to be concerned about this child? (unsure if social services can help)

[mnthrowaway]

This is a bit of a delicate situation, I've always found mumsnet really helpful and I don't know where else to turn!

I've become worried that a child (5yo girl) I know is suffering abuse from their parents - I overheard an episode where she was threatened, sworn at and hit several times. There have also been other worrying signs - e.g. I've seen her taking leftover food from cafe tables, and noticed several bruises on her arms and legs

I want to inform social services so they can investigate her situation, but I'm worried what it will trigger. I think that other people have raised concerns about this child in the past, prompting professional involvement. In each case, the family has moved to a different area of the country, within a couple of weeks. I'm concerned that, if something is wrong, any social services investigation will just make things worse, by pushing them to move again, perhaps abroad

What can I do in this situation? Any advice would be appreciated, especially around the whole moving issue. Can it be prevented while social services investigate? Can cases like this be tracked across counties? Basically, what's the best way I can get help to this child?

Joffrey that's awful :( How possibly would it be to get more evidence - recordings etc? If you can get more I would try one more time, send the evidence to social services and the police. If they still don't take it seriously I would consider going to the local press as a last resort. Have you spoken to NSPCC? (Sorry if you already said.)

I agree with getting recordings - irrefutable evidence will expedite investigations surely?

That's just awful Joffrey it sounds like you hear them a lot so will hopefully be able to record them again soon. God, it makes you want to march up to the bloody Social services office and demand that they listen to it.

I could have got a recording easily yesterday if I'd had my phone on me. But going out in the garden to do some jobs I wouldn't normally have to think about having a phone with the right app ready just in case I catch some random child abuse... That they force ordinary people to lo
I've a life like this to get proof when there was hardly a shortage of witnesses...

What the man was doing when screaming at the child it was going to get "belted"? Putting up a second CCTV camera on the back of his house. Six inches away from the first... In a zero crime area. So he is probably recording himself, the twat.

Oops sorry... Fat fingers, iPad! not a good combo. I think the best way to get a recording will be to bribe my kids to do one as they're faster than me. But what a thing to Ask teenage boys to do. One of my adult sons heard one of the worst incidents and I don't even like my 21 year old hearing a grown man of fifty calling a toddler a cunt. But apparently even though my two adult sons, husband, self and two teenagers have all witnessed disturbing incidents, that is not enough evidence. Although we are all of good character, I guess you'd call it, and my husband works with kids and I used to work with kids.

I think I am just going to have to get more proactive and record about twenty incidents then go back to the NSPCC and the police, and send them as attachments. Just seconds ago out in the garden with the dog, no obscenities but heard the man tell the two year old to bugger off and leave him alone to do his job, or he will take her toys to the tip as she isn't play I with them. I have taught kids who we had concerns about but witnessed and heard less than I have here.

To me it seems weird to tell people to report everything, if their word isn't then good enough to believe. But just to reiterate to OP do report it. Because then it is out of your hands and if, like here, the authorities believe what the parents tell them, then you can honestly say you did your best.

Incidentally, the kids are very well dressed and look clean and the man is manic about tidying the house and garden from what we have heard and seen, so the SS walking in there, will probably see no problem and just think they are a bit sweary or we are snobs and don't like to hear the effing and jeffing in the garden and though the walls. I wouldn't give a stuff if it wasn't for the fact the aggression and swearing is said in front of or to the kids. To me it is emotional abuse to tell a two year old you are trashing all her belongings but maybe that could be perceived as precious? It shoudnt be long before we can get him calling the kids effing cunts again, he does it a lot. Trouble with that is even with a stack of recordings they would then claim it wasn't their voices. How do you prove it's them?

I think you just need to provide enough evidence for it to be taken seriously, and then the social services and police should investigate properly.
Are there neighbours on the other side who might have heard things too?

So you call when the shouting and hitting is happening.

Sorry, I meant call the police

Yes, hesterton, you mjay be right - it might be inadmissable in a court, say but maybe it's worth recording just so we can prove that what we're saying is (or may be) true. To get the authorities to act. Whether it would float or not in a court of law, is not so important as getting those kids out of that place and to a place of safety. As the authorities have done nothing twice now, and over those months it seemed to escalate from verbal to physical abuse, then the only way to stop it is to prove what we claim, by recording, and shame the SS and police into acting.