Understanding Social Care, Caerphilly Childrens Services
A Personal Journey Through Injustice at the Hands of Children's Services West
Ladies and Gentlemen, today’s blog takes us somewhere both familiar and urgent. Before i begin i want ot say a massive thank to everyone that has been with us on the entire journey and fully witness everything unfold its a true privialge to have your suport through this chapater and together we really have been rising abouve the diffucult times so without delay lets being, It’s been a real calling of mine to walk these landscapes of Caerphilly basin and speak with the people who live within it. Sometimes, the journeys i have walked are not through forests or over hills but through a darker corridors of public institutions that, too often, lose sight of the people they are meant to protect in this blog i reflect on one of the most diffucult chapters of my life and one many have faced. Over the past decade, my life has been shaped sometimes quietly, sometimes brutally by my experiences with Caerphilly County Borough Council Children's Services West and a few certain indviduals that have lived around me. What began as isolated concerns soon revealed itself to be a pattern. A system, already stretched and struggling, stopped seeing me as a person. Stopped seeing my disabilities and its rights and Stopped seeing my rights to family life. And in doing so, it broke something not just in me but in the trust that we should all be able to place in public service department it truly was sad to see the people who are in charge of helping our society so hostile and appothtic .
Adolescence, Risk and a System Crumbling Under Pressure
At the heart of my experiences lies a simple truth: I sought help. I followed procedure. I provided evidence. I asked for my family life to be protected not destroyed. And yet time and again, rather than supporting safety, the system weaponized misunderstanding, turned disability into stigma, and assumed guilt without evidence.In my case, as a father, a person living with ASD (Asperger's), and an active community figure, I found myself repeatedly: Misrepresented, Ignored when evidence was provided and Punished for asking for the basic rights guaranteed under law the right to family life, fair trial, and disability accommodations. I was not alone. Those around me including another resident, a young mother trying to build a better life for her children faced their own experiences of unjust targeting and procedural neglect. It would be naive to pretend that adolescence today isn't complicated. It would be equally naive to pretend that our social care systems are coping well. Teenagers today face unprecedented challenges mental health struggles, exposure to substances, peer pressure in a digital age. Families are under strain like never before. Yet what I witnessed what I lived through was a system that, rather than supporting families during crisis, too often, Jumped to conclusions without investigation and Preferred administrative closure over complex truth. its such a complex mateer that it really appears that soical services west chose the appearance of action over the hard work of real safeguarding.
The Wider Cost: Society at Risk
I had to deeply reflect when writing the blog and reliving so much is very diffucult, however this blog reminds me of why there is a reason we have GDPR. Why There is a reason we have Equality Acts and why There is a reason the Human Rights Act exists and to my understanding that is for protecting the right to privacy, to family life, and to a fair hearing, because without these protections, those with power can and do abuse it, whether intentionally or through negligence. In my own journey with this one department of social services (West) i encountred multiple breaches of: Article 6 (Right to a Fair Trial) - Article 8 (Right to Private and Family Life) - The Equality Act 2010 (Reasonable Adjustments for Disability) became routine rather than exceptional.
Closing Thoughts: Why This Story Matters
It would have been easier, in many ways, to stay silent. To allow these experiences to fade into private grief. But silence helps no one. Sunlight is still the best disinfectant.This story matters because families deserve better. Because children deserve better. Because communities deserve better and Most of all, because the fragile thing called "trust" between people and service cannot survive without truth. Ladies and Gentlemen, we carry not only the weight of what has been lost, but the power to protect what remains. So I ask you: When you see a situation, when you hear a story, will you rush to judge… or will you stop, and seek to understand first? In that question lies the hope for all of us that the mistakes of today need not be the inheritances of tomorrow.
Ladies and Gentlemen, until the next time... Take care.
Michael "Druid" Thomas
Lunacare Cymru | Media – Blog
