-mistakes-661252.html

[5] http://www.victoria-climbie.org.uk/

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Gill, You are probably aware of this but anyway here is a link to more of the same 'goings on'. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/28/civil-liberties-government-law-courts . I found it just as depressing as the current HE crisis you are blogging about so brilliantly but at least it seems like there are others out there who are aware of the hidden agendas being aimed at everyone's life. While I am here I'd like t say the business website is brilliant and I wish your boys every bit of the success they deserve.
Thanks
Bev

12:05 pm, March 01, 2009  
Blogger Gill said...

Thanks for your kind and helpful comment, Bev. :-)

5:51 am, March 04, 2009  

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