Let the state step in and look after your kids

[SockYarn]

Scottish minister just interviewed on telly about the whole Cummings debacle.

She says that in the situation of one parent falling ill, the other suspecting that they might be ill you should stay put and call on Social Services if you can't look after your child.

Do they REALLY think people are going to do that? Send your kids into foster care - because that's what they are talking about - with absolute strangers, rather than moving to be close-ish to relatives in case you get sick?

The world has gone MAD.

Of course. Its CYPSS role to provide emergency childcare when family members are available which wouldn't involve them. They don't have much to do at the best of times and especially not now

Cummings is irrelevant to how stupid this statement is.

It seems like the government are coming up with this stuff with no or minimal discussion with the relevant organisations whether it's schools or social services.

Hmm tbf ive seen it suggested on here, im a lone parent to 4 kids and if I ever get sick I don’t have anyone to help so I just have to cope as best I can. I would never call ss as I wouldn’t invite them into my life and wouldn’t want them taking my kids anywhere even if it was temporary. I’ve seen it on here before people suggesting to lone parents who are sick to call ss for help.

Did someone really suggest this?

Why on earth would anyone think this is a sensible thing to do?

It was a post about a lone parent asking what others do when they are ill and struggling to look after their children, the poster got told that you call ss if that’s the case, when I said that I was a single mum and have never called ss when I’ve been ill, i just get on with it the best I can, I got told I’ve obviously never been that ill then!

This is a bizarre attitude, yes.

That said, I can imagine this line is being taken in Scotland to show BJ and Cummings up. They’re talking about something controversial precisely because they want him to get his comeuppance, no?

Not defending DC in any way but it was stupid advice to go to SS rather than rely on family. You would have hoped that govt would have realised that, especially when they personally were in the situation.

PumpkinP
They are correct. You have never been that ill. Were I a single parent, dd would have been taken into care when she was little. There is no way I could have shopped and fed her. I could hardly stand up. My brain fog was that severe I was too ill to even plan online shopping for a good couple of years.

"If you are well enough to drive 260 miles you are well enough to take care of a child and so there is no safeguarding issue."

Exactly.
Stick in front of tv.

I’ve been a lone parent for 9 years, of course I’ve been ill in that time. Would never call ss though.

If you have COVID so badly that you cant look after your children, the chances are that they have it too. So they wont be going into regular foster care, they'll be going into an NHS unit for treatment and monitoring purposes and you will be going into hospital.

PumpkinP
I didn’t say you haven’t been ill. My illness started when dd was 3. I was just ill, falling over and running out of energy for no apparent reason that I knew of. However I am still ill now. Chronically and disabled. Bedridden at times. You were ill and recovered. Mine has lasted almost a decade and I still need more surgery. You could muddle through for a few days and I presume were still able to crawl around if not stand up and feed your children / attend to their toileting needs etc. Entirely different.

Can you not understand that?

"and you are worried" is the key phrase. Ie if there is nobody else. SS would be a last resort.

And tbh I would wait until me and dh were physically unable to care for children safely before exposing anyone else. I wouldnt drop off at another household and expose them as I suspected I was going to get it. Irresponsible by anyone and the people who should be most hurt are his own family as Dominic would rather expose them than look after his own kids. He may not catch it, have mild symptoms or his wife may have recovered enough for childcare before he becomes ill.

The man wasn’t bedridden if he managed to drive 260 miles though or disabled so that’s a totally different situation. Pretty much every parent isn’t going to call ss when they are feeling ill.

Look , if the full story was that he needed someone to care for his child then I find that acceptable. I became very ill during lockdown ( not covid ) so me and ds moved in with my mum for a while . I'm s single parent and she lives 10 mins away.
However, with these MPs it's never the full story is it.
I do find it strange that newspapers had to mention he was listening to ABBA! Is that against the rules now?? Lol

Social services just don't have the resources anyway. They can't even properly look after the children they have under their care as it is.

But social services would just place the child with a suitable relative or if none available Foster care.

So why do they need to be involved unless you have noone that can take the child.

PumpkinP
Yes I get that. All of my comments were in response to your post of 11.17, where you said if ever you were ill, I would never call ss as I wouldn’t want them in my life, you’d just get on with it and end with: i just get on with it as best I could, I got told I’ve obviously never been that ill then

As I said, you haven’t been that ill. The person, who told you this was correct.

As for your comment and disability. I did not class myself as disabled at the start of my illness. I was just ill and falling over and unable to move and speak.

Well I would still never call them. I would rather call their absent father and beg for help before I called ss.

It may be a bizarre suggestion (and I don't disagree) but it was nevertheless the official guidance. If you are ill, you stay put. If both parents are ill and unable to care for children, you seek health via your 'local authority hub', i.e. ask for care or foster care. In practice, I imagine this would mean placing a child with a willing family member. The point is that all the mealymouthed support for Dominic Cummings by the cabinet yesterday, about the necessity of making responsible arrangements for his son, overlooked the existence of guidelines for exactly this situation if it had happened to any of us mere mortals.

No same parent would follow that advice. Which means they shouldn’t have issued it in the first place.

PumpkinP
Yes, I would do the same. However, SS would need to get involved as a last resort if all other avenues had been exhausted.

The same as everyone else. If we were both very unwell then our neighbours would help with shopping and it would have to be dual hospitalisation level to risk anyone but then my sister would come for DS. (We think she and her DH had Covid in March, so actually she might come at the stage of both very ill.) In a sudden severe emergency, I know that a neighbour would take him until she could arrive. Which makes me wonder actually if one of them should have her phone number just in case of emergency, I think I'll send it to the man over the road, he's the most organised.

He or his wife were looking after the child at all times according to them.

What has social services got to do with that? Absolutely nothing, and clearly no need for them to have moved themselves to Durham in order to do exactly what they would have done in London, childcare wise.

TheModicum
This is official guidance. As this is the case, his head needs to be on a spike and anyone else’s, who continue to protect him.