Social Worker Called in - need advice

[Avi78]

My youngest 4 year, told his tutor his dad punch him in the head..!! - this is not true.
My youngest - when he goes to school is neatly dressed, not scruffy, not a mark on him, no ripped clothes, clean shoes.

I my view - the school had no reason to believe that my child was not being cared for - compared to other children that I have seem.

The school / teach has no really concerned that my child l was not being taken care of or mistreated.

I felt he school should of talked to me first..

I totally understand that the school has a duty of care - but I wonder if the school or teacher over reacted..?? - I do not know what the policy is.

can the school just call in the social worker without a good reason..? is there a procedure..? like could the school of monitored my child before calling in the social worker? - or did the school have to call in the social workers.

the issue now is that my partner wants to adopt my other child and we are half way through the process - now I feel that this will jeopardise this.

do I have the right to question the school decision..?

the school were just following procedure.

how he is dressed has nothing to do with whether or not a parent might be beating him. well dressed kids get abused too...

if there is nothing to be concerned about then cooperate with any visits or questions and all will eventually be fine...

can you think of any reason why your ds would say such a thing?

Ask for a copy of the school safeguarding policy. It's not unusual though for it to be policy to report to social services when a child 'makes a disclosure'. Schools have to take this seriously as you can imagine how awful it would be for a child to tell a trusted adult they are being abused and the adult not to believe them. For this reason they can't often talk to parents either.

I can imagine it must have been very upsetting for you though.

The school had no choice.
How upsetting for you all.
Is your son worried about anything ?
The adoption ?

The school wouldn't call social services without good reason. Your son saying what he did was good reason. Can't you understand this? Being clean and tidy is irrelevant in this situation. Not just grubby kids are treated badly.

Schools have a duty to act on any report of abuse. They are obliged to take your DS's allegation seriously. They have followed their procedures and alerted social services. Social Services will now follow their procedures - interview with parents, teachers, child, GP - and if there is no truth in the allegations, that is what they will conclude. They are used to false alarms.

This is hard for you. But it is much better that the school over reacts than for it to do nothing. Remember the case of Daniel Pelka. People had concerns but did not act on them early enough and the child died.

You need to take a deep breath and co-operate with social services.

thanks for everyone response - I expected the mix review - and my comments are not meant to be naïve or judgemental.

The Social workers coming tomorrow -its like what do i say, how do we prove nothing happen...? .

I know anyone mistreating a child can say nothing happen, smile, be polite -and this is what's worrying my - now i feel we are going to be watch for something that never happen.

i am not sure what the process is - ?

My son is your average child, he's good, mummy boy when he wants and a daddy boy, he can be naughty, have his tantrums, rolling over the floor.

I see what you mean op. The process is generally to have a chat with you then speak to teachers and the gp/health visitor. If nothing else is flagged then that would usually be it. Kids do make things up so they won't have already decided you're guilty.

It is a safeguarding issue..If nothing has happened ( not suggesting it has) then co operate...

The school has a duty to report incidents like this not make decisions about what is and isn't true..That is SS job..

I'm always expecting to get such a call one day regarding all the bruises on my son (age 12)!!

He's always getting new ones from football and rugby and cricket and playing WWE at home etc etc.

Nothing to worry about OP - just feel relieved that they do go through this process to find the genuine cases of mistreatment.

As a teacher it would slightly alarm me that they had gone straight to ss. Safeguarding policies should mean that parents are the first point of call UNLESS they believe that doing so would put the child in imminent harm. One report of physical abuse probably wouldn't be enough for me to go to SS and we would almost always question the parents about what the child had reported, especially if the parent we could speak to wasn't the perpetrator. This actually suggests they have other things on their 'log'....

That should say presumed perpetrator.

I think it is right that you have been reported.

I accept it must be worrying for you but if there is nothing to hide then you need not worry the case will probably be closed as swiftly as it was opened.

I am surprised that the schools policy went straight to social workers, although there does seem to be a trend as schools fear ofsted judgment. I think that many schools would not have looked at this internally. The problem I think is that the safeguarding agenda means organisations feel compelled to protect themselves. I think this trend overloads social workers and creates a climate of distrust where things get blown out of proportion.

Any safeguarding training would highlight such a disclosure as a referral to Child Protection Services.

They can't just 'call a social worker in'. It would be referred to them with the information the child gave and then Children's services would make the decision whether to instigate an investigation or offer advice etc.

Hope it goes ok OP, just be open and honest and engage with the process. I hope your son is ok and it comes to nothing.

I've had a incident where a child told someone something and it resulted in the SW being called in. Overall it was very positive. My child got help faster than they would have any other way (including either the or I asking for help).
The SW asked questions and found out the truth, and offered to refer them to other services as needed.
They will also want to speak to your son without you present, and to any other children who are old enough.

"Organisations feel implied to protect themselves"
They do not feeling impelled to protect themselves following recent changes in the law teachers have rightly come into line with health care professionals, who have always had a legal duty to report any concerns. The teacher who heard your DC's comment would have reported it to her line manager or designated child protection officer who would have decided that SS had to be informed. They are not allowed to investigate any issues themselves or speak to parents as a first port of call.
OP if you've nothing to hide then you've nothing to fear, it's very common for children to be referred to SS by a whole raft of concerned people, most social workers are struggling under a huge caseload and don't want to make work where there is no need too but they do have to check this sort of thing out.

School should have discussed it with you but they had a duty to pass it on to children's services to investigate- it is not the school's remit to do that.
Why would your son have said that do you think?

I think society has become almost parodied so everything is reported. I odd not know the full facts in this case but there are incidents which are reported to sw which should not have got that far

Pointy the point is that it is not for teachers or nurses doctors or the local vicar etc to decide if there is a genuine cause for concern. SWs train extensively in this area and work only in this field, teachers and others will not have have the necessary knowledge to make an informed decision, know what procedures have to be undertaken, very important if there is something going on and the police have to be involved (I'm not saying there is OP) or the time to investigate properly. It's also inapproate for a teacher to investigate because of the nature of a parent pupil teacher relationship.
It's hard for the OP but this is the only way we can try and prevent any more children suffering like Daniel Pelker, Baby P Victoria Climbie.
If we save 1 extra child then it's right to investigate many who have done nothing.

The issue here is that a punch to the head from an adult is a criminal assault and puts a child at significant risk of harm/death. The school couldn't not have referred this really.

"Daddy smacked my bum" or "Daddy pushed me" would probably have meant the school calling you in and talking to you, but something that carries such a such a risk of serious harm has to be dealt with swiftly. Imagine if they sent a child home without informing social services and the child died that night from a blow to the head?

I'm very surprised at some of the teachers on here would speak to parents first - I was always taught number one rule of potential abuse was never to notify the abuser about a disclosure. IMO the school did absolutely the right thing in passing the disclosure on a leaving it to the professionals to investigate the claims.
I hope your ss visit goes ok op but don't be cross at the school they're just following correct procedure.