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.

This was eight years ago btw, no concerns about our home or parenting so my daughter was offered early help and support at school, case closed. It's standard procedure and doesn't mean they suspect you of anything.

I would imagine they are doing a child and family assessment, there is more here about what one entails

https://www.proceduresonline.com/durham/scb/p_ch_protection_enq.html

medical records could also be in case either of you have made disclosures before, for example say the allegation was DV related you could have attended your GP with injuries - disclosed DV relationship to them. Your DH could have for example gone to the GP with concerns about his MH and temper or similar.

It is completely normal and unfortunately if you decline they are likely to wonder what you don’t want them to know. The allegations may be nothing to do with anything that could be in your medical records but they’re checking for anything they might need to worry about. It’s a personal choice and worth having a conversation with your social worker about this

On the positive side if you engage with this assessment and they find nothing to worry about then if they get any more malicious allegations they will know not to worry about it

SW here and yes this is standard as part of an assessment to request permission for checks from school, health and police.

I know it feels intrusive and it is frustrating for families and Social Services when we have to assess false allegations as it is a waste of time and money for all involved but we have to follow up all concerns raised.

I think wasting social services time should be an offence in line with wasting police time. I am sorry you are going through this

Honestly if parents decline it's not considered a huge concern - everyone has the right to privacy and unless the concerns reach the threshold of section 47 (significant harm) all assessment is voluntary.

I wouldn't consent to this. Your right to privacy surely trumps some unspecified and unsubstantiated allegation? I have various intimate women's health issues that I wouldn't want a social worker to read about. There are completely legitimate reasons for refusing that have nothing to do with 'hiding' but do have to do with things you want kept private.

The GP shouldn't be sharing that kind of info. Most GPs write a letter saying 'there is nothing on the record relating to unexpected injuries, mental ill health or substance use' or 'there is nothing relevant to the assessment' if that's the case. I must admit some GPs are shit and send a print out of the person's whole record including that time they got piles in 2006. Obviously we don't put that info in an assessment but we never ask for that level of info, it's just the way some GPs respond. If I were being asked to consent to this check I would probably email the GP practice myself to specify what I consent to being shared and what I don't.

Am a child care lawyer and even in proceedings I wouldn’t normally advise clients to agree to the wholesale disclosure of all their medical records to social services. Often they are disclosed to a psychologist or psychiatrist as part of an expert assessment. Surely it should be enough for them to have a letter from your GP about whether there’s anything in them that relates to the child protection concern.

Thanks, everyone. I am reassured to hear that it is normal.

TBH what did concern me was that a friend suggested it might be a section 47 assessment and social services hadn’t told us. Would that change the advice?

@PineappleTime difference of professional opinion there.
Howevet i’d agree with others that entire medical history is not needed and your social worker doesn’t want that; they want to know if you’ve ever been there about anything related to drugs, DV, mental health, things that could impact on parenting so you could ask for a letter to be written to that effect

If it’s section 47 they don’t need your consent and normally they would tell you but confirm for your own peace of mind.

They must tell you. If it's a s47 they can ask for the information without your consent anyway.

Yes - ask for a letter from the gp stating they have no concerns and that there is no relevant medical history that could cause safeguarding / parenting concerns

I agree but if these who give malicious reports were subject to any kind of punishment it could be argued that it could put off potential genuine reports as they could be worried aboit being accused of fabricating concerns so really there’s nothing that we can do except investigate all reports

If a social work assessment is being completed then the social worker won't get your full medical records. They get a relevant summary of information from your GP as that's all thats proportionate to disclose under data protection. Your consent is needed if it's a social worker assessment on a child in need basis. As others have mentioned this is standard for any assessment as it's important to have full information.

If it's a child protection assessment which is known as a s47 as that's the bit of the children act it's from, the don't actually need your consent although it's good practice to ask. There needs to be multi agency agreement to a s47 assessment from a meeting and some relevant health information would have been shared then. If a social worker is doing a s47 assessment on your children they should tell you. If you were asked to your consent to an assessment it's very likely not being done under s47 as consent is not required

apologies for typos fat fingers

I use to work in ss this is standard as part of initial assessment.

I would ask the reason they would like access. If it's reasonable then I would give access as I'd have nothing to hide.

I would be sending a solicitor's letter to relative to desist and any further allegations will be considered as harassment.

When I was going through something similar I informed them that I was being harassed. I said I knew they couldn't tell me who it was, but asked them to record the fact I had said that on my file, and track every complaint to see if there was a pattern.
The harassment using SS stopped - they switched to a different agency so I just did the same thing.

We had a malicious allegation a year ago and a Single Assessment. It was freaky at the time but I immediately gave consent for them to contact gp/HV etc and those records meant they could close the case with no further action. I think if I’d been less flabbergasted I’d have been able to put them off at the first contact phone call. I did a SAR and the council failed to redact the persons name so I got our lawyer to write a letter and we haven’t heard anything since.

This isn't standard and I'd ask for a really clear explanation of why it's being requested. I'd be inclined to say no. Usually medical records are requested as part of legal processes so either pre proceedings or in court. If they need something confirmed then they can ask for a letter off your gp but they don't need full records.

Unless I've misunderstood and it's just basic checks with school and health, that'd be really normal!

The thread is from April so I imagine the assessment is completed by now and the decision over consent was made

I'd like to know what happened.