Will Social Services Be Informed?

[wherethewildrosesgrow]

My ex has recently been convicted of a serious assault.
We have children together, they stay with him once a month.
Will this conviction trigger any sort of response from social services?
Is anyone even likely to check if he has children or care?
A police officer I know has told me that I may well need to expect contact from SS.
He was very abusive towards myself both physically emotionally and verbally, but most of this, I have not reported.

Given the information you have now, what are you going to do to keep your children safe? That's the question SS are going to have for you....

If they haven’t been informed, then I strongly suggest you tell them. You need to do everything you can to protect your children from this violent man. Are you getting a court order to stop him seeing them?

The bottom line is, are you able to protect them from him?
if he hurt you and has hurt somebody else then there’s a very strong possibility that he will hurt them whilst they are staying with him.

You need to have a plan in place to stop this happening (switching to supervised contact only perhaps?)

If you are unable to do this then yes SS should be involved. You may well find the involvement helpful and supportive if you are frightened of him.

I’ve only just found this information out in the last couple of hours.
I need to think carefully how I go about things.
They are currently away for the weekend with him, not due to return til Monday morning, I do fear that if I report this and past incidents, that he will taken not return them.
I have no evidence.
He has parental responsibility, will a court remove it for something like this, or at least impose supervised contact, I need to be sure.

They can’t remove PR from him. Speak to children’s services - you need to show you are open and honest and prioritising your children’s safety above everything else. They will support you.

This is a hard one, if you've known he was abusive but you've still allowed your children to be in his sole care, the would SS consider this neglect in some form?
I was an at home nanny through the foster system, the last family I helped were 3 young girls who were taken from their mother after their father was charged with running a drug ring. Mam didn't have anything to do with it, but allowed it around her children so she lost custody altogether.

Why have you let him take your DC away?
I would contact SS yourself to inform them of everything and make sure you aren't seen as hiding anything, and also to start the ball rolling to get his rights taken away regarding solo visits with DC X

Why have I allowed him to take them away?
Because how do I stop him?
He has the same rights as me.
I didn’t know of this conviction this morning, and they’d already left.
I’ve heard of women trying to stop exes taking their children away, but unless he’s a danger to the children, then the courts will just give shared custody.
Honestly truly, will the court now consider him likely to be a danger to the children?
If this is the case, then I’m going to jump at the chance, but I need to be sure, as I’m afraid of the consequences.

You can exercise your parental right to deny contact due to your children’s safety. Speak to children’s services on Monday, they can advise you of all of this. Court proceedings for children take 1-2years. Children’s services will assess you and him and make a recommendation as to whether the children are at any risk of harm (emotional/physical/sexual/neglect). You don’t have to fear them, and they will view you positively for being proactive and putting your children’s safety first.

Court proceedings do not take 1 to 2 years. Public law outline states cases have to be concluded within 26 weeks. However some areas are following the new 'pathfinder' and cases in private law are seeing cases concluded in half this!

It seems like for now he shouldn't be seeing the kids, while he's under suspicion for this crime. At least not alone or overnight.

SS will probably be more satisfied of their safety if you say you've temporarily stopped visits in light of his criminal situation.

Wait until they are back with you Monday and call CSC, unless you think they are at imminent risk, explain your concerns. It's much better to be proactive and seek support than wait to see if they will contact you. (I work in this field)

Has he already been sentenced OP?

Can I clarify you say conviction, which means he had been to court and found guilty, is that where you are? Or is he under investigation/bailed? If police were going to make a social care referral they would've at the point of investigation/arrest.
They may not be aware he had unsupervised contact with his children, if asked he may well have just said I have kids but they don't live with me. I've also seen plenty of cases where police should have made a referral but haven't. I'm not knocking the police I manage a multi disciplinary public protection department which includes police officers. You just shouldn't rely on an agency making a referral, if you have concerns, which you do, contact children's social care yourself.

im in a pathfinder court - it has taken 5 months just to get to FHDRA for private children proceedings… If you need fact finding + section 7 you’re looking at 18months minimum. Just trying to show some realism of the system. Courts are overwhelmed and timescales rarely kept to.

PLO doesn't apply to private applications. It's public law - ie care proceedings initiated by the local authority. Private court cases can definitely take upwards of a year as standard and I've known many last longer than 2 years.

Public law proceedings are supposed to be concluded with 26 weeks (public law is when the local authority initiates proceedings)

Private law proceedings can go on for 1 or 2 (or more) years and this is when it is parents (usually) who intitiate proceedings and there may or may not be a social worker involved. This is usually where there is a disagreement between parents about what should happen for the child.

OP, you can take whatever action you deem necessary to ensure the safety of your children. If you think this conviction means that the children's father poses a risk to them, then stop the contact. He can apply to Court if he wishes.

You may want to think of ways where you could be assured of their safety when they are with him though - would you trust his mum, siblings, or friends to be around while they're with their dad. It is unlikely that a conviction for an assault would lead to a Court saying that he should never see his children again and you'd need a clear rationale for stopping it happening and an outline of what you'd need to see to be confident that they're safe with him.

Obviously, if he's convicted of harming children it's much clearer but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Social workers may become involved and you could call for advice.

Private law is also meant to be concluded within 26 weeks too. Whether this is the same mandated timescale as public law I'm unsure. If they weren't trying to improve delay why would pathfinder be being introduced (there are other issues with pathfinder but thats another thing!)

That is strange as in Wales the pathfinder cases are not going to FHDRAs in the same way. There are gatekeeper hearings/decisions instead.
CIR or child impact reports as CAFCASS call S7s are done upfront so things are significantly speeded up.

When is your child due back?

Nb..apologies getting public and private muddled..been a long day. Yes private is meant to be heard with an 'avoidance of delay ' not statutory PLO timescale BUT courts will use the 26 week timescale in their stats for private law, I suppose to have some kind of marker to go against.

It would have to be really serious for them to suggest supervised contact. Standard domestic abuse/pub punch up type thing wouldn't be enough, especially if he's well behaved in front of the children.

Just be honest about him if you do hear off SS and accept any suggestions of domestic abuse support etc.

He has been convicted yes, GBH, received an 18 month custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months.

He is likely to have a Probation Officer who will work closely with Social Services. If it wasn’t a domestic violence related GBH though, he’s unlikely to be considered to be a risk to children. It will depend very much on the circumstances of the assault and his past history. They won’t remove PR and he’s very unlikely to have to have supervised contact.

Unfortunately for GBH on another adult (assuming it's not domestic, ie a new partner?) it's unlikely anything will happen or that family courts would change contact arrangements as he won't be deemed a risk to his children.

There is absolutely no move towards concluding private law proceedings within 26 weeks. It's not a thing. The courts don't really care how long private proceedings go on for. They usually don't even list an initial hearing within 2 months of the application then you've got 12 weeks for a section 7, then several hearings after that, and private law is not prioritised. It can take 6 months or more for a contested final hearing to be listed. I've never in my career heard of a 26 week timescale for private law and I do a lot of private law work. I'm not saying such an intention or policy doesn't exist - but on the ground it definitely doesn't.