Two teenagers were removed from their parents’ care after social services raised questions about their weight to a family court judge. Judge Gillian Ellis ordered the children in Sussex to be taken to a long-term orphanage. She described the case as “very sad and unusual”.
The West Sussex County Council’s social services team told a family court judge about their concerns. The local authority provided Fitbits (fitness trackers) and paid for the gym membership for the family, who also signed up for Weight Watchers.
But Ellis said that months after the family court proceedings began, there was no reduction in the weight of the children and they did not provide recordings of their Fitbits or attend the Weight Watchers’ consultations consistently.
The judge said the children’s parents did not seem to understand the seriousness of the concerns raised by social service officials and failed to set limits and promote healthy eating and exercise. She said that children need the chance to “learn ways to live healthier” and improve their health by losing weight.
The judge said there were also concerns about the poor condition of the home and the lack of guidance on personal care.
“Everyone agrees that this is a very sad and unusual case of a loving family, where the parents attend to many of the children’s basic needs, but the local authority has been concerned that the parents are not attending to the children’s health needs, in that both children are seriously overweight and parents have shown an inability to help children manage this condition, ”said the judge in her decision.
She added: “The case was unusual because the children clearly had excellent parenting, as they were educated, intelligent and engaging.”
Details of the case emerged in an Ellis decision posted online on Wednesday. She had considered the evidence at a private hearing in the family court in Sussex last year. The family could not be identified in the media reports on the case.
Ellis added: “The children were not able to exercise consistently, despite the local authority providing Fitbits and paying to enroll in the gym. Children were supposed to provide recordings of their Fitbits, but this was not done. The mother blamed the block for her inability to exercise, but the exercises could still be done at home or walking outdoors. The family attendance at Weight Watchers was inconsistent. “
In 2012, a five-year-old girl was admitted after her weight reached 5 kg, more than three times the weight of a healthy child her age. She was placed in an orphanage by the council of Newport, Wales.
Data in 2014 revealed that up to 74 children with morbid obesity were estimated to be seen over a five-year period in England, Wales and Scotland.