Targeted Social services

[Lovemusic33]

Will keep this brief as I don't want to give away too much detail.

Has anyone been targeted by social services, child/ren put on at risk register, social services finding things that are not there??

Social services called due to child having too much time off school and neighbour reporting hearing parent shout at child on several occasions. Social services go to house and pick apart the family finding problems that are not there, child ends up on at risk register, social services asking parents to jump through hoops, turning their lives upside down.

Child shows no sign of abuse, seems happy, clean and confident.

I always assumed that social services were there to help people and not make up a load of rubbish to try and destroy a family??

What legal rights to social services actually have?? If they have no hard proof where do they stand? Where do the parents stand?

Has anyone else had experience of this?

If they've put the child on the at risk register then they've found problems that are there the vast majority of the time. Occasionally mistakes are made.

It's SS job to investigate all that you've described. The powers they have are quite complex but they're job is to offer support as well as investigate allegations of harm to children and vulnerable adults.

Their

A social worker cannot just go into a house and decree that a child is at risk. There has to be proof, a lot of it, and a lot of professionals are consulted beforehand, with people much higher than the family social worker making the final decision.

Are you the parent OP? If so, maybe if you added a little about the issues people could offer you some concrete advice about how to deal with the issues that SS have said there is, which is the best option on these situations. It's hard to not just see SS and rail against them, but generally if you work with them you get much further, much faster.

I know of families, who have children with additional needs, and they've had various intrusive and threatening visits from these not very helpful Social Workers.

I would suggest they take advice, keep all communication in letters/email, but, if they answer the phone, confirm everything they speak about in a follow up letter/email.

Lots of people have no idea that Social Workers aren't always there to be helpful. There's ulterior motives.

Good luck.

Thank you, I am not the parent in question but it is a relative, this is why I can't give too much detail. As far as I can see their are obvious concerns due to the child not attending school which alerted social services to the family, after social services became involved a support network was set up to help get the child to school each day ( people offered to help) and for the last half term the child was going to school, social services were concerned about the house being untidy and then a neighbour reported hearing a lot of shouting. These issues have been discussed at meetings and social services have offered support to the family and suggested a parenting class, then then decided it was best to put them on the 'at risk register' since then social services have been picking away at tiny things and accusing them of all sorts of things.

Obviously there are reasons for social services to be involved but the way they seem to be looking for more things to pin on them instead of concentrating on helping them seems to be unfair. Their are solicitors involved and there's a chance it will go to court, the solicitor has already pointed out that there is no evedence of what is being said other than the school issue and the fact their has been some shouting aimed at the child.

I have very recent reports full of lies, absolute lies, all provable which SS wrote about my family.

Ihave, what was the end result or is it still ongoing? I don't understand why they do this .i always assumed they were there to help and to keep families together now I am beginning to wonder how many children are in care that shouldn't be?

I understand that it seems very harsh, and that's because in one way it is, they're there to protect the child (in this case), not make the parents feel better. Sometimes both can be done, but the child always has to be the priority.

There are social workers out there who shouldn't do that job and who don't care, make things up and just want to cause problems, to deny they exist would be idiotic - but mostly they do the job because they want to protect the vulnerable and make a positive difference.

Every child has a right to education. That'll be the principle SS are following when looking at a child not attending school regularly. And it is a Child Protection issue. A child not attending school can also be a big indicator of further problems within the home.

It's unlikely that any social worker would sign a family off after one or two review meetings anyway once they've become involved. Anybody can straighten themselves up for a month or two. And sliding back often doesn't happen all at once.

Has the child been put on the child protection register? If so, have they had a CP review or only an initial conference? I understand if you don't ant to say. Answers could help people explain what's going on. A review would usually be around 3-6 months after initial conference in my area which is longer than a school term. It could just be that there had been no review yet.

The child is on the child protection register, there has been a cp review, there will be review in a couple months too access the situation to see if the child should remain on the child protection register. I understand that not sending a child to school is a huge red flag, there are issues that need to be sorted ( school being the main issue ). I have not read the report myself so I don't know all the details but apparently there are things in the report that are not true. Our concern is that the child may be taken from them due to the things in the report that are not true. The family needs social services to help the not shoot them down even more. I do feel they'd need I put from social services ( I'm not against them completely and I know they can offer a lot of support and help ).

As far as I know it will be reviewed every 3 months until they feel the child is safe or they can take it to court to remove the child?

lovemusic, with the greatest of respect the parents are of course going to say that the concerns of ss are unfounded and that they're is nothing wrong with their parenting.

As I said earlier, don't be concerned that they haven't buggered off after one or two reviews, not many social workers would even if everything appeared perfect.

Is it possible that social services are offering support to the parents and you're not being told of it, either because the parents aren't sharing - often people need someone close to rant to in situations like this and so don't admit that they are being offered support, or don't admit how dire the situation was in the first place.

No matter what the circumstances, the parents should try to cooperate as much as possible, keep copies of all correspondence and keep a log of all contact with professionals in case someone makes a mistake (intentional or not). They should ask to be sent copies of all minutes/similar for their records. If they find something amiss it should be flagged up immediately, ideally in writing. Always try to keep a paper trail.

Try not to get concerned with the child being removed just yet. Social services don't make that final decision, a judge does, and it is never made lightly, and if everything is as you believe it is, it is incredibly unlikely that a judge would rule for that to happen, every other avenue would be explored first including putting the children with family.

If you don't live in the house with the child OP with the greatest respect then you may not have the full picture.

Still on going Ilove
I'd be here all year day if I even tried to explain, so I won't, but they definitely do lie, just one gem, "Dd's Dad has legal and parental responsibility for her".
That's not even possible in Scottish law as it was when dd was born.

Sorry, Lovemusic, got your name wrong!

Thank you everyone.
I have had access to the words from the CP conference ( I have only read them today ), from what I can see social services are doing a lot to help but the parents ( mainly the mother ) has not been complying, she has refused social services into the home and has refused drug tests apparently due to anxiety, this gives social services cause for concern.

Is there anything in the document that mentions court proceedings or seeking a court order?

Is there anything in the document that seems like it's not true?

There is a mention of court as a last option ( if they don't comply with what social services are asking and if there are no signs of improvement ).

As far as I can see there's nothing in there that's not true as such. Apparently other things were mentioned at the meeting but these were proved to be untrue by the solicitor, these things are not in the report or they have been explained in the report to have a reason not linked to neglect ( hope that makes sense ).

'If there are no signs of improvement' sounds like a key phrase. I would advise your friend to try and make improvements for the child with the issues ss are concerned about.

If the child is on the cp register, ss aren't going to bugger off. They have a legal obligation to follow up and make sure the child is protected.

You probably don't have the full picture. It sounds like there'd be no disadvantage to the child if the SS action items were put in place - so if in doubt, do them.

If your friend can't/won't do what ss are asking, maybe you could support her by helping to think of other things to do to improve the situation for the child with the issues ss are concerned about. You mentioned a support system for getting the child to school. Maybe you could think of similar systems for the other areas of concern.

If SS has been refused access into the home and a drugs test has been refused then this sounds alarm bells.

I know in our area Child Protection reports tend to have a standard paragraph at the end, something along the lines of "failure to comply with the child protection plan means that legal advice will be sought". Is it something like that?

It's to let families know that CP plans are there for a serious reason. Plans by other agencies such as family support don't lead to legal proceedings if they are not complied with.

If it's got to the level of a CP plan then previous support has probably been ignored.

If doesn't mean that legal proceedings have begun, just that they may do if improvements are not seen for the children.

It may never get to that level if the family make the changes necessary to improve matters for the children. The power lies with them, the CP plan shouldn't be asking them to do the impossible (and if it is it can be challenged).