OUR CASE

The High Court of the Court of Protection is currently considering where our son should live, and given his unhappiness and very worrying poor health, there is a chance he can be allowed to return to his loving family he never asked to be removed from, where he will be able to live with independence and be supported by them.

                               HELP and SUPPORT from YOU could make this HAPPEN

PLEASE HELP US TO RAISE MONEY to be legally represented, so that we can properly make a case to the Court, how state care has not been in our son’s best interests

Our son has not benefited from being in the care of the state at all. His health has severely deteriorated. He is now heavily medicated, and his physical health is nothing like it used to be.

PLEASE HELP US TO RAISE MONEY for an Independent Medical Expert, experienced in Autism and Intellectual Disabilities, to advise the Court

OUR PLEA TO YOU

We only want what is best for our son, but we have no chance of making that possible for him, without raising the money to be legally represented in the Court.

Since being stopped from having a life with his family, our son’s health and quality of life has severely deteriorated from when living at home with his family. Without being legally represented we are powerless to do anything about it, however traumatic and devastating this is for him and us.

  WE ARE DESPERATELY WORRIED FOR OUR BELOVED SON AND WHAT MAY HAPPEN TO HIM

He is deeply unhappy and has been diagnosed with a mood disorder since being taken and detained by the state against his wishes, and is reacting by smashing up where he is having to stay and also his belongings.

This is really not like our son. At college he was studying for many qualifications and gaining work experience in a café, a restaurant, a print shop, and a horticultural centre, along with achieving many drama and music awards.

                           Please HELP us to HELP our SON                                       He has done NOTHING to cause ANY of this to happen to him

HOW THIS CAME ABOUT

We had no involvement with social services at all while our son was growing up. We both had careers in frontline public services and did voluntary work in the community. We only got involved with the local authority when our son was reaching school leaving age at 19, and by judicial review we were successful in challenging their failure, to provide the chance for him to have further education.

We regret getting involved with them, now we know how the state can resort to parent-blaming when challenged.

Our son was in good health when he lived at home with us. He had an active life of educational, sporting, artistic and social interests, all of which he loved and lived to the full. He did not need any medication, or have challenging behaviours. He wanted to live with us for as long as he could, until either moving in with his sister and her family or choosing to live together with a group of friends he had known all his life. We re-mortgaged to be able to divide up our family home, for him to have his own separate space, where he could have his independence and we could enable him to have the support he would need to enjoy his life.

The local authority however decided that our son was at risk from us and might suffer harm, this was only after we went to them for funding.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 For almost 2 decades there had been NO suggestion of anything of the kind from anyone.

They made an application to the Court of Protection for our son to be removed from our care. We were not given any chance to be at this hearing, it was done without us knowing anything about.

Our son went off to his Work Experience one day but did not come home in the usual way...instead, he was taken from there by social workers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Since that time, he has not even been allowed to visit us at home and has been stopped from having a life with his family. 

Once removed to be detained by the state, it was impossible to change the situation because we could not afford to be legally represented. All the other parties involved in this were publicly funded, yet we had to represent ourselves and face QCs against us in the High Court, even though we were completely traumatized by what had happened to our son.

      WE REALLY DID NOT STAND ANY CHANCE - EVERYTHING WAS STACKED AGAINST US

We have paid £100’s and £1,000’s in Tax & National Insurance over the years … yet we are not eligible for Legal Aid!                                                                                                                                                      Why? ... we took out our very small pensions early, to do what we could for our son.                                                                                                                                                                                                       Although this is nowhere near enough for us to afford to be legally represented...it disqualifies us from getting Legal Aid to be able to be legally represented!                                                                                                                                                                                                         Income is what Legal Aid takes into account - your Outgoings don’t count...not even outgoings spent on what little legal advice & support this buys you!

WHAT YOUR HELP & SUPPORT WOULD MEAN TO US

You can make all the difference to our son being able to get justice, and by doing so we believe we could set a valuable precedent for other families.  

Please be our LIFELINE - we are in such DESPERATE need of...                                                                                                                                LEGAL REPRESENTATION - so we can properly make a case to the High Court, how state care has not been in our son’s best interests                                                                                                                          An INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXPERT - to advise the High Court, one experienced in Autism and Intellectual Disabilities

 WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

We are starting off with a £3,600 plea for work underway - this is our INITIAL TARGET - and once achieved from your pledges within 30 days, we can move onto our Stretch Target.

                    With your kindness and helpful generosity                                       we are hoping this will go from strength to strength

In our hearts we know that our Stretch Target will need to be in excess of £10,000, for the excellent legal representation we have in place to be able to continue, which without funds we are going to lose, along with their dedication and commitment to resolving our situation. 

     We MUST reach our INITIAL TARGET of £3,600 within 30 days                    for what YOU pledge to become ACTUAL DONATIONS

We are thanking you from the bottom of our broken hearts, please help us as much as you can for the sake of our son and please share this with all your family, friends, and everyone in your life, also using social media please.

We will update you on how your kindness and support is helping our son as often as we can.