To think the housing officer was unprofessional

[meltingmum]

if the living room the kitchen the garden are immaculate- no sign of anything broken do you as a housing officer need to go into bedrooms- waking up someone asleep? Telling a teenager off and asking him to pick up his socks from the floor in a patronising voice, in an otherwise clean room?

The teenager is working nights so presumably is 18/19.

Baby P and teenagers and socks? Erm - come again?

I agree about lack of respect for night workers, btw.

It's almost as if our work doesn't count because no one sees us doing it. Or that it's not real work. Or that we go to work and sleep.

I do bitch about it an awful lot. I can't do my job if I'm knackered.

YY King Joffrey I used to work nights and the lack of consideration really gets my back up.

Notmyusual name - the visitor was a HOUSING officer and not a social worker or health worker or teacher. The housing officers job was simply to inspect the property (like any rental agency would) to ensure it is being looked after. She should have been discrete. How silly to make a fuss about a pair of socks on the floor and to wake a sleeping person. sounds like some kind of power trip.

I'd probably complain about the lack of consideration.

My socks are on the floor and I'm in my 40s. Sounds like he was very rude and on a power trip.

what on earth has child abuse got to do with a housing inspection? Utterly ridiculous. She had absolutely no right to disturb your son and should be acting in a professional way. This would piss me off.

Baby P is very upsetting but completely irrelevant. And just because parents are rude to you as a child protection officer (?), why does that mean someone in a completely different situation have to suffer a professional being completely unprofessional? Fuzzy logic.

And anyone who invokes 'but if X saves one child you must suck if up' is generally on shaky ground.

So, the idea is that a Housing Officer must search for signs of child abuse in a housing inspection? Well, if they do, that's fine. But why does that mean she needs to turn up late, wake a night worker rudely and start telling him to pick up his socks? I see no connection to a professional whose remit does or doesn't include child protection?

I do see a connection to someone who's got no respect for tenants and an inflated sense of their own importance and remit.

The only thing I can thing of is that maybe she got irritated / riled by your reluctance to let her see the rest of the house? As I don't think she was unreasonable to look at each room as that is her job. It doesn't excuse her behaviour though.

I would complain, but only about the elements of her behaviour that smacks of 'mission creep'

Sorry notmyusual but I'm a social worker and I still feel this was out of line. It's about using professional judgement, if I'm working with a family where home conditions are a concern I will ask to see all rooms on every visit, in other cases I'll ask to see them occasionally. A housing officer has a duty to report concern but they aren't there to look for neglect. Should she be able to see all area of the property but if there was a good reason not to go into that room then she didn't need to, not from a child protection point of view. If she really felt she needed to see that room to complete her inspection then she should have arranged to come back, she was late, the room was available at the agreed time, why is her work life more important than the DS?

I think the connection with baby p and Victoria climbie is that one of the groups of professionals who were criticised were housing officers. In both cases they missed the abuse in spite of doing housing inspections, they never looked beyond the main rooms as they were given excuses by the adults in the household not to.

Lord Laming was clear that Victoria Climbié was failed by every professional in her life.

I think its fine for the house inspector to look in every room however that could be done silently and quickly so not to wake working/sleeping young adults.

The housing officer was completely unprofessional. Comments about lazy teenagers and her power trip about his socks were uncalled for.

He might be a teenager but he is also a working adult. I think the housing officer was being ridiculous.

I'd be lodging a written complaint with the housing association. This officer was clearly unprofessional and her attitude should not go unchallenged.

I work nights and if someone had woken me up I would be livid. Poor boy.
They WBVU especially as you explained about the night shift. I would complain if it was me

After a decade on nights I second all the comments about lack of respect for day-time sleeping, she should have been told to do one corrected.

im always getting called lazy because I'm often still in bed at mid day, even though I work nights so mid day is like my midnight. People don't really get it. She sounds rude and I'd complain.

I have worked nights for over 10 years. I don't get to bed til 10am ish. My mum STILL tells me off for 'wasting my day' if she rings at 1-2pm and I'm in bed. I do threaten her that one day I will ring her at 1-2am and see what productive things she is getting up to .
Your son is very restrained/ polite OP, if I got woken up and given a 5 minute lecture about socks (when I'd stayed up late to wait for the lecturer in the first place) I would have hit the roof. Some constructive feedback for the housing officer wouldn't go amiss in my opinion.

Maybe the inspector need to see the carpet?

My boyfriend always says 'you've been asleep ALL DAY' yes.... Because ive been at work ALL NIGHT.

Same here headdesk my mum would phone me about11 and seem surprised that I was some what pissed off with her for waking me up despite knowing I had worked the night before

If a carpet can be obscured by two socks then it's not a very big carpet.

2 socks are quite big enough to hide cigarette burns

Do housing association provide carpets? I recently move to a council house and they most definitely do not provide carpets