Michael Gove is working overtime. His latest idea is that vulnerable children could be removed from their parents and placed in care or adopted to prevent them suffering 'a life of soiled nappies, scummy baths, chaos and hunger'.
As the newspaper reported 'Tearing up two decades of child protection orthodoxy, Mr Gove said the state had far too long exposed children to appalling neglect and criminal mistreatment because of its preoccupation with the rights of biological parents'.
He apparently went on to suggest that most of us see the care system as being responsible '... for the numbers in prison, or suffering mental health problems, or without qualifications, or who are unemployed ...'
No Michael, we don't suggest that the care system is responsible for all the ills of society but the evidence is clear: children brought up by their biological parents are likely to do best in the long term. Not all biological parents expose their children to neglect and criminal mistreatment, even if they have not got a nanny to change the nappies, a cleaner to sort out the bath, a life coach to ensure harmony or a cook to provide meals: as you must have had.
Welcome to planet earth.
Late entry: we note that the Academies programme is a tiny bit overspent: only about £1bn. So, having stuffed money into them at a cost/pupil that is higher than other state schools, presumably Gove will now bleed even more money out of the other state schools and then justify the creation of the academies on the basis that the others are 'failing'.
