Vulnerable children

[Neighbourworries]

Posting for traffic because I really don’t know what to do.

not direct next door neighbour but street behind us if that makes sense. We can see their garden from our bedroom window.

we aren’t sure how many children they have but it’s at least 3/4. Every weekend, usually starting Thursday, it has been party central. Tonight they have around 50 people, including a large amount of children. Some toddlers and then very older children. All completely unsupervised.

Ive been concerned for a while, these parties can go onto 5-6am. I’ve long suspected drug use but we haven’t seen it for ourselves. Until tonight, there’s blatant drug use of class A and we have witnessed the young teenage looking children vaping and drinking from the garden.

we have phoned the police, for the sake of the kids but it doesn’t seem to be a priority. My biggest, biggest concern is their children and as well as that during the week this house operates as a nursery setting for very young children, some cannot walk yet.

tonight we saw both people that own the house plus their employees racking up on the dining room table, for all to see. Another neighbour said that she saw the woman downing a glass of wine in a local pub straight after the school run with two of her children in tow. There’s obviously a problem and I hope everyone concerned is ok but this open and blatant behaviour in front of their children is not acceptable.

should I be doing more ? I’m very worried about the children.

I would be reporting them to the police, child protection and OFSTED if you are saying the house is a childminders.

I’d also report to the children’s school if I knew it.

You told the police that there are adults taking class A drugs in front of small children and they’ve done nothing? If so I bloody despair.

Is there a city/state governmental office of something like Department of Child Protection?

They still haven’t attended from what we can gather. Party is still on going. I’ve never been involved with drugs - if I report to the school will they know who it was ?

Police will prioritise depending on what they're responding to that night, if no one is in immediate danger it could be well down their list. Its not to say they won't follow it up but it may not be something they can get out to while the party is still on. The police would usually make a judgment call about whether there are any adults present who are fit to care for the children at the time, rather than whether anyone is under the influence of drugs while around a child. Not that they condone it, but they can only get involved if it's either a child being in danger, or a matter worth prosecuting (eg neglect which is a high threshold, or possession that indicates dealing)
You can report anonymously to children's services, but you'll need to bear in mind that if it's something you can see from your house, the neighbour will know it's either come from you or a handful of other people. If you report anonymously, social services won't give the neighbour your name but they would have to discuss the content of the referral.
Reporting to school is of limited use; they can watch out for any signs of concern re the children, but they can't do much else other than pass the same info on to SS, but second hand info can easily be dismissed as hearsay/malicious unless there's any other evidence to support.

Thank you - so from what I understand there’s little that can be done until something major happens. I just feel so gutted for the children to be witness to their parents being so obliterated every weekend.

You should contact your local MASH (multi agency safeguarding hub) in social care on Monday. Do you have evidence? It's especially significant that it's a childcare facility. In that respect, I would call Ofsted and tell them what you've reported to social care. It's not that it's not a police matter, necessarily. It's just that with the Tories cutting 20k police, they are very understaffed and will tackle urgent priorities and this may not be it. It sounds very concerning. You have described significant risk to children and young people, as well as extensive noise nuisance. Loads of children and young people using drugs/alcohol around a load of adults pissed and/or doing class As. There's so much to go wrong there.

You can really the dining room table of a house on the street behind you? Sounds far fetched to me of please give me the name of your optician.

I completely understand thank you

There is a genuine concern here. I don’t have to explain myself to you and I will not do so. Maybe you condone the use of drugs around children. Or children as young as 12 drinking and vaping in the garden.

this has been going on for many months and is not a one off.

Doesn’t sound far-fetched to me. We live in a Victorian terrace with tiny gardens. From our loft I can see the kitchen table of the people diagonally behind us. If they were snorting coke I’m pretty sure I could see it happening.

Thank you - PP clearly doesn’t live in rows of terraces 😂

No, that's not the case - social services would follow it up, especially with it being a childcare facility. It just wouldn't likely be an immediate response by an agency whilst the party is on. If police are nearby and can pop round they likely would do but it really depends on what else the police are dealing with - and on a weekend night the likelihood of having officers available for someone where there isn't immediate danger are slim.

Thanks - it was going on until around 7am. Doubt police would find anything now. I have got some footage but it would be so obvious it’s from us I’m not sure I can risk it. I don’t know what sort of people they are. I have a family myself.

Hi OP, you can report to MASH online and it doesn't need to wait until tomorrow. There will be an out of hours team and they will triage things as they come in. I would say that you should trust your instincts here and definitely report. If you do an online MASH report then you can put in the detail about them being registered for childcare provision, etc.

You can also make the call and speak to the out of hours team - there is still an EDT social worker there and they can take the details from you for triage.

It sounds like you're concerned and if you think there is the slightest part of you that would regret not reporting it, I would err on the side of caution. Don't worry about whether it's worth reporting or not - it's up to them to decide if it's worth acting upon or not.

Please don't worry about them knowing who the report is coming from. If you're in terraced properties then it could be anyone - and you can make the report asking for social care not to name you as the person reporting x

Thanks so much for the practical advice. This isn’t something I take lightly - I do not wish to get involved in family matters but my concerns are for the children that live there and then ‘adults’ then looking after 12 children on a drug and alcohol come down.

I always think of that poor girl who died and the neighbours said they heard things but didn’t report.