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.

Kind of. They have to have agreement from social services to place them in care and that's not often forthcoming. They have to work with social workers to try every avenue to keep them at home before a care placement would be agreed. And if the teen refuses to leave and go into care and the parent can't make them...well they aren't going, basically.

Hi does anyone know who to hire an independant socail worker to look into a possible case

What for?

Children In Need and Early Help plans are voluntary, but some cases are flagged as “if the family won’t engage, then it will be stepped up to level 4 (Child Protection)”, and that is not voluntary.

The teenager will soon realise that by not cooperating with social services they they will increase their interest in them.

If you want to get rid of them you have to jump through the hoops they hold up and smile and nod and agree with them through gritted teeth.

We had a complex situation involving Children's Social Care. The Family Rights Group had some excellent advice:

Helping families Helping children - Family Rights Group (frg.org.uk)

Yes you can i did that same thing. I advise you strongly to tell them to f&ck off,. my son is disabled and they never bothered until a few days before he left school at 18 they were nowhere to be found when my son was kidnapped and my daughter was SA.. Now they wanted to help i told them they were lying vultures and to stay away as they will be putting themselves at risk coming to my house. they have never been back i strongly advise you to record every interaction between them and you they are not good people