Daughter fell and Social services now involved

[any009]

please help I’m so worried. My daughter fell off sofa last night while I turned my back for two seconds. She was perfectly fine after 2 minutes but I panicked about her going to sleep so I called 111 just to get some advice. They said everything sounds okay and she is aloud to go sleep but someone would ring me within two hours.

someone called within 30 mins to ask me to bring her in at 3:30am for a face to face appointment. I explained it’s not really necessary for me to wake her up in middle of the night and let her wait for ages in hospital when she’s fine. I asked if it’s ok for me to just take her to go they said it’s up to me.

so I woke up in the morning to call gp and while I was on the phone social services called me. I answered and she asked why I hadn’t taken her to hospital when it was advised but I said she was perfectly fine I just panicked and rang 111 for some advice. She said she is deeply concerned and I have to take her to doctors asap to make sure she’s okay I said I’m in the middle of that so that’s fine.

20 mins later social services are knocking at my door asking to assess my daughter. They checked her body for bruises marks or anything but she had nothing and was perfectly fine like I told them. I then went to the gp and the doctor ALSO said she is perfectly fine and he will put this in the notes.

social services called back to asked what doctor said I told them he said she is well and fine and they said okay will do another visit soon.

I’m so scared and worried my daughter is going to get taken off me I’ve been crying all day it’s all I can think about. Has anyone got any advice? Will they take this further?

111 is a non emergency line if someone is dying you need to call 999

If someone is dying or dead of course you don’t ring 111, it’s literally the only circumstance in which you ring 999.

For 111 and social services to get so involved instantly there must be some major drip feed. If an over stretched service were worried about my DD enough to call back and ask to get her checked I’d do it.

It definitely happened. This was 2007 though, I think things would be different now. Ds didn't even cry when it happened and was happily playing in a and e. If he had been my second baby I would have just kept an eye on him but he was my first and I had pnd so I rang 111 (or nhs direct as it was then). I thought going to a and e was a bit dramatic but I didn't want to be told off for not taking him. I ended up getting told off anyway. Although when I pointed out that the direct had told me to bring him in the Dr started ranting about them instead.

They're just following protocol please don't be concerned, though I appreciate it's easier said than done ❤️ my baby's pram tipped on its side with him inside it and I phoned the GP straight away. They sent me to minor injuries. Minor injuries patronised me and sent us home. I had a random phone call the next day asking why my baby hadn't seen a doctor (errrm I tried). The woman on the phone advised I got to A and E for an assessment also. Asked whay hospital I would be attending which I told her. I arrived at A and E although it was now over 24hrs since the event. Explained the situation to the triage nurse who sent us home with instructions on how to do neuro observation. Had ANOTHER call from the same random lady the next day asking why I hadn't presented at A and E. Told her I did but was sent away and it was approaching his bedtime, he was teething and I did what I was advised and thought was best at the time. It was only then that I asked who she was and she told me she was safeguarding and she started to ask who the nurse was that sent me away as of she was going to pin it all on her. She changed her tune pretty quickly when I reminded her that I tried to seek help from GP, minor injuries and then A and E, all whom sent me away. Also informed her at that point that I was a midwife myself and although I appreciated her job role there were probably better uses of her time-maybe reminding the GP and minor injuries of their safeguarding policies than telling me off for not presenting to healthcare professionals with my baby.

My son was playing outside and broke his arm. We had just moved into a new house and there was building work going on ,he was on a seesaw and fell off. He was dirty due to all the mess outside and I had a visit from social services a few days later.
When they saw he was clean and well cared for it was fine

Agreed. I thought this too. I mean SS are so badly under strain that I can't imagine anyone even being available to turn up within 20 minutes when gateway referrals can't even get a SW allocated to them past initial phone call assessment!

I have had several visits/worried calls to 111 late at night because of accidents but never heard from a social worker so it's strange to me. The 111 calls were about head injuries after my son danced on the coffee table and fell off and banged his head when he was about two, and on another occasion nose dived onto the kitchen tiles in the afternoon and then complained at bedtime of a sore head which panicked me. But they didn't want to see him, only wanted to know if he could talk/could be woken up from sleep. I was so worried I didn't want to go to sleep myself.
He fell down the stairs at 10 months and we rushed to a&e as he fell asleep. But they just said he was fine and gave us a leaflet about concussion.
Maybe they've changed their protocol?

I think they are becoming much stricter with things which I really do understand as some children are in serious harm. It was very strange to me that they came straight away but I have never been involved with SS in any way this is probably why I’m so panicked too I never thought I would be in this situation. I’m a first time mum and have been doing everything I can to make sure she is safe and well cared for I just made a silly mistake leaving her on sofa even if it was for a couple of steps to get her bottle. Will never happen again thank you everyone for your support

Its a bit late now but you should have taken her to A&E.

DC1 fell head first out of a bouncer when under a year old. I absolutely freaked out thinking I had caused brain damage. Rang DH at work in a panic and he came home and we rushed to A&E. They kept DC in overnight for observation and I remember being terrified they would call social services (especially because it was my fault as I hadn't tied the straps). They didn't but I remember feeling guilty and distraught for a long time afterwards and reliving the fall every time I closed my eyes.

While I overreacted, I think your underreaction probably caused alarm bells to go off.

I never call them it's either my GP surgery or A&E. 111 just give crap advice. If I'm ever worried enough to call them I'd not bother and go straight to a&e.

I went through the same rigmarole when I got fed up, after 8 hours, of waiting to be seen in A&E and took my child home. I pointed out that had my child needed to be seen, they would have done during that period and that sitting in A&E on a Friday night as the drunks were pitching up was not my idea of a safe place. Your child has no injuries and GP has evidenced this. It will come to nothing. Your HV may also call and you can chat through your panic over the fall - and reassure you SS will not be an issue.

There’s some sort of protocol that is triggered and they have to check that it’s not a Victoria Clombie situation - I took some comfort on the fact that they may save someone’s child one day even though it was a pain for me at the time.

Please don’t lose any sleep over it, it’ll be fine.

It is great that they're making sure kids are safe. But I'm a bit baffled at the distribution of their resources.

Health visitors and Social workers often follow up on children after they have had accidents which have require some kind of medical input. My DS fell down the stairs when he was 5 and broke his arm. We took him straight to A&E, the triage nurse asked how he had done it, and when I started to answer she stopped me and said she needed DS to tell her in his own words. Once he had done she explained that as part of safeguarding it is important that if the child is old enough to tell them that they explain what happened. She was happy that DS's injury had occurred as he said but she did warn me that I might get a follow up call from someone.

I got a phone call from a Health Visitor the next day who explained it was just a routine check as we'd had to go to A&E. She just asked if I thought there was anything we could do to stop a similar accident from happening (I said we had re-iterated to DS that you mustn't run downstairs) and that was it.

They won't take your baby away from you.

Mum of small baby phoning 111 regarding potential injury, gets asked to attend hospital and refuses, is sufficient to raise big red flags. That is all social services have had to go on in cases of child abuse and murder. They did well to check this baby was ok. Another baby might not be.

My toddler DD once fell and got a big lump on her head - I was scared by the way it swelled up and took her to A&E.

Several hours later, 7pm, we were still there with no sign of being seen by medical staff; she had been running around happily all afternoon but was becoming tired and hungry. Mother's instinct told me she was fine, so called it a day and went home.

I got a call from social services the following day saying that they'd been informed we left the hospital without receiving medical advice - like you, I was upset to have the finger pointed at me, but they have to do it, in case the child is genuinely in danger.

Wow talk about wasting time and money . They should have waited for the gp assessment and close it ! Instead they are wasting resources . I’m so so sorry . I doubt it will end up with anything hun . You done nothing wrong

There was an official complaint put in when they did this to us we have a flying doctor who said he had been doing nothing all night long he would have popped up the road and looked at him if it was genuinely meningitis he would have been our best shot they potentially put my child at risk and someone else at risk of being unable to access an emergency ambulance

All because he couldn't put his chin to his chest comfortably

Perhaps because she's been checked by a doctor? RTF OP.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I'd never had occasion to use 111.

I called them on behalf of my neighbour, young single mum with two kids, at 1:00am. She was vomiting, had diarrhoea and was delirious.

I was literally on the phone longer describing her condition etc. than it took for the ambulance to arrive. They treated her - fluids/anti emetic injection - and were away within 15/20 mins.

I was impressed. I was much less impressed by my own big mouth saying I'd look after the kids (2yo and newborn) for 36hrs to let her recover. 😧

Hot news. Different SS offices in different areas are under different pressures. The fact that that happens in your area doesn't mean it's exactly the same all over the country.

It takes A LOT for children to be taken away
SS haven't even opened a case or put you on any plan. So don't worry OP. They probably just want to come back to check everything is fine because leaving for good xx

My baby rolled off the sofa when two days old, 111 insisted on an ambulance and i was told she had to go in it so I acquiesced. Paramedics told me to take photos of where she fell from etc to prove my story. Very scary especially when doctors told me they didn't believe that she rolled as she was too young - I had thought so too which is why I'd left her briefly whilst I turned my back to grab a nappy. They contacted social services but when they eventually saw baby roll during observation period they changed tack. Social services still rang the next day bit just to ask if we needed anything, I said no we are all good and that's it. They just want to check your baby's OK, try not to panic.

How old is she? I’m surprised they said they would visit again.

How old is your daughter? Think this really depends on age. Obviously toddlers have a lot of accidents but if she’s a baby and not walking yet then they are going to look into it.

It may seem overzealous of them but they have got to check to protect young children.
Shame this hasn’t been the case for so many well documented cases where children have been massively failed by SS