Should I report neighbours to social services?

[Mar00]

Hello,

Would really appreciate help on this one as I am not a parent and not sure what the rules are. I live in a victorian building, neighbours living on the ground floor have three children (4, 7, 10 I believe).
Since lockdown began, I have been wfh so noticing much more goings on in/around the building. Some of the following stuff is making me question whether I should contact social services:

• The children seem very behind in their development. Both the 4yo and 7yo are in diapers and using pacifiers. Also, neither one of them can quite speak. I would say their speech development is similar to that of my 18-month old niece - random words and sounds but not really coherent sentences.
• The children scream A LOT. Not necessarily screams of pain but kind of high pitched screams and wails.
• The 4yo and 7yo are often walking around the common area at the back of the building only dressed in diapers which are sagging to their knees and their stomachs are very distended (reminded me of those pics from Save the Children when they show effects of child malnutrition in war-torn countries)
• Periodically (~1x per week) there is a LOT of shouting from the parents and curse words directed at the children
• They are keeping the windows open - the smell emanating from the flat is very unpleasant (combo of cigarette smoke, damp and very old/dirty carpets I would say)

I have tried building a bit of rapport but they were not interested in developing neighbourly relations. This has been consistently the pattern of behaviour for about 6 months now.

What should I do? Is this grounds to get social services involved or is it just their parenting style and i should mind my own business?

Thanks

Contact Social Services directly. Your info could be a small part of a bigger picture

If there are severely underweight and have issues with speech as others have said then I expect the schools will be aware, but yes I would absolutely report it if things were as you describe.

dc have been off school for sometime -I would be concerned at the combination of the dc being out in common area unsupervised & the nappies at age 7 - if they have development issues I would expect them to be supervised - the two things plus age ring alarm bells for me
Just ring ss& say what you have said here & let them decide
the dc may not attending school that much - Have they moved into the area recently?(& councils can miss out on children at risk & if people are homeless & moved out to a new area ss may not have caught up

Older children in nappies is one thing. But older children in nappies running around the building with it sagging to their knees shows its full and needs changing. I would call the social service. That's disgusting that they look very hungry too. My son is very slim but he eats like a horse. But his bones aren't sticking out. I would definitely involve the correct authorities. Children also exposed to swearing irritates me.

Please do.

Sounds to me like the 7 and 4 year old are autistic not much speech is a sign of autism it could also be global developmental delay which is caused by intellectual disability or profound/serve hearing loss. Some autistic people have to wear nappies because they have no bladder or bowl control not sure what you think social services can do about SEN it’s very hard and stressful having a disabled child and it sounds like they have 2 disabled children.

It could be they need some help with managing the children's needs though. I'm basing that on the smell and shouting rather than the nappies and delayed speech.

I was going to say leave them be based on the first two points as, as others have said, it could suggest they are SEN children, but the dirty and overfull nappies and unclean living conditions could point to the family needing more support.

Also as others have said, please report it. If it turns out to be nothing, then there's no harm done, but if 5 people have the same concerns and no-one reports them, the children will be suffering.

I've been on a safeguarding course where they advised that often it appears nothing is being done but they're keeping records in the background. The minute the reports from a variety of sources start appearing they will step in and take a look.

I think it's the fact the children are unsupervised the op is concerned about @LunaMuffinTop? I have a severely Autistic non verbal child who I'm trying to get out of nappies ,but we don't allow him to be unsupervised ,we have no social services involvement and never had.

Distended stomach could also be a sign of constipation which sometimes goes hand in hand with autism and or development delays .

Report.
Maybe the children do have additional needs that are known about- then SS will close the case quickly.
But there is always the possibility that either these children are at risk and have not been identified yet, or that the parents need additional support.
You have nothing to lose by acting in good faith, and in the worst case scenario could possibly be a lifeline for a child in need.

@x2boys yes they really shouldn’t be unsupervised anything could happen to them but as for the nappies, dummies and very little speech that sounds like autism to me.

Contact social services directly - it's always better if the info isn't second hand - you can report anonymously . I've done this myself when I was in two minds about something that was bothering me, as others have said you may be contributing to a bigger picture

The nappies makes me think they have additional needs, especially in combination with the speech, the school will be aware that they’re in nappies and have poor speech.
I’d be concerned about the saggy nappies and lack of clothing outside, especially now it’s getting colder. Although if they have additional needs it may be related to that and potentially quite a stressful situation for parents.