Am I out of order if I report this to child services?

[Em94]

For background my job involves safeguarding and if this was discovered through work I would 100% be reporting but in this instance I’m not sure it’s my place.

I have bought something off Facebook market place and been to collect today, upon arrival no one answered the door so I waited in the car and tried again.
a boy aged 9/10 answered the door & i asked if there was an adult home as I was here to collect something. The boy got the item for me let me look at it and told me his parents were in bed. (I didn’t go inside, this was all at the doorstep).
he was dirty, unclean toe nails, the house smelt and you could see the clutter everywhere. No curtains open.
I can’t stop thinking about it and unsure whether it’s my place to do anything

Well of course you refer. Why wouldnt you?

They're probably already open to services

Report. If your instinct is wrong & child is ok all that will happen is no intervention. Better safe than sorry

Report

I can see why it might be surprising, but when you work in safeguarding you have to listen to your gut. Only the OP knows how dirty he was, how cluttered the house was, how capable/prepared the boy seemed for their interaction.

If you wonder if you should report it, you report it. If you give it a second thought, you report it.

Of course you should report it. This family would appear to be not coping and by your report, they could have the help they need. It could well be that they are already on the radar for social services and that the boy’s school has already raised concerns. Your report could help in a bigger picture of evidence. Of course, everything may be alright, in which case no harm is done but there have been so many cases where children have been failed because people have looked the other way. You would never forgive yourself if you didn’t report it and something terrible happened to this little boy.

Others have already set out why the combination of factors, not just one thing is the reason why you might want to just alert SSD

Child should be at school
Parents not engaging with the sale/in bed - OP could be an abuser but child unsupervised
House dirty and smelly
House cluttered
Curtains closed
Child dirty

Its the combination of all these things

This this and more this

Do it now

Fucking hell 🤦‍♀️

Or he was told to say they were in bed. Could just as easily have been on his own.

Wait… you work in safeguarding but don’t realise that it is everyone’s responsibility regardless of how you find things out? Of course you report it. Why wouldn’t you? I’m assuming you’re a mandated reporter of some kind as well, which makes this worse. You shouldn’t need to be told.

I don't see why they will necessarily think it was you. Unfortunately it's not very likely that social services will spring into action immediately, and you've got no idea who else may have been to the family's house in the last couple of days. I'm not sure I would block them on Facebook though as I'd want to know if they thought it was you who had reported them and might try to retaliate.

If you deal with safeguarding you know that it's everybody's responsibility. Contact children and families service. You're not accusing them of anything your giving your observations/ information and the front door team will screen it and decide what to do. It may be nothing but don't take the risk. I'm a SW and would rather knock on 99 doors where someone has been over cautious and reported something that turned out to be nothing than miss the 1 where the family needed help.

Report.

Change your profile picture to something generic now so that they won't be able to recognise you from the messages arranging the sale before reporting.

But definitely report.

I would have called the police in this instance.

Something was odd enough to make you concerned. You can make an anonymous call to SS. They understand about safeguarding for everyone so they won’t knock on the door and say who the report came from and what you raised. These reports are usually jigsaw pieces so your report will probably not be the first, the child will hopefully be on the radar from places like school for low attendance etc and your voice slots in so the child is less likely to fall through the cracks.

You do it anonymously of course. Just say you were aware of the child being either home alone or unsupervised, dirty, smelly house etc

I’m echoing other people’s sentiments and would also report. We shouldn’t be scared of standing up for those who are unable to do so for themselves; that poor child.

I know someone who was reported to social services, presumably by someone who knew her, because her house was so cluttered and messy (before anyone panics I gather it was an exceptional level of random clutter and the garden was overwhelmed too). The kids went to stay with their grandparents for the weekend while she had a huge clear out. Then social services were happy and they went home. I only know about this because she put it on Facebook (!), so I don’t know if there has been ongoing supervision, but I know her kids are loved and look happy when I see them. My son might sometimes have dirty feet from sport or being in the garden (and he showers every day), but if the combo of things is worrying you, then perhaps report it and let the professionals decide if it merits a visit? You are only motivated by concern for a child not by any ill will to the parents. 💐

Report it

There’s no need to be like this. She’s just confirming her instincts.

Thanks everyone this has been reported to safeguarding and also the police as advised by Social services.
also for anyone who’s saying houses are dirty/cluttered or no signs of abuse, I appreciate these. comments but there were signs of neglect and I was concerned due to no parents being up at 10am during school hours.

sometimes we just need some confirmation off someone else to ensure we’ve done the right thing which is why I asked. Thankyou for the replies that are helpful x

Ah, I see you have reported! Well done. Thank you.

You did the right thing OP