Kirstie Allsopp reported to Social Services

[Eastie77Returns]

I know she’s worshipped on MN so will don by hard hat now😅 I think reporting her was absolutely ridiculous but I do question the wisdom of letting her 15 year old son travel across Europe on his own (well with friends). She mentioned lots of kids do this after their GCSEs. I think it’s usually after A Levels?

That's incorrect.

From the D of E website.

All expeditions must be supervised by an adult (the Expedition Supervisor) who is able to accept responsibility for the safety of the team. Assessment must be by an Accredited Assessor. At Bronze level only, the Assessor may also be the Expedition Supervisor.

Expedition Aim and Requirements - The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (dofe.org)

I don’t know a single parent who allows their five year old to go and play with other 5/6 year olds without any adult supervision.

The most interesting thing I learnt about this is Kirsty herself is a late Summer baby like her son and her bday is 31st August so the very youngest in the school year! So she knows what it's like for her son being younger than his peer group.
Ridiculous to involve SS.

I don’t know if I would or not (probably, depends who with I think) but I have an august born son who has also just turned 16, whereas all his friends had birthdays some months ago.

I think 15 and in year 11 is very different to 15 in year 10. I don’t know KA or her son so can’t say if she was right in letting him go.

Seriously? So no end of a levels holiday? Ffs.

15 is too young I think - there’s a huge leap in maturity from 15-17 in my experience and 15 is very vulnerable. Maybe it’s because my boys were small and skinny until 16 and a half so really looked like kids. Social services is daft though, they have enough real cases on their hands.

Yep, wouldn't happen. Not in my world. 8 years old maybe. But letting them out at 5? Unsupervised by an adult?! All the LOLz! As if! Who does that?!

One neighbour of mine lets her 7 y.o DD out with her 9 y.o. brother. But only to the park 3 minutes walk away from her house. But 5-6 y.o. out with no adult supervision? Nah.

I caught half this story on Jeremy Vine. I missed the bit where they said it was to celebrate them completing GCSEs & that he's Kirsty Allsopps son. I think it depends on how mature they are and the friends their traveling with.

This. ^

This was back in the sixties but I was talking about going round to houses next door but two or three. Mum could see me literally every step of the way. Once there we would be supervised.

But by age 7/8 I was allowed far enough away to be out of sight including going sledging a quarter mile away.

Plenty of the pearl clutching parents will pack their 15 year olds off to reading and Leeds this weekend as if that is in any way safer. It most certainly is not.

Waste of social services limited time and resources. Completely.

I would have been capable of this at 15.
My children would/are capable of this.
Children and teens navigate across London regularly without issue. Trains/tubes are no different elsewhere.

In 2011 Jessica Watson, sailing alone at 16, completed a circumnavigation of the globe. In 2000 aged 14 Michael Perham sailed solo across the Atlantic, and in 2009 when he was 17 became youngest person to circumnavigate the globe solo.

I’d say this was a lot more risky than a holiday in Europe. There must have been massive publicity beforehand, yet the trips were not stopped. Wonder if they got fined for missing school

What is daft about Social Care? All we know is that someone has reported her. Why blame social care for that? The time to criticise is when you find out what if any action they are taking

What sort of children are we raising if they can't go off and do their own thing at the end of Year 11? Most London school children have been negotiating trains and tubes since the start of Year 7 at the latest so interailing really isn't that big a shout in the days of mobile phones and under 18 bank cards etc.

Allsopp's over-reacting imo, it's just a phone assessment from the county SS ffs- it's hardly like they're beating the door down with the local Gestapo and the kid's being put in the back of the paddy-wagon.

It's not even a full blown investigation, this is just glorified clickbait.
Remember the time she claimed that she smashed her kids iPad's, she just comes across as a phat attention seeker I'm not going to lie.

I really dislike Kirstie and I wouldn't have let mine do this at 15 personally, however this is a massive waste of SS time.

@Londonmummy66 Really!! You think travelling to school in London is the same as travelling across multiple countries and sleeping, eating and exploring those countries without an adult?
You do not think a 15 year old in a foreign country without an adult is massively vulnerable?
Christ on threads on MN I tend to be the most relaxed parent on those - do you think my x aged child can do this? I can't quite believe that so many parents suddenly think a 15 year old is fine to roam around lots of countries without an adult. I am surprised they were even allowed to book accommodation.

This is Kirstie Allsopp attention seeking, getting a reaction and using it to get more attention.

Ridiculous that someone reported it to SS but I very much doubt SS will do anything.
16 year olds can live on their own, so its not a great leap to think that a 15 year old might be capable of travelling without an adult. My 13 year old travelled across my country this summer with her 16 year old friend (to get to an amusement park and back), leaving very early in the morning and getting back late at night and managing all the buses, trams and trains themselves. I am pretty sure she could manage travelling further afield in a couple of years time.

Erm, maybe a member of the French Resistance for shits and giggles...

I don't like Kirsty Allsop but she didn't do anything wrong here. Her son has left school and if she judged him capable enough to go travelling with friends then fair enough.

I probably wouldn't have let my DS go (I would this year at 17 - a year at college makes a difference) but Kirsty probably has enough money to smooth over a lot of obstacles he may have faced.

The idea that SS will care is ridiculous. As others have pointed out a number of 16 year olds live alone in accommodation they place them in.

No, it's not. I was making long-distance solo rail journeys (within the UK) at that age and never had any issues or problems.

Out of interest, do we know this?

Who said that SS had a referral about her son?

Perhaps its to push the story further