Child protection social worker- ask me anything!

[NynaeveSedai]

With the recent rash of social worker related posts recently which have been FULL of frankly bollocks I thought I would offer to answer any questions.

Disclaimer - different local authorities do things slightly differently though national standards should be followed, and I'm in England so can't talk about the rest of the uk

That's a tragic case. It's possible that children's services should have escalated it to care proceedings and didn't but I don't know anything about the way the case was managed. I haven't read the serious case review.
Social services do make errors and sometimes they lead to children being seriously harmed or murdered by family members, but they try very hard to learn from those errors and it's important to remember it's the family members who harm the children not social workers.

I got a call from SS two years ago regarding DV she said that she'll do a multi agency assessment but I never heard from her again. Why do you think that is?

What would you say to my 18 year old son who is considering a career in SW?

Go and get some experience in a related field for a few years then go for it. It's a great career.

I got a call from SS two years ago regarding DV she said that she'll do a multi agency assessment but I never heard from her again. Why do you think that is?

At a guess I would say that was an initial assessment call, they then decided not to go forward with an assessment and forgot to inform you!

Sorry, I have to go out for a bit now!

Well,I don't know how you do CP SW job. I coukd not! I can't stomach any sort of abuse to children,disabled adult/child, elderly etc. Majes me so angry and sick.
Thank God people like yourself can do this job. You protect many more children and do more good and the press won't print that!
Thank you x be safe

With older children why are families being told, taking away phones/limiting social media/ expecting children home after school is controlling and limiting freedoms and rights of the child? When a child is involved in risky behaviour what interventions are seen as acceptable by SS?

Why are parents who self refer and tell SS they can't cope with the criminal behaviour of their children, and it's impacting their younger children not given any help and told it's for the youth probation team to deal with?

Why is no one held accountable when it's documented that a child in care has been abused/groomed/exploited. I worked in a semi independent unit. One of the girls had a history of being groomed while in care, SW saw this as her fault for bring uncooperative and risky behaviour and no police reports were filed. Another girl was raped in her previous unit by another child.
Who is held accountable when SS can't ensure the safety of children in their care?

When you get back OP, I’d like to know if in your opinion there’s anything I can do to help local families living in poverty? I think it’s probably naive/patronising of me but I’d like to know how I can try to help people in the town near me (which is very poor) improve the conditions their children are living in. A couple of times lately people have been asking on Facebook groups for basics like children’s duvets and one Mum messaged me (following another conversation) saying she wasn’t feeding herself to save food for her children, as she’d missed the food bank for that week. It all makes me really sad. I know we have local food banks, but is there anything else people could do?

Thank God people like yourself can do this job. You protect many more children and do more good and the press won't print that!
Thank you x be safe

Thanks!

With older children why are families being told, taking away phones/limiting social media/ expecting children home after school is controlling and limiting freedoms and rights of the child?

I'm not aware of that advice being given and I don't agree with that.

When a child is involved in risky behaviour what interventions are seen as acceptable by SS?

It's up to the parents. As long as it's not harmful to the child, parents can take whatever action they feel is appropriate.

I have reported my neighbour to ss on the advice of majority of mumsnetters after I posted asking for advice. Did I do the right thing? Or have I wasted your time? Will anybody take action?

Neighbours are a married couple with 3 kids 2 5 & 7. Mum comes across as the most in tune amazing Mother Earth all over Facebook but the kids have been left to their own devices for as long as I can remember. Daily occurrence over the summer holidays has been children half naked hanging out of windows, standing on 7ft walls dancing, running up and down the road (they are let out at 7amish in the morning) weaving up and down the road on bikes with no helmet on, banging on random doors. They look very middle class but dad drinks a lot in the day and Mum is always on Facebook but nowhere to be seen when kids are out in the street which is all day long. We can see all the way through the downstairs of their house and Mum can't be seen when the kids are out in the street all day but she's inside somewhere with the door locked on facebook. I'm so worried something will happen to one of them but it doesn't phase them at all.

Why are parents who self refer and tell SS they can't cope with the criminal behaviour of their children, and it's impacting their younger children not given any help and told it's for the youth probation team to deal with?

Because the help they need is accessed through youth justice services, not social work services.

Why is no one held accountable when it's documented that a child in care has been abused/groomed/exploited

I don't agree that nobody is held accountable.

I think a lot of people think social services go around telling people off for not being model parents and sounds like a few of them turned up on your thread cactus.

But if nothing has happened to the children, what would SS do?

Another ex child protection social worker and I wouldn't encourage my dc to follow in my footsteps but I did work in two failing councils. I got a lot of positives out of the frontline CP work but when I finished after five years or so I mostly considered it a success because none of my cases had been to a serious case review.
I worked in one LA that ignored CP concerns of dc in LA care because it didn't want to inflame racial tension in the area.
The work did give me a fantastic grounding for the therapeutic work I spent the next 10 years doing.

Two years ago we had an investigation against us as a result of an anonymous call - after the SW spoke to school, go etc we were finally told (after 4 months of stress!) that there was no case and it was closed
My question is this - how long will this investigation stay on records? I remain paranoid that every new teacher gets told that DD was the subject of an investigation, so needs watching. Or that every time I go to the go for an unrelated matter it would pop up in my notes that SS had been in touch.
It’s upsetting as we’d done nothing wrong!

How do you actually establish whether a child is being injured or is just accident prone?

I have two year old twins - one is reasonably cautious but has vision and developmental issues and so occasionally trips and gets a bang on the head and a bump / bruise but nothing major.

The other is a complete daredevil - constantly climbing on and jumping off things. He rarely reacts at all when he falls but is constantly covered in bruises. Right now he has a bruise on his stomach side after falling off the sofa on to a plastic toy and myriad bruises on his shins etc.

I know the HV etc have no concerns as when the other twin was referred to portage they had to do an early help assessment, but I am really worried that one day he will badly hurt himself and the bruises will raise suspicion.

I would never ever lay a hand on my children (have never so much has slapped their hand) but I can see how lots of bruises could cause alarm and would understand if they wanted to make sure he was safe, but it does worry me! I obviously try and stop him but it’s not always possible.

sinkgirl It is a pediatrician who decides if an injury is accidental or not, not a social worker. Hanging around hospitals waiting to have a dc assessed was always a highlight. Social workers have training in bruising, where bruises occur accidentally and where would be unusual but they don't make the call.

I have reported my neighbour to ss on the advice of majority of mumsnetters after I posted asking for advice. Did I do the right thing? Or have I wasted your time? Will anybody take action?

They will probably talk to them about supervision and safety. Possibly it may be a wake up call - this can happen with families who have never had dealings with children's services before.

Hi sinkgirl, I'm a teacher rather than social worker but when we do safeguarding training, we are told to consider where the bruises are as to whether they are suspicious or not. Generally ones on arms and legs are considered accidental, kids are always bruising their shins!

Do you think it’s true that the same level of harm in an educated middle class family will be treated more leniently than it would in a lower class family with low levels of education?

If children are on a child protection plan as a result of witnessing domestic violence but the parents stay together and do the courses etc and no further violence is reported - will the kids eventually come off the child protection plan?

DH and I have ceased contact with my father as we believe we needed to do so to safeguard our children.

He is an alcoholic and addicted to prescription painkillers, tried to coerce us into smuggling painkillers into a hospital
He has exposed the children to a partner of his who previously killed a child while in psychosis, he concealed this for 8 years from us as parents and also did not tell us when his partner was refusing her medication and the children were visiting, he would also lie that she was away with friends when in fact she was sectioned
He attempted suicide in front of me when I was a teenager
He threatened suicide in front of our children when he did not get his own way
He has sent me throwaway texts saying my mother wanted him to sexually abuse me as a child (not true)

Another family member thinks that these things are not a safeguarding issue and we are wrong to go No Contact. We have been threatened with his 'grandparents rights' to contact with our children via court. What would the SS view be of a grandparent behaving in this way?

My question is this - how long will this investigation stay on records? I remain paranoid that every new teacher gets told that DD was the subject of an investigation, so needs watching. Or that every time I go to the go for an unrelated matter it would pop up in my notes that SS had been in touch

I'm afraid it will stay on record with children's services forever but it won't be accessible to teachers. It will be on the GP's records but they honestly won't care.

Do you think it’s true that the same level of harm in an educated middle class family will be treated more leniently than it would in a lower class family with low levels of education?

The issue is that the harm is rarely the same when you add surviving on a low income, poverty, debt, housing difficulties, homelessness and overcrowding. When I've worked with families with financial means they can do things like hire a nanny, pay for private rehab, hotels or rent a property very quickly. They are also more likely to have solvent relatives with spare bedrooms who can take kids in emergencies, and provide ongoing support.

I have a family member who lives with a man who smokes drugs every single day. I think possibly cocaine everyday. Would you do anything about this if it was reported? Kids are fed and looked after. Though I think he controls all money etc. He does nothing for the kids. Mom does everything.