To alert LA/School/Social Services

[Usedphone]

Yesterday while I was doing the school run I witnessed a dad shouting horribly (and horrible things) to a poor little boy. You could hear the boy screaming from a block away. I was in a rush, and really didn't want to confront this angry man, so just kept walking with my son.

Today, I saw the same boy (I didn't see him yesterday, only heard him) but he had the most horrible black eye and the rest of his face was incredibly swollen.

I'm sure both are connected but I have no evidence. Who can I alert about this?

They logged against his first name, which is why they asked me to email the school.

I had already left a voicemail earlier today, so it was basically the written form.

When I once called 111 because I saw a man physically assaulting a woman, they still logged it even though I had no idea of the identity of these people, so what you're saying makes no sense either.

Where did you see the little boy today? At school?

If he came to school with a black eye and a swollen face, school would have immediately contacted SS and probably wouldn't have released him to his parents.

It all sounds a bit.....weird?

Ignore this @inks ivw read more of your thread … and can see you think this may not be real.
I hope you’re right.

I work in a school and we have mandatory safeguarding training yearly. The one piece of information that is drummed into us is 'safeguarding is everyone's responsibility'. If you see something that doesn't sit right with you, report it. In this instance you know the child's name, and class. You report exactly what you have seen, factually. Find out who the designated safeguarding lead is in school and speak to them. Unfortunately, now it's half-term, but the bruising/swelling would have been seen by staff at school today, and they would have asked the child about it, and even call home to ask too. Once you have reported what you saw, it's down to the school to decide how they proceed.

To answer this

a) I talked about it with my other "mum friend" and I told her what I witnessed the previous day. She assured me the school would be on top of things as the bruising is obvious. I wasn't as sure thus this thread .

b) I didn't do it immediately because I had to get back home for a meeting at work, once it had ended the school had closed.

Gosh how awful, especially with it now being half term and that child not having the safety of school. Well done for reporting

111 is NHS by the way not the Police... just for future reference

I work for a local authority and I know we have an out of hours emergency social services number. If this child has a black eye and swollen face the day after you heard him screaming and his dad shouting at him, then that would make me concerned that his life is in imminent danger. I would ring social services again and be really insistent that they take action.

Yes, during pick up. I even asked my friend if it was really a black eye and not me being blind.

The non emergency number 101... I'm just trying to multitask here

Please report ASAP - to the school - they'll be able to spread the safeguarding net from there. (I work in a Primary School.)

But this is the part I don't understand....there's no way school would have ignored such extensive injuries on a child.

Who checks the emails / voicemail out of hours though? The social worker said the head, but I'm not too sure.

Well you’d better do it before the bruise heals

That's what SHE said. Which also could give the benefit of the doubt to the dad.

What’s going on. Did you give the name and year to the school. Go on Facebook and try to find the boys family on there somehow if you have the time. Find the second name from there and then you have it to report. Or ask on local Facebook page anonymously ?

Ah, OK - thanks!

And what ask in a group if 5k is somebody knows the name of the kid with the back eye?

I did go through some of the posts from school (on tapestry) but they don't give any names

ask if anyone knows the second name of the boy in the (enter year) as he had a black eye and you want to report it , just explain the story

As long as you sent it to the safeguarding email address and not office@, it'll be the Head and/or the Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead. As it's a Primary school, it'll be easy for the Police to contact either of these to allow for somebody in the process of getting on a plane for a half term holiday - they always have contact details because children do end up in terrible situations in the school holidays and at night.

If you wanted to be quadruply certain, you could also email the safeguarding governor, as their email address also has to be published on the school's website in the safeguarding section/safeguarding policy document. Or even add the chair of governors, as they will be pretty much certain to have the Head's mobile number.

There is always a way to get in touch and with so many different ways, the odds of every single one failing is impossible.

Yes if you know name and nursery then report to police and children services

Go through posts. If you see boy screen shot, circle child and email the school

The SW hasn't passed it on to the police.

OP has done well, the SW has failed.

She said "the heads are normally very good at checking their emails during holidays" almost verbatim.

I can assure that my head never looks at emails during half term and maybe only every couple of weeks in a longer holiday. Our DSL is on a short cruise right now and she is looking forward to being totally offline. I’m heading out of the country tomorrow and won’t be paying roaming charges to check emails either.

The local MASH team should be on this.