SECTION VIII: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY REFORM AND SYSTEMIC REDESIGN
Abolition is a design question.
I. Principles for Reform
The goal is not to repair a system rooted in surveillance, profit, and harm.
The goal is to replace it with structures that:
Protect without punishment
Support without surveillance
Intervene without coercion
Document without distortion
True reform begins with a decentralized, transparent, and consent-based model of care and support.
II. Immediate Policy Changes
| Action | Justification |
|---|---|
| Ban private equity from child care markets | Ends financial incentives for child removal |
| Mandate public access to safeguarding referrals | Prevents unlawful or retaliatory case openings |
| Criminalize falsification of safeguarding documents | Establishes legal accountability for dishonest paperwork |
| Guarantee legal aid for parents under investigation | Ensures fair representation and access to justice |
| Enforce audio/video documentation of all meetings | Prevents misrepresentation and protects both staff and families |
| Create independent family advocacy boards | Shifts power away from statutory gatekeepers toward communities themselves |
These are not tweaks. These are survival mechanisms.
III. Structural Overhaul: Abolition-by-Design
We propose a three-pillar replacement model:
1. Community-Led Family Wellness Networks
Peer-led support groups, funded independently from state child protection agencies
Access to legal, housing, disability, and health advocacy
Trained mediators and mentors for conflict resolution
2. Independent Health and Disability Liaisons
Medical and social needs addressed by professionals unaffiliated with safeguarding services
Ensures reasonable adjustments and access to services without surveillance
3. Transparent and Consent-Based Record Systems
Families must consent to inclusion in safeguarding systems
All records are co-authored and co-signed
Blockchain-backed public logs of case actions and authorizations
This is not just reform.
It is replacement through principled design.
IV. Cultural Shift: De-Pathologizing Resistance
The current system reads protest, advocacy, and love as pathology.
A crying mother is “unwell”
A questioning father is “hostile”
A close bond is “co-dependence”
Refusing a social worker’s advice is “non-engagement”
This must end.
We recommend mandatory cultural humility and bias training, with a focus on:
Disability and chronic illness
Racial and migratory identity
Neurodiversity and non-traditional family structures
Trauma-informed communication grounded in dignity, not diagnosis
V. Long-Term: End the Child Protection Economy
If children are to be safe,
they cannot be commodified.
The only way forward is to:
Remove profit from removal
Decouple care from coercion
Treat every family’s context as sovereign and unique
Until then,
we remain in the Ministry of Moisture,
drowning in paperwork while children disappear into the mould.