Read my first 'Real Life' CPR report today

[topcat2014]

So, today I read my first 'real life' CPR report - in that it related to a child we had expressed an interest in.

What a priviledge it felt like to be allowed into such a personal set of circumstances.

Sadly, I don't think this child will be for us, as it happens. Doesn't stop me sincerely hoping that they get a good outcome.

And also that the birth parents manage life to their best ability.

Makes it all suddenly feel ' real ' doesn't it? I read my first one last week... heart breaking.

I think it is somewhat like reading an estate agents particulars in that you have to read between the lines a lot (in my experience anyway ) Key phrases are code for other things e.g. " child can be lively but responds well to clear boundaries " really means probable ADHD and challenging behaviour. I sometimes think as a fc who has read a fair few that some should come with a translation for the uninitiated like a Shakespeare text.

We had met this particular child at an activity day too. The layout of the form seemed to make more sense somehow when we were reading it for real, rather than in stage 2

I was thinking about this not long ago. I was fostered from a care home then adopted. Obviously this was many years ago and so practice may have changed, but in my case the information provided to foster and then adoptive parents was not complete or accurate.

It meant that there was a huge chasm between how I felt about things and what my foster parents thought I'd feel, and I didn't have the language or the maturity to explain about it at the time.

The right information being provided would have made a huge difference to who took me on and the care I received.

Just something to bear in mind, really.

I think that’s really worthwhile comment, @3minstobedtime though I’d also add that with the best will in the world information about children will always be inaccurate and incomplete. As a CP social worker I know that in our work with families we see what the family want us to see (eg because it helps their case for particular support) and/or what they are unable to hide (eg chaotic drug use/chronic neglect). Along the way there may be enough to say a child needs to be removed and can’t return to their birth family. Between those two points there’s a huge amount of experience that professionals will be utterly unaware of, because they are focussing on presenting issues, because children don’t have language to disclose, or are loyal to their birth family, or don’t think anything is wrong - the list is endless.

I think it’s good starting point to assume there are gaps in everyone’s knowledge - it’s where the “curiosity” part of PACE helps enormously. In our case the birth family cooperated with social workers, who knew the family over a long period of time and yet there are still things I suspect have been part of my children’s experience that no professional was aware of.

In reading CPRs and progressing through matching it’s worth reading between the lines but also bearing in mind that the reports contain what can be evidenced, there’s a lot that won’t make it in there.

We did the same years ago , what a different child he was, with in just a
month, could ask for toilet, when he shook his head from side too side was his sign he needed the loo . was talking and crawling too within that month. WAS a victim of intuitional neglect . Very sad is fine today.

I think what you have said would cover many cases, jellycat, but I think that sometimes overwork and other aspects will come into it too. But it is an imperfect world - it is just something to be aware of, I think.