AIBU to ask any social workers or lawyers for some advice?

[AnotherFamilyNightmare]

Can anybody tell me why social services want consent to access my and DH’s medical records?

Background:
A relative has a habit of making false allegations against people. He has made false allegations against me several times before but nothing has gone further than a phone call to me/nursery/school from social services.

Now he has started making malicious allegations against DH. Social Services have spoken to my DC and me separately. Now they want consent to access my medical records and DH’s medical records. Why? FWIW the allegations have nothing to do with alcohol/drugs/mental health issues.

We were happy to go along with the assessment as we have nothing to hide but this is starting to feel like we aren’t being believed and that is more serious than we thought. Is it normal to be asked for access to medical records during an initial assessment?

We are both professionals with enhanced (clean) DBS certificates who work with children. We have informed our employers, before anyone asks.

Sounds like it's escalating to harassment

Does your insurance cover legal advice?

They would be seeking to check whether there is anything relevant on your medical records that might impact on your care of the children that you haven't disclosed already. It's not that they don't believe you, it's pretty standard. Nothing bad will happen if you say no, but if you have nothing to hide you might as well?

I would be reporting to police for harassment, and then informing social services that an investigation is ongoing.

Insurance legal cover helpline wasn’t very helpful.

So it is standard then? This just all seems so much more serious and in depth than before.

You don’t have to , and shouldn’t consent to this. If they want the information they can get a court order (to get to court they have to have proof of serious safeguarding issues so it’s unlikely they will)

Id also advise doing subject access requests to all professionals / school etc

Definitely do this

Why shouldn’t we consent to this, @pinkorbluedontmind? Our first thoughts were it doesn’t matter as we have nothing to hide but now we are worried that maybe there is a reason why we shouldn’t?

No this isn't normal, and I wouldn't consent. I've had plenty of allegations made against me (I work in that kind of job!) but never have SS asked me for access to medical records. It implies the allegations DO concern mental health or substance abuse and they just haven't told you. I would be asking for their specific concerns to which you can respond appropriately.

I would start by asking them for what purpose are they requesting the records. Generally it’s better to co-operate, but you ought to be told the reasoning and what they’ll be used for.

Unfortunately that’s often what people think and although that should be how it works it can lead to issues. Very often there can be minor (or major) errors in medical records which can cause confusion or amplify concerns mistakenly.
You are also entitled to privacy over your own medical records.

Socail service have procedures to follow. If they really want medical records they can request this via court order but the threshold for court is high so it’s unlikely it would get to that point.

An alternative is to ask the social worker to provide a list of questions regarding medical history to you - you then decide if the answers are something you are happy and could provide them with.

It would be unnecessarily combative to do this and wouldn't look great. You know that there is nothing concerning in your medical records so I would give consent. The sooner they complete their enquiries, the sooner they can close the case.

Hi I'm a social worker, if it is part of an assessment it is standard, we just usually get sent a very brief summary from the gp with anything of relevance in it to check if anything important hasn't been disclosed. If you are worried just ask your social worker and they should explain to you if they have any worries (I would). As others have said the threshold for legal action is hugely high so unless there is a lot more than mentioned in this thread I'd not worry about that this stage.

You and your husband have professional jobs that require a clean DBS.
You have dependent children.

You have too much to lose here, pay for a good solicitor. I know you have nothing to hide and you shouldn’t have to do this.But you can’t afford for this to go wrong.

You don’t want your children removed , even if they are later returned because they can’t find any proof .

You don’t want suspended from your job for 6 months while they investigate.

All these things can happen to innocent people who are the victims of malicious allegations and incompetent social workers.

Hi OP, obviously you’re entitled to your medical records being kept private so you can absolutely refuse if you want to. If you are both happy that there’s nothing to find though then there’s also no harm in giving access. There are other reasons besides the obvious substance abuse/mental health that they might be concerned about, it could be that you’ve been reported to have a condition that would affect your ability to parent and so they’d be checking for this, or it could be if a report of domestic violence has been raised then they could look for this in medical recs e.g. 3 trips to a&e in 2 months with burst lips etc.

You can ask why they want it, and you can also refuse if you want to.

I know what the allegation is. Nothing to do with substance abuse or mental health issues.

It really is normal. It's a standard part of an assessment. All parents undergoing assessment will be asked to consent to this. Nobody has to.

Jesus Christ. OP please don't listen to this kind of paranoid nonsense. You don't need a solicitor.

If that is the case then I do not think it is necessary for social services to need anything from your medical records , have you done subject access requests? If not I would strongly advise doing so to see if there are any other concerns and that may explain why they are asking to access your medical records

They will tell the OP about any referrals they have received if they ask. No need to do a SAR. They won't tell them who made anonymous referrals but a SAR would redact that info too.

OP needs to know about any other concerns as well. Redacted personal information is irrelevant it’s the content and the concerns that need to be identified.

Yes and they will tell her if she asks. Nothing they have on record should be kept from the parents unless it's 3rd party information or confidential. They can do a SAR if they want but it's easier to just ask.

No idea why sorry but can you refuse? Would that make it worse?

Sounds like it could be a DV accusation? Wanting to check your record for any abnormal injuries?

Can you speak to SS and explain that this person is malicious and all of the other false accusations they have reported and they SS have dismissed?

I'd guess they have alleged domestic abuse and ss want to see if you have any history of injuries.

Yes it's normal in an initial assessment. My 14 yr old got into serious trouble at school , a group of them had police involved for various reasons and so an assessment was done, I was a bit shocked they wanted to access our records but had nothing to hide really.

Why aren't you counter reporting this relative? As others have said this is harassment. I hope you are no contact with this person and have blocked them entirely from your life.