appropriate discussion by social worker

[greebstreebling]

AIBU to think that discussing the relationship between the parents of two children at a Child In Need (CIN) meeting at school in front of the Head, the Deputy Head, a TA and a Family Support Worker was not very well done on the part of the social worker?

Also, having acknowledged that there is emotional abuse going on, then asking each partner in front of each other how the marriage is going?

Am a bit boggled by the whole thing

which person are you ?

Have you been to many CIN meetings, OP?

If there is emotional abuse going on then of course it will be discussed at a child in need meeting. I'm not sure about the marriage question, maybe they were just trying to get a sense of how you were both feeling about it?

Oh well, these data protection act regulations are rather bendable. In my old work place, the social worker would have met with the parents in private and we would 't have been informed of anything, in my new place we would probably have the same discussion in front of the whole team and invite the neighbours' dog to give its opinion.

But yes, I think it is out of order.

I really don't understand those meetings either.. I know of a CIN meeting where they asked the 13&14yr old to join the meeting, when the social should have been aware of the emotional abuse happening in the house from the parents?!

Without a discussion with all stakeholders (family and professionals) then the multi agency team have no chance of offering support and monitoring. However I would hope that the parents were advised of that prior to the meeting, and ongoing discussions held with the adults both together and individually about their relationship

Data protection has nothing to do with a child in need network meeting. The professional network will be party to the family's difficulties as that is the point of a child in need plan - for the network to support the family.

You'll have to give more details.

It's rare for a SW to oversee a CIN, unless the child was formally on a CP plan and its early days in 'dropping down' the involvement.

Whatever impacts on the child should be shared, it's the lack of sharing information that has led to mistakes.

Are the Parents now living apart?

Was it said to 'fact find'?

Everything will be shared with the FSW, anyway.

As said if the relationship abuse effects the child, then, yes, it should be discussed, just like any other issues.

It's rare for a SW to oversee a CIN

Child in need is statutory. Are you sure you don't mean caf?

In the authority I work for Social Workers no longer 'deal with' CIN cases at all. Social Workers only have capacity to work LAC and CP cases. There is an outsourced CIN team where meetings are chaired by family support workers. And yes it would be usual for the above to be discussed in front of professionals. As mentioned above, it is failing to share information that has cost lives in the past.

Data protection applies to electronic records

The LA I work for only have SW's manage CIN cases but I agree OP, you need to provide more info on this one

This is my second lot of CIN meetings. I am the mum to a 9 yr old DD and 6 yr old DS who has an ASD diagnosis.

My husband has recently had to start picking the children up from school and an alleged incident was observed by a member of staff outside school that led them to have safeguarding concerns and to ring Children's Services.

I guess my issue is, we had both spoken to her about our views on our relationship at home, separately and together and I didn't think asking us how our relationship was in front of teaching staff was necessarily appropriate or likely to lead to us answering honestly.

No, you're probably right about that. Can you raise it with the SW independently?