AIBU to be angry we were subjected to Social Services Section 47 Investigation?

[Morbihanmum33]

Long post - sorry: My husband and I have 4 children, 14, 11, 7 & 2. No prior involvement with social services whatsoever. No ‘risk factors’ - criminal records / addiction issues / mental health problems / domestic violence / no issues at schools. Both of us have enhanced DBS. Professional jobs.

Our family recently had to endure the considerable distress and intrusion of a Section 47 child protection investigation.

Our 2 year old had light bruising across his thighs. Both my husband and I saw it but did not know how he’d done it. We flagged it when we took him to nursery, he is very active, trying to keep up with his bigger brothers. In the last 6 months at nursery, the nursery has filed 6 accident reports for incidents in their care, so they know what he’s like.

They rang me to tell me they had a statutory duty to report the bruises as they were unexplained and on a part of his body not normally associated with bruising. However, they assured me it was routine and nothing to worry about. They told me they made it clear on the referral that they did not believe we were responsible for the bruising.

The next morning a social worker called me and told me I had to take my son for a medical examination. This had to be done at the hospital - 45 mins away - immediately. I was due at work and had an important meeting so asked if it could be another time. I was told they could take my son into care if I did not go.

My son was given an examination by 2 doctors and I was interviewed at length. While waiting the social worker told me this was a Section 47 and that they would also have to see my other 3 children, and could go into their schools that same day if necessary to interview them! They also told me they had chosen not to involve the police at this stage!

The Drs found no evidence of non accidental injury. This was communicated to me and the SW at the time.

Despite this, the investigation still had to run its course over a number of weeks, with a visit to our home and interviews with the other 3 children, and them speaking to our GP and schools.

We all found the whole process deeply distressing and a total invasion of our privacy. I was fraught with worry the entire time. We were made to feel like criminals, with SS adopting a ‘guilty until proven innocent approach’. I’ve been left traumatised by the whole experience.

Having read up on this I understand that bruising in a non mobile infant under 6 months is always a major cause for concern, and some local authorities authorise automatic Section 47’s for referrals like this. However, government guidance is that (even with a non mobile infant) an initial enquiry or assessment should be made with the family before initiating an investigation.

Secondly, my child is fully mobile and the original referral explicitly said the bruising was not considered suspicious - so I do not understand why this was escalated in this way.

The cases (against all 4 of my children!) have been closed, but I’m so angry we were put through this. I also understand the fact an investigation was carried out will stay on file for a long time. I’m considering pursuing a judicial review on the basis an initial assessment should have been carried out and the lack of medical evidence did not warrant an investigation.

AIBU to feel like this - or should I just let it go?

@TheFireflies
Perhaps legislation in England is different. I reside in Scotland where there is no such criteria in legal aid.

There are places that do free legal advice by phone. Apologies - I can't remember the name just now but it is UK wide.

I think you mean Community Legal Services but I don’t think they exist any more. Unfortunately in England the state of legal aid is woeful. Yet another service that has been cut to bare bones at the expense of children’s welfare.

The insistence that all SWs are immune to showing dislike for a client and it impacting the way they conduct a case overlooks the fact that they are human and can have their own biases.

I have stated that yes, investigations need to be carried out and children protected. However there are cases which are needlessly prolonged and cause immense distress to families.

Sometimes there are procedural failings that need to be addressed. Procedure is there for a reason. If it is not followed properly then outcomes can be poor for a family, including the child and it brings the SS into disrepute. A few bad apples can cause the kind of extreme negative reaction that some people have to SS when it is a vital service designed to save children’s lives.

The insistence that certain things “can’t have happened” is tantamount to institutional gas-lighting. Cases like mine are (hopefully) rare, but they do happen.

If you are in a position where the bottom line is “confess or lose your child permanently” based on medical evidence alone, like mine, it’s like being in the Twilight Zone. No amount of hoop jumping or co-operation will be enough if the position of SS is intractable.

It’s impossible to know how many cases like this there might be going on because of the rules of confidentiality that bind families and professionals.

The Webster case, Sally Clark. Angela Cannings etc - came about because of fixed ideas and the desire of some professionals involved to not just protect children but build careers and crusade.

The “children should be protected at all costs” mantra is all well and good but it can leave people devastated and in the case of Sally Clark, dead. That was a definite multi-agency failing due to a man on a mission leading the charge. It can happen.

Which is why if the OP wants the full picture behind her experience investigated and explained. The “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” principle should go both ways.

@MistressoftheDarkSide

No system is fool proof - if you develop one for child protection please share it.

Of course there can be rubbish individuals but social work do not act in isolation- multiple agency meeting and multiagency decisions when it comes to child protection.

AND any professional can lie that's why full investigations take place and information is cross referenced.

A doctor could lie or do a poor job so siblings were spoken to. And if you think a social worker would lie or do a bad job then why not a doctor??

And she's welcome to do that and should if it's causing her distress. I've said that I hope she later is able to reflect and be thankful for the actions taken.

have reasonable cause

this is the part you seem to be missing. They don’t just have the right to do whatever based on whatever they think. There is a standard- reasonable cause- OP has every right to question whether that standard has been justified

@Skinthin
She's already had police/health/social worker tell her the decision was justified. Who else is she going to ask?

@Skinthin
She can also read local authority or nhs or education guidance on safeguarding - it will become VERY clear the decision was justified.

@Skinthin
Or better yet - go read child death reviews - you'll see exactly why these actions were taken.

*How insulting to other agencies - they are professionals and as responsible for making a decisions.

And why would a random social work be out against a family - so weird.*

It’s not that weird that a social worker might like working with one family and dislike working with another - or may have a better relationship with one family over another. It’s also not unheard of that a social worker might be “out against a family”. We all have our biases and unconscious prejudices - part of being a social worker is to recognise we all have the capacity to make snap judgements and confirmation bias then means we seek to back that judgement up.

@Jellyx i think you’ve strongly defended social work in this thread but some of your defences are a naive tbh. It’s entirely possible for a social worker to take a dislike to a parent or family and for that to influence their practice. One strong personality can sway a multi-agency assessment process - for better or worse, not all social workers are skilled communicators and most could do with explaining more clearly what they’re doing and why to parents and children.

After 25 years in child protection I’d love to say social workers never get it wrong, that the checks and balances always work but they don’t.

The investigation process does need to be followed but I suspect the OP would have felt much less traumatised by it if the social worker had explained why the outcome of the medical wasn’t sufficient to close the case, why they needed to speak to her other children, why other professionals would be approached. If you can’t explain why you’re doing what you’re doing (as in beyond “that’s the process we follow”), you shouldn’t be doing it.

If it was someone blindly following process, they need to know the impact of that on the family, if there were wider concerns than the bruising they need to be honest with the family, if the medical was inconclusive they need to be honest with the family. It’s not enough to say the case was closed with no concerns, so it’s all fine. It’s not “excellent practice” to leave a family wondering what the he’ll just happened to them.

@Jellycatspyjamas

What I've said is that it would be rare. AND that even if there were such an individual in any one of the child protection disciplines (health, education , social work , police) it wouldn't matter so much because decisions are multiagency!

@Jellycatspyjamas
I'd also expect any professional in CP to be offered good supervision - so there's even challenges within your own discipline.

It doesn't sound , in OPs case, there were any unusual or biased decisions made.

I feel sorry for the social work department (please contact them all if you were unhappy with the JOINT decisions) because of the time they have to waste on people who can't see the wood for the trees - they're all stretched as it is.

Well the medical doctor didn’t seem to think it was unusual enough to suggest it was caused by abuse.

I know I’m an adult, but i not infrequently get bruises on my thigh and have no recall of how I got them. It’s very easy to do this for example by walking into the edge of a table of a certain height.

Through a complaints procedure where the judgements of individuals are brought under scrutiny and need to be justified with objective evidence.

@Skinthin
We don't know exactly what medical service said. And plenty of times bruising has been attributed to accidental when it has been abuse and that's why it's necessary to cross reference.

AND you're an adult. 2year olds should be supervised so it's weird parents wouldn't know when a child may have become injured on that body part and bruised to the extent nursery felt it necessary to make a referral.

she has every right to complain if she thinks that the reaction was disproportionate/ not in line with regulations , I would in these circumstances

@Skinthin
Ok- they can go through the complaints process. But from what's been presented here nothing will be upheld and yet sounds as though the majority of people here have zero appreciation for the safeguarding processes.

Do you have a toddler? It’s really not that weird.

@Skinthin
Unexplained Bruising on thighs is weird.
We're also only relying on what OP has said - they may not have been honest or fail to appreciate some other concerning factors.

So - hopefully the OP goes through the complaints procedure and gives us all an outcome.

I hope they go to as much effort to thank the services as they have done to complain about them.

@Fitflop5 when I’ve seen it I’ve challenged it - with the individual, in my own supervision, at case meetings. I also challenge teachers when there’s a clear feeling of dislike influencing their option of the family, or health worker because we all have feelings about the people we work with, it’s ridiculous to say we don’t. Funnily enough some of the most difficult people I’ve worked with have also been the ones I’ve had a real soft spot for, because you know how they’ve got there and can see beyond the immediate challenges.

It’s important for social workers to hold each other to account, it’s equally important for other professionals to hold each other to account. If you do read SCRs and Learning Reviews you’ll see that one area which repeatedly comes up is the need for robust professional challenge at every stage of a process, that isn’t about just challenging the family but challenging fellow professionals. Interestingly enough many social workers are fine with the former but aren’t so good at the latter.

While many families will say the social worker doesn’t like them when actually there are real problems with their parenting, it’s unrealistic to say personal feelings never influence the work. Not as often as people claim, but it can happen.

@Jellycatspyjamas thank you for your voice of reason.

I am aware I have my own biases which I work hard to keep in check. It is very hard to be objective in the OPs position, or mine. Being accused of abusing your child is possibly the worst thing you can experience. And if you can’t prove you didn’t it sticks and colours every aspect of your life going forward, even if you still have your child. It sucks a lot of the joy of family life out of you permanently. The fear never leaves you.

I hope they go to as much effort to thank the services as they have done to complain about them

get over yourself, of course she’s not going to do this when they’ve caused her family a terrible amount of pain and distress . You say what they did was necessary but you have no objective basis for saying that. There is nothing to say that a report of that nature should automatically lead to a section 47 investigation, in fact the guidance usually says opposite for very good reason.