SON BIT BY DOG - Social services!?

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Neighbours dog bit my son (11) today and did some damage on his lower back area. We’ve been up hospital, wounds were assessed, cleaned, dressed and antibiotics prescribed.
Hosp referred it to the police straight away, who phoned me about an hour later and I spoke to them on the phone regarding the incident whilst at the hosp still.
The nurse who assessed my son before the wounds were dressed said they need to contact social services as well… Why is this?

(Not sure what topic this falls under) - thank you

To add, it was an unprovoked attack, my son was running past the dog (large Rottweiler) and it just went for him

I think, though I’m not sure, and someone else may be along to clarify that they are just following their safeguarding policy when it comes to injured children

They probably just need to check if it was your own dog or a family pet. Once they've ascertained it wasn't they won't look into it any further.

Its automatic safe guarding policy that they have to follow.

It’ll be a safeguarding flag due to the type of injury. They’ll want to check the details to ensure it’s not family dog, ds doesn’t go to the neighbours house and hang with the dog etc (some parents wouldn’t bother changing plans and keep putting dc at risk). Just explain and all will be fine from what you’ve put here.

It will be so they can find out why your son was in a situation were a dog could bite him.

Okay, thank you all for the clarification

As a Social Worker I'd be.annoyed at getting this referral. If the police are involved, you have sought health input for your child, what is a SW meant to do? Ffs. I would be asking for the policy from the hospital to justify this and decline consent, make them justify why they are referring, who does this child need safeguarding from? You as the parent are safeguarding them.

As a 'social worker' wow that's your advice? well that's clearly why our social society is where it is. Absolutely shocking 😮

Yeah but to be fair, surely making sure the dog doesn't live with the child and wasn't invited into the house, is an investigation for the police, not a social worker?

Or am I wrong? (Possibly).

The parent is responsible for their child, the police have been notified and the parent has sought health advice. It's a police matter. If the police consider the parent has been negligent then by all means refer it. What do you want the SW to do? They will ask mum what happened, she will give the account she has given. The fact you think this is what SW's are here for suggests you have a very limited understanding of a. safeguarding b. the law and also the reason why social care is stretched to breaking point where actual children in need of support and protection get missed.

@CatG021024 thank you for your message, this is what I thought too! However, I read on the hospital policies online it’s due to the fact the dog is “known to the child” - I guess they just want to ensure it doesn’t happen again. But again, I don’t see why the police can’t do that, we have a video call appointment with them on Sunday to discuss it further

Yes this

I would think they just need to look at why the dog got to your son and how this won't happen again. I would imagine they will ask what circumstances caused the dog to get to the child and bite, and how these can be prevented. If they are happy that an accidental error was made and is unlikely to happen again, case closed.

Hopefully the owners will do the right thing and have it PTS.

It will most likely get shut down at the front door of social care. I'm a SW and I would call the family to confirm information - who the dog lives with, what measures are family doing to ensure safety of child and if satisfied with response then close the referral.

The hospital are following policy however I wish partner agencies would understand informing a family of a referral is not the same as asking consent. That way it would remove some worry and you'd have opportunity to ask questions direct. Just telling a family you're putting a referral through due to policy, IMO, is not good enough and creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety in a lot of situations. The actual threshold for submitting a referral without speaking to parents/gaining consent is high and covers very specific potential risks. Of course a referral can be put in without consent but the amount of people that tick the box consent has been given when they've actually just told a family that's what they're doing is crazy. It builds mistrust from the outset.

In short don't worry about. It will most likely be a phone call so you can share your information on what's happened.

No it's this sort of thing that is completely drowning both childrens and adults social services departments.

It isn't 'wrong' for the hospital to refer if they have concerns about an injury caused to a child but so many partner agencies have blanket reporting policies they have developed internally with no consultation with the agencies they are reporting to and bear no reflection to the actual reporting thresholds for those agencies.

An 11 year old who has been swiftly brought to hospital in response to a dog bite and is able to explain themselves to hospital and police what happened doesn't need a further referral to childrens services. It's a complete waste of everyone's time.

Reframe it that every report like this which has clearly already been dealt with in a timely way by the parents and the appropriate agencies and doesn't need any further action from social care (police would report to them if it did) takes time away from the children who do need that time spent looking at their referrals and pulling together a multi agency plan because there's real concerns and risks.

There's no professional judgement being used here, just uncessary arse covering.

@SafeguardingSocialWorker I agree it's a police matter but a call from the front door to confirm details isn't a waste of resources. The difference between my neighbours dog randomly bit my child and in response I'm not allowing him to go near the dog again is very different to my neighbours dog bit my child but they help with childcare while I'm working and I've no other support. Also the gardens are joint and there's no barrier so I can't keep them apart but it'll be fine as it's never happened before. Even if the latter is accurate it's signposting and offering advice/safety planning as a minimum.

The front door is supposed to sift through the referrals like this before they hit us for assessment.

@NeverAloneNeverAgain & @SafeguardingSocialWorker thanks so much for your messages, that makes total sense. I’m more than happy to speak to whoever necessary about the incident and so is my son. Luckily as you said, he can explain in detail what happened so hopefully it’ll be dealt with swiftly and quickly so resources aren’t taken away from children in desperate need of social care. Thanks again for the professional information and for understanding our situation when replying to my post. I appreciate your time