To be shocked at "Protecting Our Children"...

[soozlewoozle]

...and the social workers' apparent inability to use child seats properly? I was appalled at the number of times they had children and babies in cars and the straps were really loose or the seat was just way too small for the size of child!

I would have thought of all people, child protection officers would get that right!

oh Noir i stand corrected i really do I assumed that they did i work for a charity and we do training for car seats ,

and no i didnt think they were being sloppy that poor man looked awful this was an unexpected removal he wasnt expecting the chaos i think went on , He is after all human

As i said earlier my colleagues have taught me what seats to use. They are available in the office, what would help is stickers on the back giving the age or weight range these can be used for.

If i was on my own and suddenly needed to transport a child, i would struggle to pick the corect one. Sometimes i need help to fit a seat. Luckily the escorts and taxi drivers know how to use and fit them.

In my LA Family Support Workers are not trained in car seat use either.

I would like to say that in the LA's that i have worked under, one worker is never sent to remove a child on their own, but that doesn't happen everywhere.

I think not sure but im sure there was another person with him birds when they went in maybe they stayed behind with the police , im sure i saw somebody else going into the house , Im still astounded at the car seat thing , although in that SW i dont see there was any problem as it was an emergency

you need to get perspective on this

Soozle- not all SW's will transport children. The Family Support Workers often take the children to a centre until emergency foster care is arranged. Sometimes transport is used to move the children about, it depends on the set up of the LA and the situation.

My role involves attending the scene and most usually applying for the removal from the court, so actualy going to court, we have other team members to do different tasks. Then it will be me who does the arranging of FC etc. Whilst the children are transported and cared for by others, usually, there are somany different senarios .

There are different roles within CP.

soozlewoozle Thu 16-Feb-12 15:21:51

also, SWs are professionals - I assume in CP they transport children on a regular basis, so surely strapping a child in properly and checking it should be just routine, not something that is done wrong frequently.

And if you listen to what the manager said when they got back to the office about the last time a child was removed in the way was 2 or 3 years ago. i would assume the SW didn't have the correct seat because he wasn't expecting to have act and remove the child from his home there and then.

Thanks to Noir for your message - my knowledge of CP is basically what I've seen on that programme and your insight is really interesting (for want of a better word).

Wheredidiputit - the view i got from the manager at the office was that unplanned removals are very rare - planned ones are quite common (10,000 children last year?)

In regard to all the posters about it being a trivial issue in comparison to the main content of the programme - I totally agree, however I fully expected very distressing situations when I sat down to watch the programme, I didn't expect to see kids buckled into car seats but then the straps not tightened. I'm not just talking about the poor guy removing the baby from the sex offender, it happened frequently across the series.

The more I think about it - social workers really should know how to use car seats if they need to transport children. Whether that is a systemic issue and needs to be included in induction training or whether it should be down to individual social workers to sort it out for themselves I'm not sure...

In my job I have to transport children in my car fairly regularly and i always make sure they are strapped in properly! (I am very consious of potentially putting other peoples children in danger, and couldn't live with myself if one was hurt or killed in an accident).

Yeah but in your job you are not saving children from paedophiles at a moments notice. Really, go and froth about something else you look like a twat in this thread.

If my child was in such a situation, I would not give a flying shit about the freaking carseat. I'd be happy for him to get out of there strapped tightened or not.
In a ideal world, SW would be out of work but we don't live in an ideal world.

Be quiet OP.

"social workers are trained in car seats and transporting children safely , im not a sw but work with small children ive been on a whole day course on how to transport children safely and i dont even DRIVE , how many parents go on courses to work carseats"

No training here either.I've asked for new seats too as I'm not happy with them age/ condition wise.

yes, i would be engaging that old addage about now OP "when in a hole, stop digging"!!!!!!!

If you thought that was the most shocking thing about the programme I wish I was in your bubble to be honest. Sick.

No training our end either. All of our carseats have gone awol at the moment, so we often end up using/lending out our own.

YABU I opened this thread thinking you were going to talk about one of the terrible issues raised by the programme and I saw this!

What the actual fuck.

So SW you drive their own car are supposed carry a carseat for every age/weight group just incase they need to remove a child ASAP.

And then spend 20mins with irate/upset parents fitting said proper carseat while holding the endangered child at the same time.

"My blood runs cold just recalling that case, removing children is a deeply deeply unpleasant thing to have to do, you're conscious it is an absolutely seminal moment in that child (and parent's) life and you're having all kinds of profound thoughts about the sanctity of family and the power invested in you by the state to intervene in that family. You're desperately trying to comfort the child and wondering what sense they're making of it all, you're haunted by the abuse and trauma they have experienced."

Thank you for this post, Noir. Very well written and evocative and you've summed up was written on the social worker's face. It sounds like you did an amazing thing for the child you had to remove.

I'm really glad that this programme has given people a glimpse into the challenges that social workers face.

Thanks Dearjane