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?

I agree with this. There is no magic number of times a child needs to have a bruise to instigate a social services referral.

I’d be curious whether they had other concerns, and what legislative information they have interrupted or what their policies say.

I’d also request copies of your child’s file. I think they’re maybe more info there.

I say this as someone who makes referrals to SS and have begged them to get involved. The response has always been it doesn’t meet the criteria, so I’m surprised a bruise on a two year old sparked a section 47 particularly after the a and e visit.

on another note, if your child has bruising unexplained, it shouldn’t just be you that comes under the spot light. Other people/places where your child receives care should also be looked into, including the nursery.

@Jellycatspyjamas I take your point about processes that have to be followed, but they could ring them before or as the letter is going out. Every extra day is unnecessary extra trauma and i bet they're not using guaranteed next day delivery for their post. I'm someone who usually errs on the side of faith in "the system" due to my professional and personal experiences, but we all know that public sector admin and communication can leave a lot to be desired (due to the way things are set up, not blaming individuals). So i was probably wrong to use emotive language that implied it's deliberate, I didn't mean that, sorry.

I can see it feels horrible to be wrongly suspected, but how can child abusers be caught unless investigations are made where bruising etc looks suspicious? One of my DC managed to bang himself on the head a couple of times. I/DC were both questioned closely at hospital. I didn’t mind because it might save some other child. I appreciate that was a much lesser “investigation” than yours, but as I society we need to prioritise child safety IMO.

Oh I'm sure SW would love to have the time to do that or the money or send things first class but I'm afraid that's not always possible

I’m actually reassured SS took this seriously and investigated thoroughly.

Well they're doing it because of all the children that have died in the last decade at the hands of their families - so many children. They're being really conscientious now.

Shit for you (and of course worse for them)

OP, a year ago I wouldn’t have totally believed your story. However, something similar happened to my family very recently. In fact I’m still waiting for confirmation the case has been closed. Everyone involved including the social worker says they know we are innocent and DCs injury was accidental (there were witnesses when it happened).

Apparently the report and recommendation for closure has been sitting with the social workers manager for a month waiting for sign off. She’s asked for her manager to sign it off and it’s still sitting there. Clearly doesn’t give a shit about the distress caused to my family. Even DCs headteacher has called them asking them why they haven’t completed. What kind of process is that? Unsure if it’s vindictiveness or incompetence. No wonder there’s a backlog of this is how they work.

I will never trust SS again for as long I live. I now feel a lot more empathy for those who are innocent but poor or uneducated. They are completely vulnerable to bullying by SS. I have thought about legal action but i don’t know if I can handle the prolonged distress. My mental health was almost destroyed.

If someone had told me this could happen to my family I would never have believed them and have wondered if it’s because we are nice and compliant whether we are seen as a good case for easy targets?

OP sometimes social services make mistakes - sometimes they are overzealous in pursuing cases. It is worth having an hour's appointment with someone to see if this is worth pursuing further. To me (family lawyer but not care specialist) it does sound OTT and from the time that the hospital said it wasn't non-accidental then I question why the investigation continued as there does not appear to be any basis for concern. You could try https://ridleyandhall.co.uk/our-team/nigel-priestley/ who is very good and has brought judicial review proceedings - I have no link to this firm but have sent clients with your kind of case to him previously.

Children die when social services don't do what they are supposed to.
Yes it's bloody horrendous being investigated when you have done nothing but they don't know that, do they? They have a duty to investigate and you're not above that. Nobody should be.

YABU. They're putting a child's well being first, not your right to privacy, which is a good thing. I have been through this myself when my DS was 2. I was very upset at the time and sobbed but now I understand why.

@Jellyx I know but that doesn't make it okay.

I manage social care complaints. You can certainly submit a formal complaint but you would need to be clear about what process you think was not followed correctly and what outcome you are seeking. There is a deliberately low bar for CP enquiries, so any complaint investigation would not be able to conclude that a S47 should not have taken place. It can however look at communication, delays and procedures etc. I did have one case where the outcome of a S47 was changed from substantiated to unsubstantiated after investigation, but that was pretty rare. And I still couldn't conclude that the enquiry should not have been instigated initially, as was a school referral.
Ps. I do appreciate how stressful the process is, as have had SW involvement myself due to an unstable ex, and a daughter with serous MH issues.

One of the problems we found was the revolving door of Social Workers. You’d just start getting answers when they’d leave or go on annual leave for weeks. We had 5 different Social workers in a 7 month period. You’d just start getting some answers and making some progress when it would switch, and believe me not all social workers are created equal! Some are wonderful and a credit to their title. Others really are in the wrong job.

The system is a mess. My sister is a Social Worker and she’s contemplating a career change. Her friend works in children’s services and actually said to us ‘it’s better to make something up as to how they bruised rather than say you don’t know’. I mean, that’s awful!

It took a judge and another adjourned hearing (due to SS not having paperwork ready) to get this thing finished. He called time on them.

I'm finding the whole "but we're professionals! A decent family" thing a bit jarring, tbh.

Social workers don't make the decision to remove or return children, that's on the courts

So much this. They clearly either don't bother to investigate or buy nonsense stories from parents. The files on all the ones who die show this over and over. It should have been dismissed with a phone call if referred at all.

They investigated and nothing was found to be wrong. They did their job. They don't do their job and children get abused / die and they get dragged through the coals. They can't use psychic powers to know their was nothing wrong. We should be grateful they exist and that they did their job.

Bruising in an area that is unusual and unexplained are not "spurious reasons"

This is social care doing their job. In other cases real issues are found. You talk about missed cases but how many children are saved because social care did their job and the bruising was down to abuse?
Am not a SW but one child had bruising and when asked said "Dad did it" other children then said "Mum told us not to tell".

OP is not unreasonable to feel upset but is u reasonable to be saying social care should not have investigated. That's how abuse gets missed.

SoNotRainbowRhythms

I agree with everything that you said. Children's safeguarding is not fit for purpose and is more often than not enabling the culture of contact to continue, even if it means putting a child at risk. It is about box ticking and covering arses. I work with domestic abuse survivors and see this again and again. Narcissistic fathers who might not physically abuse their children but who are certainly emotionally and psychologically abusing them. The abuse is evident from the physical symptoms of stress being experienced by the child, gut problems, sleep issues etc AND from changed behaviours; the mother ususally being the one left to deal with the extreme dysregulation after the child has seen the abusive parent. There are endless numbers of adults who see this but turn their backs; they raise the safeguarding concern so that's their back covered but from that point on do nothing.

I agree with you OP. Nobody in their right mind would say that concerns should not be investigated but threatening you with putting your child into care before any of the facts were known was NOT a proportionate response. I thought social workers were trained on understanding what constitutes a proportionate response but some will be on a power trip or pretty dysfunctional individuals themselves with poor attunement into what is really going on.

It’s a very lazy (yet common, especially on here) assumption that nice professional people don’t ever abuse their children.

It’s ridiculous. People should know better than that by now

@HarrietJet "I'm finding the whole "but we're professionals! A decent family" thing a bit jarring, tbh."

Yep. This.

Imagine the grief they’d have got if something serious happened to one of the OP’s children down the line and they said “oh no, the nursery referred but we didn’t bother investigating as they’re nice professional people”

When folks say that more should be done, things should be investigated, people should report anything suspicious - this is that… This is what it looks like. Thousands of families looked into and cleared to keep more children safe.

This is what people ask for when things go wrong. There can’t be exemptions for “nice” people

They had to investigate. It’s the law. There is also a legal process to follow. Hence not just closing the case at the point of medical examination. They have to follow through the assessment.

nursery also following legal process. A child that young with regular unusual brushing needs an assessment.

Social workers….damned if the do, damned if they don’t.

Agree 100% with this.
I remember reading about (one of the many) horrible child abuse cases and that social workers were scared of a family’s nasty dog so they didn’t go to the house to investigate concerns.

agreed. The amount of CP plans I have seen where the parents are in the police and other similar positions, is pretty shocking tbh.