Letterbox Arrangements that a Council is (it seems), Abusing

[chazsdad2307]

Hi

In May 2004 when our Son (aged 5), was Freed for Adoption, (despite more Law Breaks than most could count) it was agreed that we would be allowed to send 1 x Birthday Card and 1 x Christmas Card per year via Salford Council's Children's Services who would set up a Letterbox Arrangement to enable this

In September / October 2010 I asked the lady in charge of the Letterbox Contacts how many my Son had had

HER reply came in two parts:

1. NO Letterbox Arrangement had ever been set up for my Son
   
2. She and her Colleagues had no idea where any of the cards we had, (hand delivered), were
   

I immediately made contact with the Adoption Section Manager, who said:

1. There was no Letterbox Arrangement set up for my Son
   
2. Her Department had no idea where any of the cards for my Son were
   
3. UNLESS I got a Court Order forcing her to set one up, (the Freeing Order in 2003 does not count it seems?), there NEVER would be a Letterbox Arrangement for my Sons cards
   

We immediately applied top the Court for an NEW Order, (in addition to the Freeing Order Letterbox Instruction), forcing Salford Council to set up a Letterbox Arrangement

But on 1st November 2010 that same Manager plus the Salford Council Lawyer, who has been involved on this Case since day one repeatedly told the Judge

1. There was a Letterbox Arrangement in place
   
2. My son had had some of the cards
   
3. There were some cards on File but my Son had had some of them( IN the Letterbox Arrangement the Council had set up in 2004 as instructed by the Court)
   

By this date we had delivered 12 cards when asked by the JUDGE how many were on File the (Degree Qualified) Salford Employees repeatedly replied between 4 + 6
Why not an exact number?

QUESTIONS:

1. How do we find out the truth about THIS Letterbox Arrangement
   
2. Every-time we take a card in no-one cannot find and/or give us the name of the Social Worker dealing with this Case
   

WHY NOT?

1. Every-time we take a card in to the Council the Staff try to call up my sons name on the System and FAIL
   

WHY?

[OliviaMumsnet]

Hi there
Bumping for you and to let y know we've removed the RL name here
Good luck with this

[Devora]

This sounds really tough for you. My experience (as an adopter) is that Letterbox arrangements are very under-resourced and often chaotic and ill thought through, and it sounds like there's a fair bit of that going on here. But there's also legal issues that I'm not qualified to comment on - hopefully Spero will be along soon...

[combined02]

Please could I suggest that you phone the Family Rights Group on 0808 801 0366, to see if they can either help or point you in the right direction? If not, please come back and bump this every now and again until someone with expertise is able to contribute.