Visited parent and house smelt of weed- should I report?

[smellysaurusmum]

I work in one of the caring professions and visited the house of a family where the 7 year old daughter has severe medical needs. The house was a state, daughter was on the floor and moved around by crawling everywhere- she seemed happy and crawled over to me for a cuddle. Nothing in that home seemed like there were any safeguarding needs. However, from the minute I walked in, the smell of weed hit me between the eyes and stayed there until I left. Am I within my rights to report the family for drugs being on the premises or should I let go? I have really empathy for the parents dealing with what they are but also feel duty bound to report them. Having said that, other professionals will have been in and smelled the same and not reported the family- should I let it go?

I'd note it in write up. Inform line manager.

I would be concerned, if you can smell it on everything the children are likely second hand smoking it. Also if it is in the house id be concerned of the children locating and ingesting it.

You ask your line manager for protocol.

You may be new at this agency @smellysaurusmum but if you are treating a child with severe medical needs then you have had a fuckton of safeguarding training previously.

So asking on a random parenting site how to put that safeguarding in place, is concerning.

Everybody piling on OP —— it is absolutely rife in caring jobs for agencies to be il equipped, understaffed and underfunded.
from disability support services to aged care there are thousands of staff that are not given the tools, training and resources to do the job.

at least this OP is asking the question.
I remember starting a home support role years ago and being told the child I was working with needed to be administered an injection if they had an epileptic fit. I told the handover worker I wasn’t going to do that as I had been in the job for three days, that house for five minutes and had received no medical training. The staff member said well I’ve been here for a double shift, if he fits and you don’t do it, he will die and left.

I couldn’t contact the external supervisor for hours and they said they would send someone and never did. I was there for 12 hours and luckily he didn’t fit. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if he had. I left that job and struggled to feed my own child as a result.

cut her some bloody slack, at least she’s trying to find the answers.

"Smell of weed" doesn't sound like it will go anywhere, but yes you should speak to the social worker if you are concerned.

The much greater worry is your employer though - you need to whistleblow urgently.

You work for an agency thay has sent you in to see SU without safeguarding training. Have you worked in this environment before? Please tell me the recruitment process you went through was thorough?

I would be shopping the agency to CQC.

And while I don't want to jump all over the OP. I would advise that you get the hell out of there quickly. An agency happy to send you I to a role with no training is not going to be protecting you. Sooner or later they are going to leave you in a situation that can have dire consequences for you and/or the individual you are caring for.

What's the safeguarding policy of your company or role? I work with children not in a caring profession and would have a duty to report this to my direct line manager and then my responsibility is fulfilled. If I don't do it I'm in breach of their policy. You must have something similar.

The thing is, OP, you seem to have very little awareness when it comes to your job. Even if you did report this, you do know that there is a huge number of children living with families who smoke weed? Nothing will come of it. You seem to be a bit 'should I tell on them' primary school mentality when actually you should be raising it for awareness of the overall intervention the family receives, but smoking weed in itself will not lead to any significant action.

A professional person wouldn’t come in here asking this 🧐

My downstairs and upstairs neighbours both smoke inside their flats so our flat often smells like weed which is something you might want to consider!

100% this.

I once had a young lass of 18 do her first ever shift with me working in a nursing home who had no training or experience and she had no idea (thanks to social care adverts!) That caring for the elderly would require personal care and not just seeing but also touching naked men. Due to her religion she wasn't able to do this, she'd presumed she'd just be sitting around, holding their hands and discussing the war, maybe playing a card game.
I taught her instead how to make the beds up and empty commodes etc but she was sick doing that, then she vomited in the smokers lounge when I asked her to collect the ashtrays for a clean and soak, bless this useless wee thing she was. The residents (over 70 bed home with 63 beds taken up with dementia residents) terrified her and the usual carer I worked with (we only had 3 staff to all 70 clients) had called in sick due to norovirus. It was chaos.

But care jobs, no matter how complex the needs of the individuals are play utter shite for the carers go in and support them, most agencies can't get staff because you're treated like scum by the regular staff.
Care companies are vile, opportunistic places ran by money grabbing abusers and people who work with them, such as the OP who want to do the right thing are thrown in without any training, you don't need qualifications, gcses etc to do care work because who realistically wants to do that job? Back breaking, shit pay, demeaning and demanding.

I loved it but I chose that as my job, I'm one of the very few people I met who truly enjoyed it but I love elderly people generally, I find them really interesting.

The op didn't deserve that pile on, it's the fault of her managers not training their staff.

Yes, report it. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. It could be nothing, but it could also build part of a picture they have.

I'd be inclined to whistle-blow against the agency too, sending you alone without Safeguarding training? Were risk assessments done and safety protocols discussed?