I am one of those interfering do-gooders who have referred instances of children travelling alone across Europe to social services. I’m surprised that they were so quick to investigate Kirstie Allsopp (Kirstie Allsopp reported to social services for allowing son, 15, to travel abroad, Report, 25 August), considering the difficulty I had persuading my local authority to investigate a young traveller I was concerned about. Perhaps this was because he had travelled part of the way on a small boat and, following a dubious age assessment carried out at Dover, was declared to be an adult and sent to live in a hotel, with the potential of being made to share a room with another adult.
To be fair to children’s services, they did finally intervene, and carried out a proper age assessment and took the child into their care, but only after the intervention of some lefty lawyers.
Matt Atkinson
Southampton
