Authorities are committing “systemic injustice” by forcibly placing children for adoption when parents have autism.
Monique Blakemore, an advocate for autistic women, has made the claim based on research from Cambridge University.
The Cambridge study indicates that social services assess up to 20 per cent of mothers with autism and mothers of a child with autism.
Compulsory adoption
Of those mothers, more than 16 per cent are faced with professionals removing their children. The children are compulsorily placed for adoption.
Authorities were also twice as likely to accuse parents of children with autism of Munchausen by Proxy. This is a form of abuse where a parent or carer exaggerates or deliberately causes symptoms of illness in a child.
‘Over-involvement’ in child protection
Blakemore, who has Asperger syndrome, said autistic parents face an “over-involvement” in child protection proceedings. She said it had left them battling “years of systemic injustice”.
She thought autism charities should express “concerted outrage” that so many children were taken away from families. That the charities were not doing so was a “disgrace”.
“When women are telling their stories, and researchers are confirming what is happening and autism charities and the community are silent, then we must look at their complicity,” she said.
Blakemore has presented the findings to the United Nations in Geneva. Alexa Pohl, a former Cambridge University researcher, and Magali Pignard, of French self-advocacy group Alliance Autiste, also presented the findings.
Duty to provide training
Sarah Lambert, head of policy at the UK’s National Autistic Society, said it had campaigned for the Autism Act 2009. The legislation places a duty on health and social care to provide training in autism for all staff.
She added: “The research shows that there also needs to be specific action to ensure that children’s social workers in particular have the right level of training.”
Karen Goodman, spokeswoman for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), said: “Children where the courts believe, based on expert evidence, that they shouldn’t be with their families need a permanent substitute family. That’s either long-term fostering or adoption.”
Published: 3 January 2017
