30/05/2026
"I come from a multicultural background. I have always been someone who stands up against racism, prejudice...standing up against anything that is oppressive, cruel, and supporting and empathising with people who are vulnerable in any way. That is reflected throughout my personal and professional work.
I am intelligent, and I am hard-working. I became a specialist in my field; I was sent out to work with clients, and was paid really well. But I retired early when I had children, and I had a child with special needs. I became a full-time mum. Over the years I also became a family carer for multiple generations, providing care for multiple people from multiple generations. I effectively became without paid employment. Over the years, I have become reliant on benefits, and I think I deserve every penny that I have received.
I have provided care to multiple people for free for more than two decades. But I feel that there is absolutely zero respect for that from social services and legal services. My Disabled child and I have been treated with complete disrespect and a total lack of sensitivity by social services and their connected legal services. As a result, my Disabled child has grown up into an adult with massively increased needs, partly because of health problems which were not recongised. He's also been failed by healthcare services, as hospital doctors did not recognise his increasingly complex health needs. Disabilities are probably not even well understood by medics and Healthcare professionals. Social services took my son by trickery and put him into a care situation abruptly without handing over things properly or understanding what his problems really were.
Social workers and managers who remain employed by the local authority put us in a situation where his needs have now escalated massively in the care of other people. He now requires a 24/7 team of paid Carers costing thousands per week. It was entirely avoidable to reach this situation. It is not because of lack of resources. It is not lack of money from the government; it was entirely from the bad decision-making from people being paid by public funds who are doing harm instead of helping. Social and legal services are choosing to do the wrong thing again and again and again.
I have made complaints many times, and within social services that have just resulted in punishment and retaliation from people who are supposed to be helping and supporting families. But instead they are punishing families and getting paid huge salaries and protecting themselves and their colleagues who are doing wrong. Social workers, managers, council officers - everyone in the local authority should be listening and respecting parents and should acknowledge where mistakes have been made and correct mistakes instead of making more mistakes and causing harm. It has lifelong consequences for vulnerable children and family, and it wastes huge amounts of public funds. It means that huge amounts of public funds will be needed long term to provide expensive paid care to replace the freely given care.
The only common sense I have encountered has been from relevant personal experiences among any social and legal service professionals. For example, the person who is a parent or a carer may show little bit of empathy and common sense. Those with disabilities may show empathy and common sense. The person who is from racially minoritised groups may show a little bit of empathy and understanding. But most of the people I have encountered are not any of those categories, yet they just arrogantly take control of the situation, do wrong, trample over families and make the situation worse, and never stop to listen and never question whether they way or their colleagues are doing things are the right way. There are just too many rotten apples.
Many organisations speaking up about this issue is very crucial. We need to publicly and noisily take this issue to those in power and make a change. Individual families are silenced, and we need to amplify our voices through and with organisations. As soon as I had any available time and energy, I started reaching out to organisations and volunteering and joining courses...getting to know people."
If you're a woman over 55, please join us in calling for better healthcare for older women by taking this survey: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=Ghb7biM7bkOoNppEJzu78MK4aRLCKw9EuccK9OOSb75UOTU5SURNRTNCWU9FWlZITEY3SzE3Mzc4MS4u&route=shorturl
