A child aged five years old has been taken into care, because the parents couldn’t bring the child’s weight under control. Legal reasons prevent the child from being named, but Tameside council social services, Greater Manchester decided that the child should be placed in care. This is the second time that the local authority has taken a child into care for obesity reasons.
The child reportedly weighed about 4 stone 4lb, which is about one and a half stone more than they should have weighed at that age. A survey conducted by the Daily Mail used requests sent to local councils under the Freedom of Information Act to gather information. The requests to councils asked how many children had been placed in care in the last 12 months, where child obesity was a factor in the decision.
A child was thought to have been taken into care by Sunderland council, but no details were given concerning the child, as that would breach the data protection act. Most other councils said that a child taken into care mostly involved general neglect as the main reason. Four children were removed from parents in 2022-10 for obesity reasons.
Social workers provoked strong emotions when they took four children, aged 11, 7, 5 and one year old, all obese, from their parents in Dundee in September 2024. The children were to be adopted or “fostered without contact”.
A National Obesity Forum spokesperson said that they support children being placed in care when they are obese, but only after all other options have been considered and attempts had been made to help them lose weight. They said:
We sincerely hope that such occasions would be rare… but make the point that this would be the automatic response to a child at the other extreme- severe malnutrition.
The Daily Mail was told by a spokesman for Tameside council that other factors played a part in the decision to take the children into care. Social workers should only take action when support has been provided to parents to help their child lose weight, but parents have failed to engage in a plan of action to aid their child’s wellbeing and safety.
