Need some advice ... who should my brother contact re welfare of his daughter...Sorry it's long!

[helppleasehelp]

My brother has a 10yr old daughter who lives with her mum and half siblings.
My brother is not named on her birth certificate - as the mum was married at the time and put her husbands name on there.
The ex husband has custody of the eldest child and the 4 others are with the mum.
It is accepted by all that my brother is the father of the youngest although no DNA test has been carried out to prove this.
The mother has a history of drink/drug/prescribed medication abuse and social services have been involved previously with the family although as I understand it they are not visiting at the moment.

My brother got a call from the eldest child to say that the youngest (his daughter) was having mad ramblings and acting strangely. He went round to check and she seemed ok so sent her back in to her mum. (who refused to come out & speak to my brother)
Then in the following conversation with the eldest child it transpires that my niece hurt her ankle at the weekend and her mum gave her one of her prescribed painkillers - she could not recall anything she had done on that day.Then on that day she had a sore throat so her mum had given her a tablet - what itwas we don't know.
The mum is picking up her prescribed medication for the week and taking it all in 2 days - rendering her totally incapable of looking after the kids.
They have no clean clothes to wear are missing lots of school ( my neice has not had a full week at school in 7 mths)
My brother had been in contact with the school and asked that they contact him in the morning should my niece be abscent from school. (prior to finding all this out)

Who should he contact? social services?
Would the kids be put into care or placed with their fathers?
Or will my niece go to the father named on her birth certificate?
Obviously this would not be a problem as long as we knew she was safe.

Sorry it's so long.

He needs to contact social services as these children sound as though they are at risk of harm. Social services will then do an assessment, if they find that the children are at risk, then they may be taken into care but this really does depend on a number of factors. It's difficult to say where they will be taken, ss will contact their father. At the moment, your nieces legal father is the one named on the birth certificate. It will be down to your brother to prove that he is the true father (DNA test). I think your brother needs to contact a family solicitor.

bump

thanks aveanap

he said he thought he should contact a solicitor but was worried that may take some time.

Can he get in touch with the father of his dd's half sibs? It might be better if they worked together on this.

They are in contact so this would probably be a good idea - as his kids are involved too.

thanks ib

I would contact social services first because it does sound like they need to intervene. They will do an assessment and will have to decide whether the children are at risk. If they are deemed as being at risk they will be placed on a register. They will then have meetings with school/health visitor etc and work out a plan of either support for the family or removal of the children. It does take time, however in extreme cases then this is speeded up. There's no quick fix for this I'm afraid. SS are very reluctant to remove children from their parents as this is seen as not the best thing for the children.

The solicitor should be able to advise him what to do about the birth certificate. It's only documentation but the onus is on your brother to prove that he is the natural father as the law takes it at face value that the husband/man named as the father is the biological father. He may wish to follow this through and then apply for custody.

The very first thing that he needs to do and the most important is to contact either social services or the NSPCC who will also notify social services. I wouldn't leave this from the information that you have put here.