Tag Archives: abuse

Homeschooling Regulation, Institutional Power, and the Erasure of School-Based Abuse

A survivor-led analysis of safeguarding policy and institutional accountability This article examines recent proposals to expand state oversight of home education in England, questioning the assumptions that underpin them. Written from lived experience alongside engagement with safeguarding policy and research, … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Institutional Accountability and Legal Responsibility

Institutional Accountability, Embodied Trauma, and Pathways to Justice This article discusses the longer-term impacts of institutional betrayal, substantiated abuse, its physiological consequences, and the pathways to justice from a lived perspective – referencing my own ethnographic experience, and substantiated statutory … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When Records Rewrite Reality: How False Narratives in Social Care Shape a Survivor’s Life

Decades after leaving foster care, I discovered that my social care files contained false and damaging narratives — ones that followed me into adulthood, shaped how professionals treated me, and nearly silenced my truth. This is how official records can … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Foster Care Displacement: Criminalization, Credibility, and hidden agenda.

When I was 10 years old, I spoke up about sexual abuse for the first time.I believed that telling the truth would make the adults around me protect me.Instead, the foster care system was used to displace, criminalize and disorientate … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Professional detachment: When Disclosures Are Managed And Silenced.

(Trigger Warning: Mentions of child abuse, institutional neglect, and systemic failure.) Introduction The United Kingdom presents itself as a civilized nation — reasonable, fair, and humane.But anyone who has lived within its care systems knows that the image doesn’t match … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Barriers of Red Tape: How Systems Silence Survivors

One of the most damaging parts of surviving abuse is not only what was done to you. it’s what follows when you try to tell the truth. The act of speaking out requires courage. Seeking justice, understanding, or even basic … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Local Authority Failures, and Statutory Obligations

I want to talk about statutory obligation because during my time in care, there were many failures. I tried multiple times to make statutory complaints about my care while in childhood, and as an adult. Every single time I was … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Fostering for Purpose Vs Financial Gain.

Fostering is a good will job, that requires skill, time and a lot of energy. Good foster parents deserve financial support and help when fostering children. Children are expensive, and giving up your life to give someone else a fairer … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Foster Care Part 2 *trigger warning*

Foster family number 3 In 1991, I was placed with a black family who were personal friends with placement number 2. The new family lived in the same area, a few streets away from foster family number 2. Within four … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Foster Care *Trigger Warning*

I was born in Bristol City, England UK in 1979, after my parents relocated to Bristol in the early 1970s. Most of my childhood was spent growing up during the 1980s and 90s. Bristol has a rich complex history, and … Continue reading

Posted in societyshiddensecrets | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment