Baby taken away by social services whilst in A&E

[napol]

Hi

I'm new to Mumsnet but am in desperate need of help/advice or better still has anyone out there been in the same situation as me.

I dropped my 10 month old boy at nursery one morning at 8am. He was his normal self - happy chappy with no injuries. I got a call from the nursery at 4.30pm from the manager saying despite no accident happening at nursery throughout the day he had developed a lump on the side of his head but not to worry as he was in no pain or discomfort but best I get it checked out.

we picked him up and took him to a&e immediately where to our horror he was diagnosed with a fractured skull. because the injury was unexplained social services and police were called and the decision was made not to let us take our baby boy home. We are now under investigation and cannot see him unless supervised. it looks like it will go to court months down the line.

We are innocent of any neglect or wrong doing and it seems to us the nursery are obviously to blame. Understandably we are devastated and heartbroken and just want our boy home

Nothing much to add OP as I have never been in this position but sending you a big hug, this must horrendous for you and your partner. I honestly don’t know what I’d do in your position it’s just awful.

I hope you get your lovely baby back soon OP and they get to the bottom of this.

@thefairycaravan
saying despite no accident happening at nursery throughout the day he had developed a lump on the side of his head but not to worry as he was in no pain or discomfort but best I get it checked out.

To the OP

There is absolutely no useful advice that your legal aid solicitor can’t give you about the situation.

I appreciate you might want advice and support from the masses but this thread now states the circumstances, that you are middle class and what jobs you do. Anyone involved with this alleged incident and your case can read it and figure out who you are and what you are doing. Rightly or wrongly, they won’t be impressed by this thread.

'The social services are far too pushed to snatch random babies with no evidence, '

As those with experience have said it is standard procedure for A&E to involve social services regarding unexplained injuries and ss will escalate as necessary. The fact that it hasn't been established when the injury occured is obviously key to the dc being 'snatched'.

It is an anonymous forum, the op asking for advice and support is perfectly ok.

@Glacecherrychops

No she doesn’t she said when she dropped him off he was fine.

She also says that the nursery noticed at 11am that he had a fever and gave him calpol. She should have been informed of the fever and given the option to collect him. He should not have been given medication without her permission. Once he had been given calpol it would not be possible to assess accurately the extent of the pain and distress.

If you have money for a private solicitor, please do so.

My friend lost her child to her abusive ex as her legal aid solicitor obviously hadn't even read the bundle of evidence she prepared for him. He failed her utterly in court. Her ex was well represented and the court believed her manipulative lies.

Please also don't trust the police - or social services - to investigate as thoroughly as you might expect them to. Everyone is struggling under cuts, everything has been cut to the bone. Your child might be way down the list of urgent and pressing things SS and the police have to do that day,

yes they have ipads and take daily photos, something we want police to investigate - maybe they already have

This, for example. You can't assume they'll do this.

If you have the money, start speaking to a private solicitor. Make sure you get solid recommendations for them.

And start pushing for the evidence you need. e.g. what do the nursery do with the photos? Do they delete ones they haven't used after a few days, perhaps or do they keep them? Who is getting this evidence, and when? When can you see it? Can you ask for it directly? etc.

@Glacecherrychops

saying despite no accident happening at nursery throughout the day he had developed a lump on the side of his head but not to worry as he was in no pain or discomfort but best I get it checked out.

You mean the nursery claimed he was in no pain and discomfort. Despite running a fever that morning and being given calpol.

I hope this all gets sorted and that your ds is OK.

speak to the nursery and find out how it was documented if no response or explaination ring and speak to OFSTED as it appeared during his time at nursery it should have been reported to them by the nursery as it required hospital treatment

This sounds like a good idea.

It sounds like your baby was injured at nursery. I think you need to proceed on that basis. Be active, don't be passive and assume people are doing their jobs with the care you would do them. Ask your solicitor exactly what they're going to do, and what the score is on you asking the nursery for documents.

You have a right, for example, to see everything the nursery keeps on file about you / your child. So you should be able to ask for all documentation and photos from that day. Is your solicitor asking for this? If not, then don't wait for the police to ask for it, get your own copies.

SOrry, my post about shoudl read:

Her ex was well represented and the court believed HIS manipulative lies - (i.e. her ex was a bloke).

We have osteogenesis imperfect in the family. Do you have any one in your family with this condition? Are the whites of your sons eyes blue tinged by any chance? This condition causes bones to break sometimes with just a very small fall or impact

If you've not had dealings with Social Services / the police as a victim you might not realise just how much they're buckling under cuts.

If I was in the same situation, I would be worried that sitting back and waiting for everyone to do their jobs could lead to me losing my child.

You need to pull out all the stops and do whatever you can to support the professionals who are meant to be advocating for your child, get to the bottom of this.

And, get a SHL (shit hot lawyer), ASAP.

Bless you.
This is absolutely heartbreaking and my friend had a very similar experience with her little girl who was also at nursery but it was the nursery that informed social services as her daughter came in with bruises on her legs. Anyway social services spoke to my friend and it all got investigated and the bruises were just from playing and she's a very rough and tumble little girl she's always bumping herself. Since this happened she hasn't put her in nursery again and she's currently a sahp when before she was working part time and had her daughter in nursery.
This happens allot and its terrifying.
Really feel for you OP let us know what happens x

Lottiebugz22 was your friend's DD actually taken away from her?

@napolwe received a call at 11am from them saying he had a temperature and could they give him capol. is that suspicious, could he have banged his head then and they wanted to adminster capol to calm/settle him down?

I work at a Nursery and if we give Calpol to a child they then need to be picked up asap - we can't keep them here if they are sick enough that they need to be given Calpol!

So that does seem suspicious..

OP, in my earlier reply I didn't say that I wish you well. I hope this is resolved as quickly as possible for you. It must be terrifying.

OP my guess is something happened to him between 8am and 11ish a time nursery and he developed a bump and a temperature so they called you to ask about calpol. They were hoping the bump would go by the time you came to collect him (because often when children get bumps they do go within a few hours- nursery staff will know this due to experience) however when it got to half 4 and bump still not gone they knew they had to advise you before you turned up and saw it so they phoned you and said it just appeared. But it will have been there since before he had his calpol. I guarantee you that.

Ask for their record of noticing temperature, (time noticed etc) what action taken, (called you- administered calpol) and then the follow up checks on his temperature and action taken.

Oh yes kapten is right too- if calpol is administered for a high temp- parents usually have to come and collect baby. They didn’t ask you to- so you wouldn’t see the bump.

It really concerns me that social services in these cases don't take into account the infants mental health/attatchment and the impact forced seperation from parents will have in the name of child protection!

But sadly some parents do harm their children. CSD will have received medical opinion about the possibility of non-accidental injury, and they have had to make an immediate decision while they investigate. Its crap in the short term for the OP if this has nothing to do with her, however it shows the system is working. I would be astonished if a LADO investigation was not also taking place to investigate the nursery, but the facts are not yet known hence the care order.

OP I hope this gets resolved for you as quickly as possible and that your son is OK.

My youngest DS , when he was about 8, wsa playing out with his brother and a friend and fell off a low wall and bashed his forehead on the pavement . Luckily , for me , with what came after, the friends mother witnessed it and brought him home to me .
Huge , size of a golf ball or bigger . Took him to the doctors and A&E, done it all right and STILL the SS were at his school one afternoon to "see me about this" !! Doctor confirmed I had taken my son to him and he had then advised A&E ,
They do have to check these things OP.

I am not middle class and it seems par for the course, to me, that they leap on us particularly so. Just my observations.

What is more likely: an institutional cover up at a nursery to conceal that a child has fallen over and somehow broke his skull at the back, despite the force needed to do this being high or the woman's partner has been hitting him and broke his skull?

Not necessarily an institutional cover up, but a fair amount of nurseries employ daft wee lassies who I could totally see being careless, having this happen on their watch, and then lying about it to cover their own arse/

I have a lot of experience of safeguarding issues, including an incident remarkably similar to this one, though that involved an injury elsewhere on the body.

For starters- please get yourselves decent legal representation, don’t just rely on legal aid. In fact, I am very surprised you’re even entitled to it given what you say about your earnings.

Document anything and everything about the days leading up to that day at nursery. Including contact with them that day and their responses when you picked him up.
I’d be finding out if the nursery has CCTV and asking the Police to gain access to it.

What action have you taken so far since your son was removed?