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Original poster

getting together information and support for EVERYONE in the child protection system

287 replies

Spero · 21/01/2014 16:50

I am posting here, mainly because I am not sure what I am doing and I don't want to do anything against the rules or contrary to the site ethos.

In a nutshell, a lot of us have been contributing to various threads since before Christmas about the child protection system in the UK and all the controversy that has arisen since the case of Alessandra Pacchieri and the issue of 'forced adoption'.

We have perspectives from every part of the child protection system - there are birth parents, adoptive parents, social workers, lawyers etc and we think it could be a good idea to try to do something to bring us all together, to help people get access to information that is balanced and useful, particularly if they are facing care proceedings or worried they might be.

At the moment, we are thinking a blog could help, with different people providing short posts about their experiences and providing links to other sources that we know are credible and reliable. This could be very valuable for all of us - I am a lawyer for e.g. but I would love to know more about what doctors working in child protection are looking out for, and I would like to get more perspectives from birth parents about what they think is good or bad about the system.

We are also wondering if there could be a separate topic in 'Parenting' - Dealing with child Protection issues or similar, which could link to the blog, once we get if off the ground.

So sorry quite a lot of info there. Trying to précis

  1. We have a lot of untapped knowledge and experience and would like to pull it altogether to provide a good source of reliable and balanced advice
  2. We would like to start a blog, does anyone want to contribute or can think of snappy name?
  3. We would like to use the power of mumsnet to steer people towards our information and provide another platform for discussion and debate
4.What's the best way of going about this?

Any comments, thoughts welcomed.

OP posts:
NoseWiperExtraordinaire · 04/02/2014 11:15

Might add posting in rush, so sorry to dollop that in mid-flow. Don't mean it either to sound insensitive or critical of the piece in any way, some really crucial advice in there.

NoseWiperExtraordinaire · 04/02/2014 10:48

I agree there is a lot of useful info on the "parents with MH" section, but might add that the last item around hearing voices and thoughts of suicide could perhaps be expanded in some way. It is entirely possible that someone experiencing these types of thoughts won't act on them, just as it is entirely possible that they will.

If properly risk assessed, ie the likelihood of a person following through on these thoughts, there may be different outcomes and resources needed. It might be that a person experiencing these thoughts has simply missed medication and that taking their meds, together with a listening and supportive ear, is all that is needed, or it might be that they need immediate hospitalisation.

This also relates to a post earlier on the previous thread, around how risk is identified. There is a lot of work going on to improve the way communities work to identify risk of suicide, before an emergency response is required. But that said, from experience, there is generally room for a lot of improvement for assessing and managing risk of suicide. I would love to see this campaigned for in some way.

May I ask, was this item written by a professional or by someone who has personal experience, or both!?

I'm wondering if it would be helpful to identify a bit about the background the author of pieces, so people can see where it has come from.

And also a link to the Samaritans!

08457 90 90 90

www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you

AnywhereOverTheRainbow · 04/02/2014 10:45

Good job, all of you! (Or us?)

Thanks

@Spero
If you are missing a particular contributor (kinship carer or MH patient for example) might be of help to post you are looking for them on other parenting forums too? Just an idea....

AllTheWorldAndSoMuch · 04/02/2014 00:02

West don't worry I didn't think you were stalking me! I'm far too boringGrin

I'm happy to help in any way I can, i'm quite new to my role but i've experienced quite a lot in a short period of time. I think the web page is a great idea and looks really good. I'll also retweet the page when I get a minute and at a time of day more people are likely to see it.

WestmorlandSausage · 03/02/2014 23:57

don't worry we aren't stalking you! I went on a twitter frenzy last night following anyone interesting looking in the hope some of them would follow us back ! Grin Grin Grin

I remember seeing your twitter and thinking wow a safeguarding children nurse that sounds like someone we want to know!

AllTheWorldAndSoMuch · 03/02/2014 23:17

I saw this thread last week and was planning to post and promptly forgot. You have reminded me today because the @CPResource twitter account followed me. I'm a named nurse for safeguarding children and more importantly a mumsnetter Grin

No idea if I can help but i'm willing to. I'm off to catch up on the thread and I have name changed as MN is normally a space for me to be a mum rather than a nurse if that makes sense.

Original poster
Spero · 03/02/2014 21:56

We are now 87 followers on Twitter!

I just wanted to pop in to say a massive thanks to every one who has contributed. Without Westmoreland I would still be sitting in a darkened room trying to set up categories on wordpress and failing.

Without our contributors the web site would look amazing, but wouldn't actually have much in it. I have just received tonight an amazing and detailed post with advice to parents with a mental illness who are facing care proceedings - thanks. you know who you are.

We are getting a lot of feedback and almost all is positive. I hope we can keep this going. Please feel free to contribute - send anything you want to post to [email protected]

And finally a big thanks to mumsnet. Thanks for letting us post, for having discussions about these issues in ways that I am sure other forums would not have allowed. thanks for allowing us to meet each other because what we have managed to achieve is a perfect synthesis of all our talents; not one of us could have managed this alone.

I will now report my own post so my thanks are delivered to HQ!

OP posts:
WestmorlandSausage · 02/02/2014 20:46

thats the one Grin

AnywhereOverTheRainbow · 02/02/2014 20:45

Yes!

@CPResource , right?

WestmorlandSausage · 02/02/2014 18:36

we also have a twitter account now!

Original poster
Spero · 02/02/2014 17:38

Mrs DV, I think it should be as long or as short as you feel comfortable with. From your postings I think we can be confident that you won't ramble on in unfocused and boring style.

Why not start with - I have changed some details about the ages, genders of children involved etc because I want to keep our identities confidential. I don't see any problem with being upfront about this. I don't see how anyone could possibly object to you not wanting you or your children's circumstances splashed all over the internet.

We have already had some nasty comments from the FASSIT brigade and I would not put it past any of them to try and 'get at' people who are contributing.

this is why I am asking people to confirm they are ok with me linking to blogs etc.

OP posts:
MrsDeVere · 02/02/2014 15:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsDeVere · 02/02/2014 15:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AnywhereOverTheRainbow · 02/02/2014 12:27
Thanks

It is great that you allowing everyone to have a voice :)

Original poster
Spero · 01/02/2014 20:26

it is not my website, it is OUR website. that's what makes it different and that is why I think it is going to work.

OP posts:
AnywhereOverTheRainbow · 01/02/2014 20:00

@Spero

I see that you've lot of comments already on your website! :)

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 31/01/2014 21:16

Hmm. Well I would say perhaps it's my browser cache, but I hadn't been on the page before.

WestmorlandSausage · 31/01/2014 20:09

BertieBottsJustGotMarried Hmm thought I had fixed that days ago. must not have saved

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 31/01/2014 19:54

You could have a different colour for local and external links if that is an issue.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 31/01/2014 19:48

I would suggest for this either to make the links shorter (e.g. making the word "here" into the link rather than having the whole thing typed out) or putting typed-out links into a new line. Either would avoid the stretched text issue.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 31/01/2014 19:46

Although, reading some of the articles, the text justification messes up a bin on some lines, especially where there is a long link on the next line, and it spreads out all of the letters and looks most odd.

I can see this on the "Myth Busting... My Social Worker is out to get me" page.

BertieBottsJustGotMarried · 31/01/2014 19:32

It looks like the phone version on the PC to me (a lot more spread out though obviously :)) - very slick and professional. I'm using Chrome.

Whitershadeofpale · 31/01/2014 19:06

Yep knowing the nhs I bet it is! Grin

WestmorlandSausage · 31/01/2014 18:45

I knew it would be internet explorer. I bet if you get round to checking it will be internet explorer 6, 7 or 8. All ancient and not supported any more and yet because many work places don't ever routinely update a lot of people are still using horrifically out of date browsers.

Whitershadeofpale · 31/01/2014 18:21

Sorry it was at work (naughty I know). It's internet explorer but I'm not sure which version.

I suspected that was likely the case (we're pretty antiquated!) but thought it was best to flag up just in case.

You've done an amazing job getting it all up. On my phone it looks fantastic.