Any one who knows about children’s social care please?

[abitworriedasyouwouldbe]

Ds had a social worker where we used to live and when we moved house recently, they said they would get in touch with social care in our new area so that the involvement could continue to support him (because of my medical issues affecting his quality of life :( ). I think he has a child in need plan if that’s relevant to what contact we should have had but tbh the labels for it all have been such a blur because I’ve been ill so it might have just been that it was the next recommended step.

We’ve lived here nearly two months now and heard nothing from anyone. Should I be concerned? I’m wary of getting in touch myself because tbh our experience with the social workers where we used to live wasn’t great (lots of talk of support but no action in the months we were with them, promises that got our hopes up and then never happened etc) and I’m scared of getting my hopes up again here too. But I’m also scared that I’m going to somehow get the blame for whatever communication failure has happened here for ds to just be dropped the way he has been. I know that the social worker was leaving the week after we moved so I’m worried that has somehow affected things being passed on. Again, promises of making sure it would be but who knows.

I’m half gobsmacked it’s this easy for a child to disappear from the system tbh but also half unsurprised because we hear a lot about social workers workloads.

Does anyone know how long it takes for one local authority to hand over to another? Or have any advice on what I should do next? Thank you very much :)

Almost forgot, we have moved from an area in England to another area in England. I wasn’t sure if it was different in different bits of the UK.

Is your child schools aged and attending school? If he were on a CIN plan it would have showed up in his safeguarding files and school would have been or should have been ready to follow up and find out this. Any school who has received a CIN plan child’s safeguarding file and not discussed it with you/agencies is a bit worrying. You can also self refer to your local services through a family hub if you feel you need support.

If your child was on a child protection plan you would have heard from a social worker as you would have had a formal transfer.

It's less rigid with a child in need plan but I still think you should have heard if your previous social worker referred you, even if just to tell you your child isn't going to be opened to a social worker in the new area.

You could call MASH and ask if they have a record of your child and take it from there.

Thank you for the replies. He is school aged and had support at his old school but none of that has happened at his new one either. I did it all properly and provided contact info for old school to the new one and new school to the old one. It’s almost like he’s been forgotten. It honestly is very representative of our experiences with all support networks we’ve tried in the past. I’ll have to pull myself together and chase it up though because it is worrying me! Thank you again for the replies.

Please ask for the Designated Safeguarding Lead in school and ask that they have definitely requested transfer of school files in line with statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance. Then prompt them to read the file, meet with you and discuss any support your family may need that they can refer you for.