VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Child protection - legal, ethical and practice issues. A case study
Episode – Jasmine Donnelly
Jasmine talking straight to camera:
I just hate all this. It’s like living in a prison, with screws all around you…watching every step. I know they mean well, taking care of us and stuff, but I need my own time, be able to do my own thing. Instead it’s “We need to talk about your future now with your review coming up” and stuff like “You need to trust someone”. As if!
That’s not what I felt when I heard all these stories coming up about my Mum at the last review. I mean it was things like “history of drugs misuse”. I know they mean junkie so why don’t they just say so? And instead of saying she was on the game it was stuff like “worrying behaviour outside the home”. Do they think we’re stupid or something?
Of course I hate her. I’ll never forgive her. It’s bad enough treating us like we never existed when we’re at home, but to run away when the social work came. What kind of mother is that?
Leaving us to get all this…splitting up the home…splitting up the family…foster homes, and who knows what next?
When I was wee I used to listen to all the stories, about who was to blame, but you’d have thought she would have been good to us – make it up to us. How stupid can you get?
We are getting like her but worse now. I just hope I don’t end up doing this to my own weans. After this, no, I’m not having any.
You cannae tell the social work any of this. If I had we‘d have been taken away years ago. I mean when we were at home at least we were like a family, the three of us. Looking after Amber and that, keeping her safe.
Now it feels like I’ve not got a family anymore. Not now.
Do you know what the worst thing is? Being away from Amber. When I look at her, you just, it makes you feel so sad. You just see how good she’s getting. But who am I to her now – I’m a stranger- she doesnae know who I am. It’s the foster parents! They want rid of me and Jack. They try and act like she belongs to them. But she doesnae!
What’s to happen to us now? It’s frightening I can’t bare to think about it.