Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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Health visitor question, advice please

6 replies

resiguru · 03/07/2012 12:24

Ok first time posting in a forum, so aplogies if this is in the wrong section etc, and thanks in advance for any responses given and your advice, Now on to the story, I have 3 children 5, 3 and a newborn all girls and quite a handful, my eldest daughter has always has issues with her ears and has had grommets put in and fallen back out around a year ago, as a result she was slow to gain weight as a child and had to monitored by the health visitor more often, she has recently had her weight and height checked again and measured slap bang in the middle at 41 on the Body mass index, which is a perfectly healthy weight. Now the issue I'm having is with health visitors and the school nurse, I live in council accomodation and it is not the best quality housing, we had issues with damp that the council would not sort out, they said it was because of us, and that the block was nearly 100 years old and everybody in the block suffered similar issues, after doing some research online I discovered that damp could be responsible for ear problems and asthma which my eldest suffers from, so I raised the issue with HV asking if she would be able to help get the council to correct the problem, or help us get moved out, she said she would and put a complaint in with SS, I managed to get the council to treat the damp, and SS decided to run a 30 day intitial investigation, spoke to school, nursery, HV, Drs etc and decided that no further action was required. As You can understand I was very angry with this as the HV had stated in her initial report to SS that the children were dirty, the house was dirty and that damp was a serious concern, my house was perfectly clean as were my children, I raised my complaint with HV who stated that if she only put damp in referral it would have been ignored, I complained to HV and PCT and had that redacted and an apology letter sent out, after this I request a new HV as had lost trust in first one, now I feel I am being harrased, In september My eldest missed 2 weeks off of school for an ear infection, we took her in to the school awho sked us to come and collect her and keep her off until she was better, so we kept her off for just under 2 weeks, 3 weeks later we were summoned to school who for a meeting with the head teacher and an education welfare officer, to explain why in october her attendance had fallen below 80% and why she had had 2 weeks of unauthorised attendance! after explaining that the school sent her home, she booked an appointment with school nurse regarding her ears, at this point my eldest was weighed checked and signed off from HV and over too School Nurse as is usual, at School Nurse's appointment she was weighed and measured, done and passed a developmental check, anyway in the last 2 months we have been called in for 4 development checks, and weigh ins, all of which she has passed, and the schools change 4 life programme also weighed all the children in her class and she was healthy weight (5 total weigh ins), and now the school nurse and health visitor want us to complete a common assessment framework, to see if we need more help, which after reading up is a prelude to SS, this is optional and can be refused, should I just refuse?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
BertieBotts · 03/07/2012 12:28

CAF isn't always a prelude to SS. I had one last year and SS were only involved briefly and it was in a supportive role, in fact I found them helpful. The whole experience of the CAF wasn't great though, but it was because my first HV was a bit too concerned about things and rubbish at actually telling me what the problem was. So I was trying to fix it and (in her eyes) doing it all wrong.

I think it might be worth it in your case with the housing issue as this doesn't sound healthy for you and your children.

resiguru · 03/07/2012 12:30

I finally managed to hae the council treat the damp, I forgot to add that today she failed a hearing test and needs to be reffered back to ears nose throat specialist, but apparently it's not uncommon to have grommets replaced.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 03/07/2012 12:36

Oh. Then I'm not sure what they want the CAF for?

PandaNot · 03/07/2012 12:45

A caf isn't a prelude to SS. It is a universal assessment framework used by all agencies involved with families to help identify any unmet need, which may include SS but most often doesn't. It is used so that you don't need to 'retell' your story to numerous people who you may be involved with. When used effectively as a support mechanism it can be very effective to making sure that families needs are met.

resiguru · 03/07/2012 13:24

Thanks for the advice Bertiebotts and Pandanot, youve alieviated my concerns

OP posts:
TheEnthusiasticTroll · 03/07/2012 13:43

I would ask why they are requesting to do a CAF, it can be but isnt always a prelude to social services involvement as others have said. But I would ask what they hope to understand, learn more about or what they plan to use the CAF for in dds case?

The problem is although it requires your permission and is always best practice to gain permission, if you do not give your permission you can be forced into assessments.

From what I read from your post I suspect they may wish to do a CAF because of the cxonflicting information that is already present from the original HV and lack of clarity around your dds health. The CAF will provide the school with the best and most accurate up to date information where you have had a part in contibuting to. I cant be certain of course but seems a bit of a hash in the past.

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