Aibu to think I shouldn't worry about a safeguarding report?

[Bitofnamechanging]

My 2 year old ds was playing with his brother on thursday evening. He tripped and fell, bumping his eyebrow on the laminate floor. He screamed once, went rigid for about 15 seconds - not breathing, then went floppy. He came round about 15 seconds later.

He's done this once before after a head bump and a&e basically said it's just his thing. 111 sent me to a&e as it was "loss of consciousness after a head inury"

They were happy enough that he was fine and it was "just" a breath hold from shock rather than an injury.

Then they asked the question "is he known to other agencies" I answered no but we are under some agencies for my eldest. She asked for explanation. We're under the HV for his development, the paediatrician for gastric issues and are about to be under children's therapy services for his gross motor skills. She said "ok well because you have agencies involved then I'm going to put in a safeguarding report."

Am I right to say I shouldn't be worried? He literally just fell where he stood. I also feel pretty upset that I have to go through safeguarding because I am about to have a child diagnosed with SN. I already feel responsible enough for his SN without being told I'm not safe because of it.

I'm devastated if I'm honest. I didn't ask for a SN child and really hope I didnt cause it. Although it feels like the need for a report implies this

I'm fairly sure that all presentations to A&E with accidental injuries get reported anyway (pretty sure that's what the health visitor told me at our last check which included "home safety").

If you have nothing to hide then you'll be fine. Kids have accidents and you're clearly supporting and caring for your kids.

When you log a safeguarding concern it doesn’t mean you’re jumping to a conclusion and finding someone guilty of something. You put down what happened and what was said because it can build a picture if something serious is going on.

The need for a report does not imply anything whatsoever.

They are made just in case, to make it safer for children.

So repeated visits to A&E get noticed (this has happened to us, after DS2 had a run of bad luck, and must have stayed on his notes as we had what was clearly a 'structured conversation' on his next visit some years later), and when other agencies are involved, they are informed as a matter of routine.

And in the vast majority of cases, nothing whatsoever happens.

But for a few children, it might make all the difference in the world.

It does feel a bit odd when you realise it's happening to you. But it's the right think to happen

Hmmm 🤔 I would question this. It seems odd to make this a SG issue purely because the older sibling is being diagnosed SN. The two things are unrelated, why would having an SN sibling make this minor bump on the head a SG issue?

Maybe she meant a report would go to your HV which is stands in some cases of visiting A&E?

I would imagine they have to report regarding siblings of children with SN, there might be a higher incidence of accidents, may be you need help due to having a child with SN in the family?

This isn't my experience. I always used to put "known to social services disabilities team for eldest daughter" then that's it.

Her exact words were "ok well because you're known to the paediatrician and other agencies then I'll have to put in a sg report"

It concerns me. We've been in hospital a lot recently. Oct a head bump and breath hold for the little one. Then dec for the eldest with breathing issues and last week was breathing issues for the eldest and the breath hold with the youngest.

DS was 2 when we were living in Germany when I pulled him back from the edge of a tram platform and dislocated his elbow. The following year DH dislocated the other one swinging DS around in the garden. The second time we were referred to social services. All part of safeguarding and I’m glad they did.

Hi!

Im an A+E nurse. When I we triage kids we always ask about social services/external agency involvement. Always. Its nothing to worry about, just an extra element of their social care that's handy to know about should we need to raise any concerns.

As you've been to A+E a lot recently i'd expect a safeguarding report to raised. Its more policy driven that actual concern about you or your family. I wouldnt worry. Its just a safety net procedure thats designed to catch the children that do need intervention.

Safeguarding is standard these days. It's a good thing. You should be pleased that people are working together to try and keep all children safe by following procedures rather than making individual judgements.

A safeguarding report doesn’t automatically have anything to do with with child services. That would be a referral and I high doubt even if you got referred that CS would take it any further

I'm fairly sure that all presentations to A&E with accidental injuries get reported anyway

I don’t think this is true. It would be a monumental waste of time to report every single attendance.

DD broke her leg aged 2. She had a visit for a suspected broken leg about 6 months after that. We’ve been back for a suspected broken wrist. Not a single report has been made. Nobody has every asked if we have any SW involvement.

And here's the irony as I worry about the children with injuries that dont make it to a and e.

As a peadiatric nurse we would do the referral just to see if you need any extra support. As in are any extra needs that your older child has putting stress on the family. With what you have written here there will be no follow up from safeguarding as it wont meet any kind of criteria, except possibly an extra visit from HV to make sure you are ok.

Ironically the hv did a home visit to do a development check on the three year old two weeks ago and is calling me tomorrow to follow up

I'm a teacher and so have annual safe guarding training. We are told about a few serious case reviews each time like Baby P and every one of them ended in tragedy because the professionals missed opportunities to identify the danger the children were in. They either assumed someone else had picked up on it or believed the parents who lied about the cause/seriousness/regularity of injuries and accidents. It is hard, as a parent, to think you're under speculation for something like this but it's helpful to think of the context for people being extra cautious.

Also, the different services will use different computer systems and different record keeping systems - raising a safeguarding concern provides a formal way for someone to review all the information from each service.

^ What *EL2El said, plus also they have systems in place like this because people can assume that it 'doesn't happen here' and so overlook things. It doesn't mean that you are under suspicion, it just means they are being thorough to try to make sure that nothing is missed in the unlikely event something is happening that shouldn't.

I get that it's important but what I'm upset about is that she said it was because my eldest has development issues, basically