In a meeting with the deputy director of children's services in the local authority in the case I'm talking about, the deputy director had been briefed by officers, yet relayed error of fact after error of fact. The same deputy director told me before the case review that there would be no change in contact arrangements—now, I emphasise, before the review. The deputy director was right, because there was no change, despite one child pleading to go home. After the review, the independent officer was asked how he or she could possibly recommend no change and the reply was that he or she had 90 cases—90—and was unable to properly scrutinise the case. It's not unreasonable to conclude that such reviewers are led by the nose and are not independent; they don't have the time to be. After changes of senior management, I'm glad to say that this case is now being investigated, but I had to employ a social worker, a very experienced social worker, to do the work on that case.

I have another case also where allegations against the children's family have been fabricated. The family was involved in getting a social worker struck off and the response from the local authority is one of supreme aggression, and it's a case that I will be following up.

Professionals in the field tell me that parents with mental health challenges get a raw deal. Now, Minister, this really does need to be looked at with measures and support put in place. As a general rule, there is huge class discrimination in taking children into care: do not be working class; do not be on a low income; do not be without formal education; do not be a former child in care; do not be a former victim of child abuse or rape, because, I tell you, in some circumstances, all this will be held against you and I've seen the cases to prove it. I'll tell you also: don't be a feisty mother trying to protect her offspring, because this will also be held against you—you will be called 'aggressive'; you will be called 'unco-operative'. And the fact that mothers may dearly love their children who they have lost will not be taken into account. The treatment of some mothers that I've come across borders on inhumane. There is a complete absence of taking into account the mental health conditions and the trauma of losing one's children.

Where there are serious threats, of course children should be removed. There's no argument with that; we all support that. But there are so many cases that I've come across where families need support, not punishment. As a result, now, I'm currently employing two social workers to work on my caseload.

Let's move on to child protection conferences. Minister, I'm banned from attending any child protection conference in Cardiff, and I'd like to tell you why because I think you'll be shocked. I attended a conference and there were lots of errors. Father was a victim of domestic abuse, yet there was no statutory domestic abuse agency there to support him. If he were female, he would have been supported, so there's a systemic gap. Moving on, the local authority had in writing that there was a paedophile threat to the child when in mother's care. The chair of the child protection conference tried to close the conference without discussing the paedophile threat. I raised the matter and the chair said that it was not relevant. After I raised the paedophile threat, a person supporting the mother said, 'That won't happen again'. The words are burnt into my memory: 'That won't happen again'. I asked, 'What won't happen again?' and, of course, there was no reply. I asked for everything to be minuted and, when the minutes came through, there was no reference to the paedophile threat. The hearing, however, had been covertly recorded and it was evidenced that the paedophile threat was mentioned. I complained to the local safeguarding board and all but one of my complaints were upheld. So, I was right to complain, we were vindicated, but the action of children's services was not to resolve matters, but to ban me from any future conferences with any parents, and this is something I'll be challenging in the near future. And then, afterwards, the department aggressively went after father, who was the safeguarding influence in the child's life. Minister, all child protection conferences should be digitally recorded and the data held on a cloud, a secure cloud. 

The important point about this is that, if parents have a strong advocate in such proceedings, then they will simply be taken out of the equation and parents will be left without adequate help, and that cannot be right. It also begs the question: just who are child protection conferences there to protect? Parental alienation, according to expert witnesses on the Petitions Committee, is a form of child abuse. This abuse is ignored and, indeed, tolerated. A strategy to keep both parents in children's lives should be adopted by all children's services departments. There needs to be a rebalancing of power with children's services. It's far too easy for individuals to be crushed—and I do say crushed—in every sense. Justice and due process need to be at the heart of everything done. At the moment, I have too many examples where they simply are not. 

The timetabling of courts doesn't help either, Minister, because too often under-resourced social workers do not have time to prepare adequate reports, and the emphasis then is on box ticking.

I'll briefly talk about the complaints procedure, because once you get to a stage 3 independent complaints level, the so-called independent investigator is both employed by and paid by the council. Now, if the investigator were to be too robust, let's say, then they're not going to be re-employed, and there's case after case after case where they're clearly not independent, and that's another gap, Minister. 

My considered view is that children's services should be taken out of local authority control. Wales should have a children's service that is democratically accountable, because at council level there is virtually no accountability—no accountability. Cabinet members simply do not know what is going on. Social workers have a right to expect to be able to practice their vocation free of fear. Children across Wales have the right to expect to be kept safe, and families have a right to be supported, not punished. Mae'n amser newid—it's time for change. Diolch.