Social services

[Ifeelhelpless]

Hi all,
I’m new to this and just need some advice.
My nephew is 6 years old and his mam is often taken overdoses. She once took one when my nephew was present. The dad lives with them and takes care of the child all of the time. Social services has now bright up a initial child protection conference in which I am so scared/upset that my nephew will be taken away. Social services know that I care for the child I often have him every weekend and sometimes in the week days. My question is if it ever came to social services taking him away what is my chance of taking him on? I don’t have any children myself so I am extremely close to my nephew. Apologies if this doesn’t make sense. I just don’t know what to say. Thank you for taking the time to read.

They look for a carer within family first.

Social Services are really not anxious to take children into care, and they will certainly investigate family carers first.

An ICPC (initial child protection conference) is a long way from removal; unless an emergency arises in which your nephew is likely to suffer imminent harm, Social Care will do their utmost to help your DN be looked after safely with his mum and dad.

They need to work with Social Care and be as open as possible with everything; the more the worker knows, the more they can help.

Get them to think of how they, school, doctor etc would respond these questions for the meeting:

• What is going well for DN?
• What are we worried about for DN?
• What do we need to know more about before we decide if it's a positive or not (the grey areas)?
• What needs to be done in light of the answers, to make sure DN is cared for safely and reaches his potential?

The answers to the questions is what will make up the content of the meeting; the Social Worker will do an assessment to put their views and findings across before the meeting which parents will get to read and respind to too.

Don't panic. It's designed to help.