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

Great thread! I'm interested to know how many parents of children you/your colleagues have removed were in care themselves?

How many children in care do you feel end up better off long term than if they had remained in their homes? I’ve known people who had abusive families, went into care and had amazing foster parents but when ever I hear about the historic abuse cases in care I can’t help but think how so many of them were better off before they went into care. Sadly kids are still abused in care, is it common do you think? I hope it’s a minority but when things like the Rotherham case comes out it’s shocking what went on and wasn’t acted on and that was just one area and certain gangs

I think child protection social workers are great (with the odd exception!) it can’t be an easy job but thank god for then

Thanks, I meant straight forward maliace/personal grattification

Ive known families who have child protection get involved due to an over zealous consulants when parents don’t agree to medical treatment plans. Have you experienced many of these cases? Do you feel you listen more to the doctors than the families?
I have known (rare) cases where parents failing to treat children's health needs has had a significant impact on a child's health and their likely length of life. In such cases where evidence from doctors is very clear I will listen to that.
I've not come across one as you describe yet but the devil in such cases will very much be in the detail.

“I think there are too many variables to say what is likely to happen. It really depends on many things; the nature of the abuse, the family structure etc”

Fair enough. I don’t want to go into detail here. I was shocked and upset by the examples of physical and sexual abuse that were given. But then I don’t work in a role in which I regularly hear about child abuse (thankfully, as I don’t think I am resilient enough!) so I don’t know enough to judge.

I respect and appreciate the work you do. I wish it got the funding and resources it needs and deserves. (The same goes for many vital services )

anotheremma there are support services, usually voluntary, for adults who experienced sexual abuse as DC. I hope your friend accesses any support they need.

@daisy.
Abuse in care. Very very rare.
You mention Rotherham... that impacted children in all walks of life including those so were in care and those who weren't. Some children in care are particularly vulnerable to exploration but this is often initially due to the emotional impact of their experiences prior to being in care.

As for children who would be better off at home. I see that the threshold for removing child into care now is so so high and rightly so, it's very difficult to see that children removed these days are likely to have been better off at home.

That said there are children whose experiences leave them so emotionally scarred and traumatised that it's very hard to give them the care they need and their experiences in care may be really quite bad (lots of moves, vulnerable to exploitation, risk of drug use etc). Does this necessarily mean they would have been better off staying at home? Far from it.

What newdaylight says is spot on.

Should I complain about a report I received. My ex was being investigated for hitting my 7yr old quite badly which was reported by the school after a weekend with him. All three of my dc told the sw he could be violent ( I was shocked as he was nothing like that with me) but the sw seemed more interested in making sure he spent time with them. The report was badly written getting the children and his names mixed up and facts completely wrong. Should I bring it up or just leave it?

You are amazing!!!

Really amazing

Keep up the fab work
I hope you are happy with your job and that there is some down time to it

pasta Thank you, I did give her the NAPAC helpline number. She later told me she called them and they were helpful.

I actually saw her in a professional capacity so not a friend but she definitely touched me, a very lovely and very troubled person

I said this on another post, God, who would want to work in Child Protection, these kind of stories, day in day out, not always with such deaths but the possibility of deaths must be always on your mind.

Just how? does it make you permanently doubt people? judgemental, cry into your coffee?

@newdaylight

@daisy.
Abuse in care. Very very rare.

IME actually as a LAC leaver. Very very common. Sure, what we experienced at home warranted the removal into care but in care I and I think every child I lived with experienced abuse of some form... either by other children in care, by staff or by people who specifically target vulnerable children and were attracted to the fact we were "in care" I assume.

But dream on. And shut your eyes.

Would neglecting to provide a child a hot meal because mum was too tired warrant investigation?

As a one off standalone issue? I hope not because social care couldn't cope with that number of referrals.

What is the method of dealing with a situation where there is multiple abuse going on? If it is reported to Social Workers that a child or adult is being abused why would they not look into the full picture.

It is suspected that there was a target in mind but when the "culprit" turned out not to be the person they were targeting, interest was lost in the case. This is turn has left 2 persons being abused and faith in the Social Services offices being lost in that they could not see the whole picture.

What should anyone do about this now?

stillme I'm not completely sure what you are saying and I know very little about adult social services. But the key point is to make another referral if you have current safeguarding concerns or you have new information.

pasta - thanks for reply. I don't know how to make it clearer without being at risk of recognition.
Problem is that I didn't think that they should have walked away when they found out that it was not the person they thought it might be who caused harm.

In general terms is there no great amount of communication between the child and adult departments in Social Services?

No in general there really isn't any connection between the two, the only exception to that was the children with disabilities team because they do a certain amount of handover work I believe. Child protection teams have links with in no particular order schools, health visitors, police, children's hospital dept, family centers/sure start (before they all shut), housing, adult mental health services and CAMHS. I'm sure I've left some out but not really adult services for social care.

If someone reports a concern are the parents informed of who reported the concern?

Not if you ask for it to remain anonymous, unless you are reporting in a professional role.

My family was recently assessed under section 17. I work full time and had to take time off work to be at home for a couple of meetings with the SW. because they could only see me between 9 and 5. I was a bit surprised that SWs do not work out of hours at all. Is this not a thing?

Only in an emergency, they do stay to place dc in emergency foster care for example or if they have got to wait in hospital to see a doctor, they have done an out of area visit to see a child or they are writing an emergency court report. However standard office hours are usually what we are contracted for. There is an emergency team out of hours which does what it says on the tin. Most professionals have office hours for seeing clients and social workers aren't any different.

Pasta thanks for further information.
It could be a suggestion that I could make when I do talk to SWs.
Abusive persons tend to pick on people they assume to be weaker than them. It would not be beyond the bounds of thought that an abusive person would be abusing children and senior persons which categories could both be weak for different reasons.

We always had a toil system and people were usually owed at least a week.