All being well I am hoping to go to the public meeting in Luton Tuesday 16th June 7:00-7:30 pm Esther Rantzen is coming to the Luton Town football Club she wants as many people there as possible.I hope to tell Esther why I think she will make a good MP for Luton. One of the questions I will be raising as a children’s rights campaigner will be to see if Esther decides she will stand in now Margaret Moran has gone,will she be able to help me to investigate the scandal of the appalling state of the private contact centres here in Luton that the local authority has given a contract too.
I also want reassurances from MP’s to finding out who is responsible for the safety of women going there in perverse reversal of custody cases in Domestic Violence cases ,now wasn’t that Margaret Moran’s campaign domestic violence ?,I had no joy with Margaret over the safety issues for women travelling alone to these back streets to see their children in contact centres.
I also want reassurances that there will be no further cases of complaints, or serious incidents whilst families are locked inside the contact centres.I refer to the Daily Mail article involving a father Mr Johnathon Phillips going to prison for attacking social worker.This was case in Norfolk the father got 2 years in prison for defending his daughter from a social worker harming her .
Moving on now to a more serious complaint ,I do not want to hear of any more children dying whilst assessments are being done in contact centres either .The serious incident of a drunken father rolling over his baby in a contact centre .Then the other case of a woman who lost it, with a knife, inside a contact centre.
There needs to be a cctv and properly trained staff on the premises.Then we can actually see the problem with who the abuser IS and the innocent parties being set up for court. I would warn people not to cross the threshold without a witness or a body guard or a solicitor .It is going to be their word that is heard and not yours in court.
I personally do not like the chances or the probability of this being a safe place , who says it is? Well it is a safe way to make a fast buck and not spend much of the budget that you are paid by Local Authorities. Question do the MPs know ? and who will turn a blind eye & a deaf ear when you ask how much is being spent. I am still waiting for the information.
I am sure Esther is the woman for the job ,given her passion for children’s rights , also the team work in producing That’s Life with a brilliant track record for under cover corruption ………
I personally think it is high time now that Luton was cleaned up and public and private sectors held accountable for service they provide and auditing is long over due.
I want to know how much it cost to detain children in a Children’s Prison= private contact centre.
This crossed my mind when I stepped off a plane at Gatwick on my return journey from a wedding in Ireland in July 2004 to see my son whilst we were being assessed for 42 weeks in a court case. This is just backward ,also it is just so disgusting to house families here. You would not dream of taking your child to such a depressing hole as these contact centre’s are in poorer areas which are run down.
Moving on now I would be embarrassed as a resident in Luton to have a visitor from abroad to have to visit a family member in there ,only to see how badly our children are being looked after or being neglected by local authorities passing the buck to private companies to get away with murder.
It cost me thousands to visit my son in 2004 -2006 ,now I want to know how much do private companies make and spend on the improvements of their properties in Luton.
Let us see under Data of Protection how much this venue makes and what the incentives are for untrained people who work for social services to say that families have to stay locked down for the duration of many years in supervised contact.
If it has locks and bars on doors and windows ,if it is a lasting negative experience for children .Then a contact centre is now being classified as a Children’s Prison.
In view of past comments like Childline bread a monster , and other comments about social services is a system which is totally out of control now and long in need of an over haul.
I think it is high time many more children & families trapped in the system need to have a voice.Or at least an independent body to turn to when they need to complain about a corporate parent abusing a looked after child.