MORE babies should be taken from failed parents into care, the boss of kids charity Barnardo's said yesterday.
Martin Narey - speaking in the wake of the Baby Peter scandal and Hell boys case - called for less focus on "fixing families that can't be fixed".
He said social workers should be more pro-active about removing "at risk" babies to stop them being damaged beyond repair.
Mr Narey said: "We can't keep trying to fix families that are completely broken. It sounds terrible, but I think we try too hard with birth parents.
"I have seen children sent back to homes that I certainly wouldn't have sent them back to. I have been extremely surprised at decisions taken. If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families, where we know they will have the best possible outcome."
Mr Narey - a former director general of the Prison Service - added: "That's a view that is seen as a heresy among social services, where the thinking is that if someone, a parent, has failed, they deserve another chance."
But he insisted ifsocial workers intervened quickly, "we would see far fewer problems".
The Sun last week told how the Hell boy brothers, aged ten and 11, admitted GBH for beating, burning and sexually abusing two boys aged nine and 11.
They were both known to the police and child protection services and were taken into care in March - just three weeks before the horrific attack.
Doncaster Council is carrying out a Serious Case Review into the circumstances of the brothers, who are likely to be sentenced in November following reports. Baby P - who can now be named as Peter Connolly - was just 17 months old when he died in August 2007 at the hands of his mum, her lover and their lodger despite being on a child protection list
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has established the Centre for Social Justice, has repeated his calls for early intervention by social services.
But last night Christian Voice - which monitors social services cases - branded the Barnardo's boss's comments as "empire building".
Spokesman Stephen Green said: "Mr Narey is using anxiety about recent cases, including that of Baby P, to do a bit of empire-building.
"The reality is that social services child protection units hit on the easy targets while leaving alone those families where they might encounter trouble.
"There should be a complete rethink of the process of taking children into care."
Mr Green also claimed there were "vested interests of the care and adoption industries, where a lot of money is being made out of injustice and misery."
Martin Narey - speaking in the wake of the Baby Peter scandal and Hell boys case - called for less focus on "fixing families that can't be fixed".
He said social workers should be more pro-active about removing "at risk" babies to stop them being damaged beyond repair.
Mr Narey said: "We can't keep trying to fix families that are completely broken. It sounds terrible, but I think we try too hard with birth parents.
"I have seen children sent back to homes that I certainly wouldn't have sent them back to. I have been extremely surprised at decisions taken. If we really cared about the interests of the child, we would take children away as babies and put them into permanent adoptive families, where we know they will have the best possible outcome."
Mr Narey - a former director general of the Prison Service - added: "That's a view that is seen as a heresy among social services, where the thinking is that if someone, a parent, has failed, they deserve another chance."
But he insisted ifsocial workers intervened quickly, "we would see far fewer problems".
The Sun last week told how the Hell boy brothers, aged ten and 11, admitted GBH for beating, burning and sexually abusing two boys aged nine and 11.
They were both known to the police and child protection services and were taken into care in March - just three weeks before the horrific attack.
Doncaster Council is carrying out a Serious Case Review into the circumstances of the brothers, who are likely to be sentenced in November following reports. Baby P - who can now be named as Peter Connolly - was just 17 months old when he died in August 2007 at the hands of his mum, her lover and their lodger despite being on a child protection list
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has established the Centre for Social Justice, has repeated his calls for early intervention by social services.
But last night Christian Voice - which monitors social services cases - branded the Barnardo's boss's comments as "empire building".
Spokesman Stephen Green said: "Mr Narey is using anxiety about recent cases, including that of Baby P, to do a bit of empire-building.
"The reality is that social services child protection units hit on the easy targets while leaving alone those families where they might encounter trouble.
"There should be a complete rethink of the process of taking children into care."
Mr Green also claimed there were "vested interests of the care and adoption industries, where a lot of money is being made out of injustice and misery."
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