AIBU to ring social services?

[DubbsMini]

I have concerns with my neighbour, who is a single parent with two children. There is a few of the neighbours in our street who have noticed a multitude of incidents and have had enough of the noise and ASB that comes from the property.
There are numerous people going in and the out the house at all times of day and night and you can hear them all night, on a good day they leave around 5am/6am on a bad day they are there for 48 hours.
Many of us neighbours hear arguing/fighting with the people in the house, seemingly in the middle of the night/morning when they are drunk/intoxicated, there has been physical fights between the people in there and you can hear/see them spilling out onto the front garden.
I don’t want to accuse as I don't know what is going on behind closed doors, only what we hear but there are often people who turn up for 5 minutes and leave, I suspect possibly dropping off drugs, but I can’t be certain. There are many reasons why I am concerned but to name a few, I walk past the house most days and I can see inside. There are no curtains as well as that there are no carpets and they walk on floorboards, you can see the mess in the front room, there are no toys and seems like mountains of junk.
We often hear said parent screaming on the phone or arguing with someone outside the house infront of the children or I often them walking back from the shop with a bottle of spirit, they are not discreet in what they do.
My concern is the children and what they are seeing? They rarely play out with the other kids (we live in cul de sac) and when they do, they do not look clean or are dressed inappropriately (winter clothes in summer for example or holes in shoes). I am concerned about what is going on around the children, and I am also concerned that the parent may need some help. I want to reiterate this is not a vendetta against them, I am merely just concerned.

Any advice will be appreciated

If you have concerns then yes, report.

You definitely should, I would also be calling the police when fights are happening too. Poor kids.

Of course you should report your concerns. SS may well be aware of the family but they aren’t actually there to see what is happening.

How old are the children?

Yes that doesn’t sound like a healthy household for the kids. Report

If you have concerns, there's no harm reporting them. It's much better that somebody from social services knows and can check up on the children than that they should be invisible to them.

Best thing to do is report, it sounds rather dysfunctional, and the best people to help are the professionals.

Also if there is fighting, personally I would call the police when it is happening.

As someone working in a school please report, report, report. The threshold for help is so high now, and while we can report concerns about shoes and clothes and neglect or lots of adults, we very rarely get the child the help they need. One mum at our school reported her neighbours every time they fought or had ASB. It goes down on the multi-agency safeguarding hub and was the first family in a LONG time that we thought got the help they needed from SS. The person who reported did make themselves a target , but they reported the intimidation every single time until the police had to take notice.

Ring 999 whenever you hear fighting / loud shouting. Do it every single time.

And yes report to social services.

Yes

As a pp said, whenever you hear an incident ring the police.
Also report to childrens services

Google Multi agency safeguarding hub and the name of your city/county and it will give you the right number to report your concerns. Every time you hear excessive shouting or fighting call the police. If Police attend a home address as a result of a domestic abuse incident and a child is present they have to inform children's services. In some areas the child's school are also informed.

I would actually call the police. Not yet. Wait until her crew’ have arrived and wait until the trouble/noise etc starts then I’d call the police.

Not only will they catch her unawares, they will witness who is there, whether they are intoxicated, or using substances, Amd also witness home conditions.

If you call SS today they won’t find out the above

Hello all, Thank you for your advice.
I have rung SS and discussed my concerns, the lady (seemingly quite unhelpful) has told me she wont take my report as I do not know the children's DOB and advised I have to make a welfare call to the police. I really want to stay anonymous due the nature of their behavior and how close we live to each other, I know I can be antonymous with the police as they will get my number and I am honestly so anxious I dont want to risk any repercussion from said family. I will ring SS back shortly and try speak to a different advisor.

If you know which school the children go to you can also ring the school and ask to speak to the DSL. You don't have to give your name.

That doesn't quite right to me. I've had to make a MASH referal and I wasn't asked for DOB. I do know that they visited though as the Mum told me.

Do you know roughly the ages of the children?
It seems completely wrong that they would insist on a date of birth for the children. How would a concerned neighbour know this

Do you know where they go to school?

How do they get there?

I would call the school and report what you have observed, and every time a row kicks off at the address I would call the police.

Does anyone on the street have a ring doorbell with footage of the fights, the comings and goings 24/7?

If the kids are being neglected and exposed to unreasonable behaviour then ,yes report to social services. The Mum needs to be offered support but if she doesn't take advantage of what's offered to her the kids may end up being removed.

SS don't require the DOB or even the child's name to accept your report. If you get someone else when you call again I would definitely tell them about that call, she could have put dozens of people off reporting.

There's an anonymous reporting form on the NSPCC site, you can do that and put their address and approximate ages of the children. Failing that you can report to the kids school, giving the address and they can make a SS referral.

They sound like genuine concerns so my answer is yes you should ask for them to be supported by SS.

It's never wrong to report a family to social services if you're worried. The worst that can happen is that you're wrong.
My DD is adopting two children whose drug addicted mother was reported for neglect. I feel sad for their mother but she is still an addict more than 2 years later, despite being given help.

Ring again and if you get the same person answering ask to speak to their manager or another person. Also, ask their name and tell them that you are making a note of it for future reference, I have never heard such bollocks. They won't take a report because you do not have their dob's? They were either very badly trained or just plain lazy.

If you have the address (which you do) then SSD should be able to work out who the children are from that. It would make it difficult if the children were not already on the system and you dont know their names or dobs but by the sounds of it, the children should already be open to services.
But its another reason for phoning the police when people are there and acting inappropriately

@Bagelsandbrie

Ring 999 whenever you hear fighting / loud shouting. Do it every single time.

And yes report to social services.

Yes this. Please please call every single time and report to social services, NSPCC and their school/nursery if you know where they go. Encourage neighbours to do the same.

Report and call the police every time you hear something. These children need protecting.

Child protection is everyone's responsibility. It's never unreasonable to call if you have concerns.