Refusing social services

[Holdingforth]

Can a 16 year old refuse to engage with social services? They live with their parent and the whole family is being assessed due to the problems the teen is having such as shoplifting, school refusal, violence, drinking etc.

well they can but it won't be without its consequences. They can't refuse and nothing happens, social services won't go oh, ok then, we'll just close the case, cheerio.

What would happen?

Well I mean they kind of will. I mean not immediately but they don't have the power to compel a teenager to engage with them. It's still voluntary.

There are other children in the family being assessed who have no issue being assessed. The teen is the one with all the issues and causing problems for the other children.

Have the reports been ordered as a result of criminal behaviour? Criminally seeking it will change the outcome. If there's violence and they won't engage, then a custodial sentence in a young offenders institute might be appropriate. They should at least get a suspended sentence etc. If they carry on then the sentence will be enforced. They will be classed as a child in need by SS.

No current police involvement but previous.

Is the teen commiting DV? A placement might be sought, is there anyone in the family that can house them?

And no, not court ordered. The teen keeps accusing the parents of abuse. Then refuses to engage with services and charges the accusations or withdraws the accusations.

It depends what they're doing and if that poses a risk to other members of the family ie younger children. You don't get to say no, go away without anything further being done if what you are doing is illegal or is harmful to vulnerable people. If the 16 year old refuses to engage then they'll look at other ways to protect more vulnerable people in the household and worst case scenario the parents may be forced to make a difficult decision. That's why I said well they can but it won't be without its consequences.

I can't answer your question op. But (?your) teen sounds very, very unhappy. Any chance of getting to the bottom of their troubles? It all sounds like a cry for help and needing attention or some mental health support. Have lines of communication between the 16y broken down completely within the family unit?

The social worker was contacting their school and GP. Can the child refuse this?

I don't think a child can refuse as the Social Workers will have a duty to consider if the 16 year old is a 'child in need'. This website explains more about what happens after a social services referral Child Law Advice

Teen risks ending up in a secure unit for being beyond parental control. This is rare and only happens in extreme cases.

@Liminalstate thank you. From that I don't think there's a choice about the GP sharing info.

They can absolutely decline a service. The parent will be encouraged to make them available to meet with the social worker but if their are beyond parental control that may be impossible. Child in need is with consent only and that needs to be both parents and young people when they reach the age of 16.

The parent can consent to information being shared. The school would share info with parental consent but the GP may not if the child asks the GP not to. If they are Fraser competent they can request for anything not related to child protection to be confidential.

The teenager can refuse to engage, but that will have zero impact upon the social worker, as the focus of their assessment is all children in need, i.e. siblings as well. If parents can't keep their children safe, there will need to be an intervention.

An intervention that involves the teenager being removed from the home would be a very extreme option. It would likely only be possible with parental consent which often isn't forthcoming even if social workers want to place the teenager, which is often not a realistic option anyway.

A full assessment of the family is being carried out. The teen lives with their dad. Teen and dad aren't very cooperative. Dad never communicates with anyone, misses meetings with flakey excuses and teen is the same.

Does the teen live with younger siblings?

If the teen lives on his own with his dad and neither of them want to engage with a social worker then the social worker will eventually (after hopefully trying various attempts to engage) give up. If they don't have genuine consent to work with the family then they can't do anything.

The sw is working with mum and two other dc who are all cooperating and expressing concern re the teen. Surely they won't just give up?

What do you mean by give up?
They can offer support to the mother and siblings; but if it's the teen and father who need the intervention but they don't want that support then they have to give up. They can't force a family to accept social work support under child in need. In fact you can't force a family to accept a child protection plan either but your remit is different and you have different options available.

It depends if the teen poses a risk to the other children they may accept the teens refusal to engage and instead focus on any younger siblings because there they do have more say!
Or if the teen is deemed to not have capacity to make their own decisions and the social services decide the parent is not acting in the best interests of a vulnerable person they can step in.

Those sorts of things.

They can but parents can also choose to place them in temporary care, against their wishes, until an adult

so the teen doesn’t live with mum and siblings?