Any social workers around?

[Stealthynamechange]

Hi
Could do with some impartial thoughts & advice please.
DP currently in court with his ex regarding contact with his dc (3) she has alledged abuse, & abuse of dc during supervised contact. She has denied him contact since they split. Police found no case to answer. Social worker is putting together initial report. I know he did nothing wrong & have no concerns. I've known him for years & have seen him with his dc. We want to live together but i have young dc also. Would social services need to be involved with my dc if we do live together?

Anyone?

Has the court held a finding of fact hearing to establish the facts of the allegations?
Is the social worker from the local authority or Cafcass? If the LA, then the children must have been open to the LA recently or have had a long history of social care involvement. If this is the case and the concerns are about your partner, they may become involved with your children also. If it’s Cafcass writing the report, no they won’t, unless they uncover concerns during the process of their assessment.

The threshold for SS being involved is lower than the evidence needed to convict someone. How sure are you that he wasnt abusive. If SS are involved with his children they will probably want to be involved with you to.

It will depend on the nature and the severity of the facts proved. If he denies the allegations the court will have to investigate the truth of them. A social worker is often asked to write a 'section 7' report to help the court about general welfare issues.

If its really serious then a 'section 37 report' may be needed, but thats to ask if the LA should be thinking about care proceedings.

This is a fairly common situation sadly when parents split up. Sometimes the allegations are malicious, sometimes they are exaggerated and sometimes they are true. You will have to take what the court says very seriously.

If serious allegations are found to be true then it could have implications for his continued involvement with your children.

Thanks all.
I'm 100% certain hes not abusive. Allegations are ridiculous e.g hitting dc with stick in fully supervised contact session where supervisors reported no concerns.
It hasnt gone to fact finding yet although i think it will.
The social worker is local authority, cafcass closed their case & have no involvement. Its section 7 report thats been requested.
My concern is more that my ex will use anything to take my dc from me & would use this if social services become involved.

Do be cautious. You can't say anyone is 'no' risk. There may be things that have happened that you don't know about and you may be criticised if you adopt a 'I absolutely know nothing happened' approach unless you have all the information.

Usually, the best we can do is say a risk is 'low', 'medium' or 'high'.

But your ex will not be able to rely upon allegations which are not accepted or not found to be true.

The problem is however that sorting out a court hearing to decide if allegations are true or not can take ages, so sometimes everyone errs on side of caution and restricts contact etc, just to be safe.

If the local authority are writing the S7, that means that the children were open to social care at some point probably recently, with an allocated social worker, and the concerns about them would have met the social care threshold for assessment, which is usually high. So you do need to be prepared that there may be things you do not know, and keep an open mind about the possible impact on your children. You might want to reconsider moving in together until more is known.

Thanks all, i'm definitely mindful that no one is zero risk & having seen him with his dc & mine i feel they are safe with him. However i will delay moving in until things are more resolved with court/his ex etc

Why was the contact supervised?

Court ordered it as his ex had stopped all contact, then reported concerns. The court papers said aim would be for overnights but this was starting point whilst concerns investigated. (All investigated & cleared). His ex makes up something new each time there is contact despite witnesses to the contary as in example above.