Social services

[brokennana]

Basically I'm a nana to a beautiful 11 week old
Her parents known to ss
Baby was 3 days old when an emergency court decided baby was to be taken into care.
It wasn't until 3 weeks later when her family received the ss reasons that the wtf moment happened
Baby was taken based on unfounded opinions of ss
Solicitors at the time said there was no reasons for child to be taken.
Back story history of recreational drug use but both parents clean since mum found out she was pregnant

2nd court date child was to stay in care. New sw. Parents ordered a drugs test (hair strand) and various other agencies to work with.
Tests done , worked with drug and alcohol agencies. Mum even did freedom project even no dv

3rd court case drugs test negative. Ss not having that - they admitted they didn't understand the results
Ss refused to do referrals
Left court with a good luck off the judges and we don't want to see you here again

4th court date after another negative drugs test postponed by ss as they hadn't got their paperwork in order.

5th court case ss threatened with a non compliance order. The judge said it's up to the courts to decide not the local authorities. Court said that ss were judgmental and had a closed mind. And this wasn't fair on the child or the parents.

6th court date in a couple of weeks in front of the same judges at court 3.

The parents have seen their child daily. Never missed a contact. Done everything ss asked and beyond.
Mum now has pnd , infections and is still healing from a crash delivery.
They have nothing but good reports from all agencies involved.
Clean from cocaine. No alcohol. They don't even smoke.

Everything ss say is in our opinion this , in our opinion that . But can't and never have backed anything up with fact. They have now started psychological warfare, now playing on mums pnd , she will be unable to properly parents etc

I don't know what I want from this post, just a rant. I've seen my grandchild 2 times since birth.
How can ss take a child based on opinion , be told by the courts to sort their house out, stall and stall again and keep getting away with it?
I know they have a job to do and there are children in danger.
Mum and dad just want their baby back and to love a normal happy life. It just feels never ending

@ADHDDDDDDDBOOM
How can they attend an d&a agency when the agency isn't prepared to see them?
They can't just turn up at the door

@Noorandapples what did you do to stop this misjustice? Surely if you knew someone was spitefully taking children away, you'd report them before it got to that stage?

Sorry, I don't believe you.

The midwife is still in touch now?

Why? The midwife's job was completed 11 weeks ago.

I’ve worked in the same field for many years and never seen what you have described.

I've worked alongside briefly and seen LAs that take a hardline approach, rather than taking any perceived risks. SW is an underfunded area and there isn't always a consistent approach across LAs.

The drug and alcohol agency absolutely would see parents who were ordered to undertake the work to get their baby back.

You're being spun lies. Wake up.

@brokennana the mum called social services herself? Yeah right.

Is your child the care leaver?

Obviously being a care leaving can bring up concerns as a stand alone issue, not always, but it may be deemed that additional support is needed. Can you say why they were taken into care?

My line of work was actually young people leaving care, I worked with young mums so those that had been in care and then became pregnant. SS involvement was the norm, these women had not had normal upbringings, some had suffered sexual abuse and thought it ok to have baby around their abuser (usually a step father sadly) which could be seen as failure to protect.

Many of these young women didn’t know how to care for a baby, nobody had shown them love or support and some thrived with SS involvement and kept their babies. Some did not, but they had ample support before it even got to removal stage.

To be honest op, since there are solicitors you need to ask them any questions. You can't get solid advice here without disclosing sensitive information. You really need to seek legal advice.

Right calling it a day

I can't say much as still under court order

All I can say is I hope none of this ever happens to a member of your family.
The pain is unbearable
And yea there are rogue sw out there
Please stop with they are all ticking the right boxes with no basis.
I've seen and heard first hand what they are doing.

Thank you good night

They would never refuse.

Especially when referred by SS.

You are being lied to. A lot.

OP. Can you afford proper legal advice?

The parents of the child would have legal advice and a solicitor or barrister to represent them in court.

Sorry, I didn’t realise this. Apologies.

I believe you too OP. Have had experience of the social worker on a power trip within my family. Eventually DSis was told by a new Manager that their case should have been closed after initial contact Unfortunately DN lost out considerably as a result of a poorly supervised support worker and is still suffering the consequences.

Unfortunately, some SS do remove children based on nothing other than their own opinions and judgements, rather than substantiated facts as the law requires.

Those who argue otherwise on here are not familiar with these underhand, corrupt practices that happen. If you look up Social Work England and the Parliamentary Ombudsman, you will read literally dozens and dozens of cases like this in which children were unlawfully removed or unlawfully put on Child Protection Plans.

What your daughter needs to do is put in a Subject Access Request (SAR), to get hold of all case notes and C&F assessment documentation. Then, these need to be gone through with a fine toothed comb against the statutory guidelines that they must follow by law. Write down all of the breaches. Then take it to a solicitor to fight tooth and nail for that baby back.

There are charities and organisations that have advocacy services for people with SS involvement.

Do not let this go, keep fighting. Once you're in a position to start the formal complaints process, go through all 4 stages, then take it to the Ombudsman and Social Work England. These people need to be held accountable for the families that they destroy.

Before I get any hate, there absolutely are times when children need to be removed from families, this has to be done following lawful procedures. That apparently is not the case here.

Unfortunately, some SS do remove children based on nothing other than their own opinions and judgements, rather than substantiated facts as the law requires.

Social workers don’t have the power to remove children. Only a judge does, and it’s reasonable to assume that a judge would look for substantiated evidence which, as you say, the law requires. You have no idea from the OP what procedures have been followed.

What is the Court Guardians opinion? Are they in agreement with SS or not? The Judges usually set great store by what the Guardian has to say.

It's ridiculous to say it doesn't happen. Even if it's 1% per 1000 cases that is 10 families.

The judge only goes off of the social workers reports and assessments sought by them. To say mistakes are never made is utter nonsense.

There are children left with their abusers. There are children hastily removed due to 'risk of future harm'. I've seen both play out.

RaisingH makes a good point.

Even if the social worker and their local authority have made mistakes/downright lied, there is also the Children's Guardian to consider. They work for CAFCASS, a completely independent national organisation. So there will be two different social workers writing reports about the child and their family. Both would have to be mistaken/lying.

OP i hear you.

I have been on the wrong side of social services from the other side (adoptive parent). They missed a bit of paperwork in the early days and it took many months of my child’s sibling being in foster care to sort out when he should have come to us from birth.

It was seriously scary how they closed ranks and no one would talk to us. We ended up going to our MP and then things started happening immediately at a much higher level. We also kept a record of every meeting, every phone call and discussion, it ended up in a many page timeline of catastrophic failures and as they kept such atrocious records, they could not argue.

It gave me a huge insight into the plights of birth parents and how helpless people who might not have the money, strength or mental capacity to fight might feel though. It was literally the toughest time of my life. We are very white and middle class and we’re treated with respect by the ones who came to our house once they realsied this (it was different on the phone). It leaves me cold to think that if we did not present as we did, the outcome could have been very different.

Whatever has gone on here, and it might well be more than you know, but even so, your family deserve an explanation at least and they should have someone with then to help them
under stand the process and what is going on. I’d also recommend them keeping a log of everything and do not be afraid to go higher up the chain if they are not satisfied with an answer.

Op has flounced

The judge only goes off of the social workers reports and assessments sought by them. To say mistakes are never made is utter nonsense.

The report will comprise of assessments by all the professionals involved, including the midwife, hospital services, domestic abuse agencies, addiction services etc. It’s not just the social worker by any means. There will have been strategy meetings, pre-birth planning meetings where those professionals represent their own views along with a Guardian ad Litem appointed by the court.

Its telling that 5 court judges have uphill the removal order - that’s a lot of people having eyes on the case who think the child should be removed.

Op sounds like she is going through a very emotionally draining time.
No point being horrible and saying she has flounced.

No profession gets things right all the time and just as children are left with abusers, its correct to think they are taken in error too.
I have also met several social workers that really shouldn't be doing the job they do.

If you read this Op I hope you get can get some resolutions quickly

This. There is a lot of work that would have already been done before it got to the point of removal.
I don't think you have the full story.

I'm not discussing this specific case, I'm speaking in general. The reports are moulded by the social worker when they produce their threshold which is presented to the judge.

And as I say, mistakes are made (from multiple angles). I don't really see what there is to argue about unless you think social workers are infallible.