Section 17 - didn't know where else to put this sorry

[Survivethestorm]

Ex was abusive to myself and to our young dd (she is non verbal). Would threaten her, throw water in her face, this list goes on. I obviously left him to protect both of us and through court he has managed to get contact. On three occasions since contact started dd has returned with grab mark bruises, on the last occasion I took dd to hospital who then contacted ss who have already visited us at home as well.

Ss have said they're doing a section 17 assessment as they cannot be sure that her bruises happened during contact. My question is will a section 17 help to highlight the risk my ex poses towards our dd ? I feel like ss may not believe that dd is at risk of further being harmed

Hi again
What happened to your thread the other day? 🌷

Hi @IncrediblySadToo, which post do you mean? Because SS has decided to do a section 17 I didn't want anything to get missed within the thread

The post about your EX bruising your non verbal Dd 😢

I just thought for new posters the background might be helpful.

I don't know about section 17's - sorry x

Section 17 just refers to the part of the children act. Basically it will be an assessment to look at your child's health education emotional development family history, factors like housing and finances. You will be the main contributor to the assessment so you just need to be honest with them about everything. They may advise you to go back to court to suspend contact

@IncrediblySadToo good point, thank you. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3993060-Was-Aibu-dd-and-her-dad?watched=1&msgid=99074226#99074226. Hope that link isn't too big.

@mrsed1987 thank you for the info, I've been very honest with them about everything from the domestic abuse to his treatment and apathy towards dd. I just hope someone will listen to my concerns and do something. I've been shouting my concerns for almost a year now and with court coming up again I hope that the section 17 will make them look into things further.

Are you sure it’s s17, that usually looks at what support the local authority can provide you. If there’s allegations of bruises/harm then they normally do a s47 investigation to explore what happened and whether further action needs to be taken. Either way you should get a copy of the report/assessment once completed, if there’s anything in there that you can want to dispute/not happy with then consider getting legal advice from a child law solicitor

No definitely a section 17 @Snorlax86, they were going to go with a section 47 but reassessed it.

Now I'm just concerned with sending dd again and if she comes back with bruises again

It doesn't sound like exactly what you need (S17) but let's hope it's the start of getting DD kept safe!

I'd be ringing around some solicitors to see what help is available.

It might be worth speaking to the social worker to see what they think, as well as consider whether you want to apply to have the contact stopped/amended. If you had a solicitor for the court proceedings, get in touch with them, if not Rights of Women do a free family law helpline, and have some information on the website that might help.

A section 17 is normally a more in depth assessment over a longer period of time compared to a section 47 child protection investigation which has to be done more quickly. Both can lead to a child being placed on a child protection plan but a section 47 is generally more likely to as it’s already at that level. I read your previous thread and based on that it’s unlikely your DD would be placed on a child protection plan as you’re a protective parent. In your situation it’s the reports to court (I’m assuming you’re going back to ask for contact to change?) which are the most important; give the social worker the full information about your ex and your relationship with him and his behaviour towards your DD as it will help build the evidence for you

I would have preferred a section 47 but @user1493413286 I did think that because I'm doing all I can to protect dd and she lives with me that they probably won't see it as urgent. But yes I do intend on getting the current contact changed in court, but if ss report is done in time it will really help in showing he is a danger to dd.

I've been shouting about his issues and what he has done to dd and I so just I hope someone will finally listen. The SS seemed switched on to coercive behaviour as well.

OP it's not that I dont believe you about shouting for a long time but do you have any kind of a paper trail? Statements to the police, the court, emails to SS anything like that? To prove that this is something you have raised time and again. From now on, get everything on paper - every phone call get the name of whom you've spoken to and the date and follow it up with an email confirming what was said.

Good luck

@Porcupineinwaiting I do have police reports and ss were contacted before but because I had stopped ex having contact and he didn't live near us so ss said I was going everything to safeguard DD. It's only when ex took me to court and theyve given access that it's become a concern again.

Calls and contact at ss, also a list of incidents to the courts which he admitted to but said I over exaggerated.