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From
The Times in the UK:
A seven-months pregnant woman with a learning disability is reported to have fled Scotland because she fears her baby will be taken away from her when it is born.
Kerry Robertson (pictured), 17, and her fiancé are understood to have gone abroad, claiming that “bullying” officialdom had prevented their marriage and then threatened to remove their baby from them.
Ms Robertson, who comes from Dunfermline, Fife, claims she was told by social workers from Fife Council that she will be unable to keep her baby when it is born in January. She is also in dispute with the council over its ruling in September that her wedding to Mark McDougall (pictured), 25, could not go ahead on grounds of her capacity.
Fife Council, for its part, said that no decision had been made on the baby’s future and would not be made until after the child had been born. The priority, it said, was both the mother and child.
The high-profile case highlights the dilemma facing social workers who must both protect the welfare of babies and vulnerable adults with disability, but at the same time protect the rights of those adults to lead fulfilled lives.
Mr McDougall told a newspaper that he and his fiancée decided to leave Scotland after they saw the minutes of a meeting in which social workers claimed their child could suffer emotional harm if left with Miss Robertson.
They left Dunfermline Nov. 5 with two suitcases of belongings and £200 in cash and travelled to an unnamed country. Ms Robertson told a newspaper: “We want to wed here as soon as possible and give our son a stable, loving home. we won’t be going back to Scotland until he is at least two.
“We will show the social workers — and the world — we are responsible parents and that our son is safe with us. That’s all we want, just to live as a normal family with our baby boy. But we’ve been forced to go to these lengths to have any hope of achieving it.”
Care experts say it is almost unheard of for anyone to be prevented from getting married, although such a measure can be taken if someone is still in the care of the local authority, or suffers from incapacity to the point where they cannot make an informed choice. It is not known whether Ms Robertson is in this situation.
A leading charity said yesterday that people with learning difficulties could be perfectly good parents and many had been upset by the publicity surrounding this case. Norman Dunning, the chief executive for Enable Scotland, said: “We would be very concerned if her learning disability was perceived as a barrier itself to her marrying and bringing up her child. People with learning disabilities do not have loving disabilities.
“There is both research and practice evidence that people with learning disabilities are no worse at bringing up children than other families facing disadvantages — what is crucial is that they get the right level of support.”
Increasingly, he said, such people were encouraged to be part of the community and have adult relationships, and it followed that there could be children born.
Mr Dunning said that Ms Robertson should have had an advocate to speak and negotiate on her behalf, but pointed to the fact that was a “huge” shortage of people to represent those with learning difficulties.
Rona Laing, Acting Head, Social Work Services, Fife Council said: “Our priority is Kerry and her unborn child. We hope Kerry is seeking the appropriate ante natal care wherever she is living and we would urge her to get in contact with us to confirm where she is.
“The decision to remove a child from the care of its mother is a court decision based on reports from a number of key agencies including social services. No decision has yet been taken about the baby's future. People including the family, will make a judgment about the welfare of the baby after the baby is born. If she remains here we will work with the young mother to look after the baby and she will be given every support.”
Harriet Dempster, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work, declined to comment on the case but said in general that when someone with learning difficulties was in sexual relationship, there was always an issue about their capacity and whether or not they were being exploited.
She pointed to the case of Miss X, the woman in the Borders who was abused over several years by a group of men, including family members.
“A judgement has to be made. It can be influenced by lots of different things — what kind of support the person has, does she had access to advocacy services, who the partner is. If you then superimpose onto that the protection of an unborn child then the situation becomes much more complex.”
Ms Dempster said the Scottish government had an important policy of raising awareness of adults in need of support and protection, in order to try and prevent exploitaiton of all sorts. “There’s a recognition that abuse can happen to adults on a similar type of level to children. These are things that have to be taken into account.”
From The Times in the UK:
