AIBU to expect SWS to be honest and when not the Council to investigate?

[1GuyWondering]

Been a while since I posted here, more of a lurker ...

Long story short; DD1 has AS/ASD and told the school I hit her sister, SW investigated and found nothing wrong. But the school banned her from all interaction with other pupils as well as trips and suspended her 15 times in 8 months. I threatened SW and Education head with legal action if they did not stop discriminating and found a solution.

Then SW investigate again but this time its apparently from DD2 -but the exact same thing word for word. They also put in a made up witness statement (I can prove its made up) to the police and told us it was an anonymous member of the public. They also made many other things up.

So I covertly recorded SW misconduct and the Council refused to view it. So I got the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman involved and it took the Council about 40 weeks to even agree to carry out the SPSO recommendations.

Anyways the Council wont investigate everything properly, the 'independent panel' the Council has for complaints is made up of three ex-social workers and the Council obviously have them on their side. So I'm walking away from the complaints process.


AIBU for having expected social workers to be honest?
AIBU for expecting a council to carry out its duty and properly investigate its staff when serious allegations are made?
AIBU for walking away from the complaints process because I honestly believe the only reason the so called independent panel agreed was because of SPSO and Information Commissioner's Office got involved?
AIBU because I cant take another 4 years of BS from the council?

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

Have you got legal advice?

I think that would be a constructive way of dealing with this

[loona13]

Do you have arbitration tribunal in Scotland?

[mrscumberbatch]

Yes, I don't think anything will move any further forward by you publishing your web page as if I'm very honest- it does come across as a bit desperate and unhinged (which to be fair I would be too in your situation but its not helping you here)

Can you not speak to somebody at the herald to publicise your case?
Obviously there's quite a few folk getting the boot in for the council at the moment thanks to the games fiasco so I'd imagine there'd be a queue/want for it?

[1GuyWondering]

I don't have £150 for a solicitor and there are a lot of ins and outs when bringing legal into a situation like this.

If the council can hold off the SPSO for forty weeks ... they aren't exactly going to listen to a solicitor.

[mrscumberbatch]

Maybe speak to citizens advice then? See if they can give you a recognised complaints procedure?

[1GuyWondering]

The webpage is my way of walking away, my last act if they wont be reasonable. This has been going on over four years and I just don't have the patience to continue.

I could set up the meeting and play my video now, but I don't think it will do much good.

I could go back to the SPSO and make another case against them.

But it all goes back to one thing ... I cant be bothered as I think it would be fruitless.

I've put it up and one of two things can happen ... if I am lying then they can have it taken down and if I am not lying it will stay there for a year or however long I choose to extend it by.

Anyway I have achieved something that no one else has and that is now the council has to accept covert recording is admissible in a complaint.

I know that for a fact because they claimed they had never dealt with a situation like this.

[1GuyWondering]

I don't have £150 for a solicitor and there are a lot of ins and outs when bringing legal into a situation like this.

Should read £150 an hour for a solicitor.

[SolomanDaisy]

The council don't care about your web page, they'll just be pleased you're stopping. I tried to read it, but it is rambling and incoherent and very few people will read it. Those who do will have difficulty understanding what has happened, other than that you're very angry. It does you no favours.

You should seriously consider completing the complaints process and seeking counselling to deal with your on going anger about how you feel you have been treated.

[1GuyWondering]

SolomanDaisy, you should replace 'angry' with 'disillusioned' or 'disappointed'.

Fair enough if I do come across angry but my intention was to list the facts, how they happened and the fact that Glasgow City Council will do its best not to investigate something properly that it doesn't want to investigate properly and will even try and bury it to the extent of lying.

I missed out facts such as the SWS kept on asking us if we wanted respite over and over and we kept saying no (because our DD1 has AS/ASD and finds new surroundings and strangers hard to deal with).

Finally they stopped asking and said we had declined it and were not co-operating but the option was still there for us. When I recovered records via court order it turned out they were unable to get anyone because of my DD1's behaviour, every carer had declined and then they stopped asking us. So even if we had said yes it wouldn't have happened, but it was used against us.

Would adding that make me sound less negative or less angry (as you put it)or would it just have been one more thing?

Nothing good came of the situation so its hard for me to list positives.

Also how do I complete a complaints process that appears to be undocumented? If anyone wants to complain about a Glasgow social worker tomorrow how do they do it?

And what if someone else finds their self in the position I was in and they are getting told a lot of nonsense for months on end and something as simple as the fact covert surveillance, which is legal if done properly, could have helped them?

The first thing a social worker will tell you is that it is illegal, lol, even after the SPSO said it was legal and the ICO gave opinion it was legal the council still argued and called it a 'grey area even among experts'.

They delayed for over three and a half years. If I had been vulnerable I wouldn't have stood a chance against them.

People deserve to know their rights. It's as simple as that and I have not really got any other way of doing it other than telling what happened in my case.

[mrscumberbatch]

On their web page link
It says that they have a specific dept/procedure for dealing with complaints.

Nobody here is saying that you don't have a valid complaint but the issue is that you have so many things and so much to say that your frustration isn't allowing your story to come across.

Break it down into salient points

1- The original issue
2- Your/Their attempt at resolve
3- The outcome from 2
4- The current situation

They can't ignore you if you go through the correct procedures etc.

I know it must be incredibly frustrating and that's what MN is great for. Maybe draft out what you want to say and if you're happy to do so id happily give you a 2nd opinion on whether it is coherent and meets all the points you want to make

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

There seem to be a number of issues, one being the school. Why on earth did they ban her from interactions with other students? That is a school failure, not SS.

I agree that you need some talking therapy or similar to work through this because it is obviously - and understandably - still affecting you.

Have you got a copy of their complains procedure?

[1GuyWondering]

I think its quite cute that some people think I need therapy or counselling, but I don't and I don't have any mental health issues at all. I can honestly state that for a fact -unless you know something that the psychiatrist and two psychologists that vetted me (so that I could do something) don't.

And I've told them every aspect about this.

As for me STILL going on about it 4 years later ...

Using the complaints process it took until just recently to get anywhere. What you don't seem to understand is that its taken 3.5 years to just get the council to accept that my video was legally obtained and usable in in the complaints process and that was with the SPSO and ICO chiming in with their views that it was and the council even after that stating it was a 'grey area'.

The council changed the complaints process recently and have not published the new procedures.

I have asked four times in writing from around about 8 people. That is 32 times in total requests and that's to the chief executive's office and complaints etc.

As for there being main points, well I think the biggest thing is that the council should be looking at the problems instead of trying to ignore them.

mrscumberbatch ... that's the wrong link ... this is the right link ... www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=9986 ... and if you click on customer complaints handling procedure guide on that page you will see it hasn't been updated in 12 years.

BTW I did put that at the end under resources ... in fact most peoples arguments are actually answered ... and that was me even trying to keep the long version short.

candycoatedwaterdrops DD1 was banned from all school trips and put in a room as the only pupil because of her behaviour which was down to AS/ASD. At the time it was the head of Social work AND Education I said to I was considering legal action re: discrimination. Social Work and Education were separated the next year or so.

I don't think I would achieve anything going through a process they could make up as they go along and one which they already changed mid-way through and that ultimately the decision would be left in the hands of three ex-social workers that have stated in writing they sympathise with the social work when they are supposed to be impartial.

I'm certainly not willing to waste another four years and I don't think anyone should have to. The council should do the right thing of their own accord, it shouldn't take me making yet another SPSO case against them.

[ComposHat]

Sorry, but that website is nearly unreadable and no one will care. It comes across as a bit weird and unhinged to be honest.

[candycoatedwaterdrops]

You don't need to be diagnosed with a mental illness to require support with a topic that is clearly causing you on-going distress.

Your website is all over the place and so are your postings on here to be honest. I'm not sure what you wanted from AIBU. Of course social workers should be honest and exercise professional integrity but I can't seem to make head nor tail of what is going on in your situation.

According to this link www.spso.org.uk/decision-reports/2012/january/glasgow-city-council-201004025 Liability and mistakes were admitted and a plan was put in place to address them. So, I'm not sure what else you want?

[WeddedBliss]

Sorry, but I've read your posts, had a good scan of your website...and I don't understand.

I have no idea why SS were involved with you so heavily and no idea whether you currently have SS involvement.

Like a pp said, really, no one will care. Sorry.

[IonaMumsnet]

Please note we have edited this thread to remove a personal website link.

[Primaryteach87]

Dear OP,
Been in a totally different situation that made me feel like you do.

The way various other people have answered is actually as traumatising as the awful treatment by the council. They are somehow trying to say that feeling angry because you have/your dd has been treated so appallingly is somehow a sign that you are unbalanced. That is total crap.

Please don't give up. These big institutions use delay and stonewalling to force people in the right to give up. Keep going.

You probably won't be understood by a lot of people. In my experience that's often because most people are living hum drum lives and haven't suffered or been mistreated so they don't get it. They naively assume that big instructions act according to their policies, or the law. Sadly, very often that's not the case.

Sending you a big hug.