Family missing with newborn....

[ChocChocYum]

www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/23233264.bolton-m61-appeal-help-finding-missing-family-newborn-baby/

Where are they? How can they go missing? Hope they are ok

Indirectly…. Right. Like I said, social workers can and do visit jointly with police correct, however what they cannot do is contravene law and force a removal.

I appreciate your professional role but with respect you will never know the full picture. Public law proceedings are closed, you wont have access to the full evidence or hear what goes on in the court room. You will only ever have the narrative fed to you by the parent.

Many children have been removed under police protection for FII/ risk of future emotional harm not immediate danger and social services can use it before getting a court order.

There have definitely been some issues within the Marten family. She wasn’t pictured at her brothers wedding which featured in Vogue. I wonder if it’s anything to do with her partner?

We see all the evidence . We’ve helped parents counter each allegation with proof.

One parent was accused of making up allergies and digestive issues. This was FII and emotional harm apparently and keeping the child from normal social and emotional development by making them appear different and sick when they weren’t.
Removed and investigated. We had proof of skin tests and blood tests and had to submit that repeatedly and it was ignored .
Child had a reaction in foster care. They did get returned eventually but I saw exactly what was happening - professional gaslighting

I worked with children in care for a while, I became more conflicted. It was no longer ‘oh, thankfully they are safe’.

Many were in home lives that were potentially adequate with support. But there was no support. Someone doing meals or checking in or babysitting.

Two main things I reflected on were that simply a warm safe bed isn’t enough. Most loved their parents and there was a big trade off with the loss of the family unit for a temporary bed. Also for teen girls it often heightened their sexual vulnerability, not having a family unit- particularly those housed in group homes who were easily identifiable as having no family oversight.

Mainly though the system was underfunded and inadequate, and had its own dangers. I saw children with 7-8 social workers a year housed well out of area. There was no joined up thinking, just a harassed person taking on LAC meetings last minute who then didn’t action basics. Things like meeting learning needs at school just never got actioned, the impact was huge. Meetings with siblings went by the by. Even pretty major concerns sat until the next meeting.

The worst cases saw short term placement after short term placement messing with their heads. A succession of homes leading to isolation, travelling 1.5 hours or more on buses each way to school and fatigue and behaviour issues being created from that. Children being moved homes at the drop of a hat over minor incidents.

There were cases I did think that being loved and with siblings in a dysfunctional family wasn’t really any worse that what some of the kids faced in the system. And if they’d been given intensive family support they’d have been ok. Plus, it would have been cheaper for the state that removal/ bouncing in and out of care as mum went up and down. Most of them returned back to their families post care.

I’m far from anti care and I think most social workers I met were great. But they simply had case loads they couldn’t cope with, last minute chaos and some had reached the point where they couldn’t cope themselves anymore in the system. Some children will always need removal and help. But I think, at least in many cities, the system is so broken that it can cause it’s own harm. If a child isn’t adopted young it’s rough.

I’m aware of the law @Itsneveralways i do this for a living!

social workers still need to evidence the risk however. They cannot simply just rock up and ask for removal it really doesn’t work like that. To try and hint otherwise is just peddling harmful and scaremongering lies which may encourage a parent to not work with social care in the future.

I’ve also heard many, many recordings of meetings and then seen the minutes/reports and it’s like they were at a different meeting. Luckily we can use those recordings for court if transcribed so yes i have seen the proof it’s not just what a parent says

You absolutely 10000% do not see all the evidence unless a parent has shared the court bundle with you - which is not allowed…

so if you are viewing confidential court documents you are not that professional.

boundaries and all that

Wow! Just remind me never to have my name published in the press so some random on the internet can stalk my social media and make assumptions!

There's obviously a huge back story here, and it's very worrying that a newborn and mother haven't had medical checks.

I had a massive PPH at home after giving birth a few weeks before (due to retained products), and it was terrifying. She's taking a massive risk that everything is OK with herself and her baby.

That’s a really interesting post, @RoyalStallion - thanks. Although your username … 🤢

As I said thought often the ‘evidence’ is opinion repeated so often it is then presented as ‘fact’ like the cases I’ve mentioned - genuine diagnosed illness is disregarded. A child with diagnosed allergies -it was presented as fact that the mother made these up the only evidence on either side was the mothers

This case was a referral because a HT referred to SS saying the mother fussed over the child too much, they had ‘too many medical appts ‘ and that she wanted special treatment around food activities and lunchtime for attention and that she felt there was ‘an element of munchausens’

@Itsneveralways what you've written is actually chilling. I only ever heard of a case where the parent was of no significant risk and the child was removed. I thought then that must be an isolated incident but after reading posts you've written, I'm doubting that. What a terrible toll that must've taken on your own well being.

We also found that professional opinion was also used as evidence

I was a social worker for 12 years and FII is the most unlikely case to present. I never personally had any cases of that and only saw one in any of the teams throughout my career. That’s probably thousands of cases I’m talking about there. It is also notoriously difficult to prove and has a very rigorous procedure to go through to diagnose, so I’m very curious where you are from to see such an abundance of cases.

Also, if you ‘covertly’ record professionals, you would be unable to then use that evidence in court, as legally you must make people aware when you are recording them.

I will say that on the flip side when working in DV I saw many good social workers and they were doing a good job and did remove when necessary. A few cases where we needed to push them to keep women and children safe.
Working in my last role though I was shocked I didn’t actually believe it initially but after the first couple of cases there seemed to be a worrying pattern

THANK YOU @Grimblygrumbly

i am very dubious of all posted

and I say that as someone who has worked in frontline child protection for far too many years and now as service manager for a large London borough.

It’s worryingly common now

we have been able to use transcripts of covert recordings

FII is not a diagnosable condition

@Itsneveralways how many times have you sat in court and listened/read all the evidence?

MSBP is but FII is more of an identification of behaviours (and also perplexing presentations can be a pre cursor to FII)

I haven’t been in court but have seen all evidence as we help parents to counter allegations etc

As I said I have seen many many cases where social services acted appropriately (some cases where they should have acted sooner) but I’m giving the other side as well so that people have a balanced view. Mistakes are made

It’s illegal to share confidential court documents outside of those party to proceedings without permission of the court.

even with permission it only extends to relevant documents where there is a proven need for the info to be shared, for example an independent parenting assessor may have sight of a parent’s psychological report.

I would be really concerned if you have been flaunting the law in such a manner given you are apparently a professional….

These parents need help so we help them so they can counter each point and submit evidence. How is that wrong ?