Mission Statement

To support parents and children caught up in the CYFS and Family Court system, working to redress the injustices, rectify the mistakes, and reform procedures.

Vision Statement

(a) To see CYFS and the Family Court operating in a way that safeguards the basic rights of parents and children, and only removes children when it is absolutely necessary and only for so long as is absolutely necessary.

(b) To see families strengthened and restored by having their children returned to their true custodial parents.

Principles

1. Parents have the God-given right and responsibility to care for and bring up their children in a manner which is culturally, socially, and psychologically sensitive to one’s own values.

2. The State should intervene with caution and only to the level of intervention that is absolutely necessary.

3. Where parents and children are having difficulties, they should be assisted and

supported by appropriate services to overcome their problems.

4. Children should be removed only where there are clear and reasonable grounds for believing they have suffered serious abuse or serious neglect, or are in serious danger.

5. When the cause of abuse or danger is removed, children should be returned to their

custodial parent as soon as possible.

6. When parents go to CYFS for assistance or respite care, they should receive the

support that they seek without unnecessary investigation or intrusive intervention.

Main Aims

1. To provide emotional and spiritual support to parents who have a child or children under the care of CYFS or who feel threatened by CYFS or other social agencies.

2. To assist parents in their efforts to regain custody of their children where they have been wrongly deprived of them, or when the children have not been returned at their parent's request after a period of respite care.

3. To thoroughly research the law governing CYFS, how it operates, and how families have been affected.

4. To work for change in the CYPF Act 1989, particularly to those sections allowing CYFS to remove children without consultation with their parents.

5. To act as a watchdog on CYFS procedures so that parents are more likely to be treated appropriately and to be properly informed of their rights.

6. To see a right balance restored between the right of a child to be safe and the right of a child to be in his/her own caring family.

7. To see the Family Group Conference reformed so that it may include supportive friends who know the child and not include relatives who have no genuine interest in the family.

8. With regard to FGC arrangements: To see existing protection orders observed, and when appropriate, that security measures are taken to protect family members at risk of violence.

9. To influence Government to make "child protection" authorities and workers in CYFS more accountable.

10. To help parents prepare for the return of their children by helping them deal with any issues of concern to them or to CYFS.

11. To publicise the aims and concerns of PANIC through the media, e.g. newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.