Child Protection Conference Chair

[AgainstInjustice1]

I am wondering whether anyone knows if you can request to change the
Child Protection Conference chair, they are very inconsiderate, biased towards social workers, even praising the social worker when you prove that they are lying - just to make the social worker look good, when everyone in the room realises that they're liars -, do not allow you to talk and seem to carry on the false issues to keep their job.

Secondly, false statements are kept in the report, which when asked why are they still there, the chair hints that they would want to keep them, I cannot go into too many details, but let's say for example this statement claims 'it was suspected you are the wife of Bill Gates' and it proves to not be true, why would they keep it there? Of course in this context it keeps a negative connotation.

I would also like to complain about this

if you feel this is impacting your child in a negative way, your child is entitled to an advocate. Contact Coram Voice, NYAS or maybe you have a local service? They should be able to give you advice on behalf of your child. Are you still the carer?

child protection chairs are suppose to be independent. I would check your local authorities protocol to see how to make a complaint about the chair and request change, usually on reports there is a part at the end for parent/carer feedback where you can state what you don’t believe is true. You can also ask for an advocate to come with you if you feel you are not being heard.

@PersilPower Thank you

@kkneat Thank you, the most amusing thing is that, an advocate does attend, and often cut off too.

They have also not yet delivered the report, which I find very amusing too, just as they made up lies before the meeting to not give one too.

Maybe have a look on here I often given this link out to parent/carers
childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/child-protection-case-conference-and-child-protection-plans/

They are meant to be independent but as I understand it, they often work for the same LA in the same department so I'd question their independence myself.

They usually work for the same authority but in a different department.
They usually are experienced social workers by background.

Meetings are usually quite structured with everyone getting a turn to talk but not always being able to talk out of sequence.
If you aren't getting a chance to talk at any point you should definitely complain.

By report do you mean the SW report ? The LA I worked in had minutes of the meeting taken and they formed the basis of the case conference report. So if someone states something in the conference it would go into the minutes and wouldn't be removed.

The most effective solution may be to build good relationships with your SW and other related professionals as they are the people who make the decisions, the chair really only oversees the structure.

Honestly, I would get your advocate to make a complaint on the child's behalf. If they are being cut off from sharing the child's view, then there's a complaint to be made there. Or maybe get them to unpick each element they're unhappy with and ask for a response to each - that way, they can't dodge the issue.

@kkneat Thank you

@listsandbudgets yes their 'independence is very questionable'

@backtobusy the issue is, the SW is not correct and seems to be under the discretion of the Chair, there is definitely a working relationship between the two when things came out. There are problems with the SW.

@PersilPower 100% this is going to happen, also I will challenge the basis of the meeting in the first place. This is a grounds for appeal "That the information on which the conference decision was based proved subsequently to be incorrect.".
However, they have still not provided me with the reports that were made prior to the meeting and the report after the meeting. They are colluding together and this is awful.

I found these two documents useful for anyone who may visit this forum in the future:

greatermanchesterscb.proceduresonline.com/chapters/p_complain_cpc.html

I am also wondering, I do not totally trust that the 'minutes taker' will have everything down precisely, there are marginal details that you need to 'sus' with manipulative people.
Is it possible to record the meeting with voice recordings?

Also another useful link:

www.proceduresonline.com/swcpp/bristol/p_complaints.html

No it is a confidential meeting with an official minute taker, you aren't allowed to record the meetings and couldn't do anything with the recordings if you recorded them illicitly.

The minute takers are usually very good but if you felt there were inaccuracies you could obviously complain about that.

The decision to hold a child protection case conference is going to be based primarily on the level of risk that the professionals working with a family perceive.
The professionals don't always agree on this or have the same information which is one reason for a multidisciplinary meeting.
The outcome of the meeting isn't known before the start.

Are you saying that you didn't receive copies of the professionals reports before the meeting?
You should have had these and can complain about this.
Usually copies of all the reports are shared during the meeting. Do you still not have a copy of them?
Again you can complain about this.

The minutes of the actual meeting can take a little while to come through. But you should be aware of what everyone said at the meeting, what the outcome was and if any further meetings of any level have been booked.

I don't think you can complain to the chair that they held a child protection case conference if social services believed the threshold was met.
They have a responsibility to do this.

Are you saying the chair decided what the outcome of the meeting was rather than each professional present giving their view?

@backtobusy yes, not all the professional reports were not provided and the chair defended this decision.

Ok, which reports are you missing?

Was is a logistical issue that meant the reports weren't shared? Sometimes short timeframes or physical issues cause problems.

Or are you saying that the information was deliberately withheld from you? If it was withheld do you have a reason?

I’m not a SW but do attend CP conferences as part of my work and it normally seems to take a week in our LA for the reports from the initial case conference but you should definitely follow up if you haven’t received them.

@backtobusy Other organisations involved refused to provide the report, for the reason they wanted to give it 'in person' despite telling them to post it through. This is of course part of their conspiring because all previous meeting reports were posted, but this specific report which was full of lies, they kept it away. Still it has not been shown to me.
To which the chair defended (the chair is 100% not impartial) and has a working relationship with this Social Worker, and the chair seems to like for this case to continuously drag on and drag on.

@Pinkandpurplehairedlady thank you, it has been a week. The chair and SW are not very cooperative, who else can I follow up with?

Of course the SW will have a working relationship with the IRO 🙄

The Chair is an Independent Reviewing Officer and you can’t request a change of Chair. Yes, they will have a working relationship with the Social Worker as they work with them in a regular basis, but they will not “collude” with them as you put it. The Chair knows nothing about the case until they are given the file detailing the reason for the conference, and including any written reports available, a few days before hand to read before the Conference.

It’s a legal meeting with an official and trained minute taker so no, you cannot record the meeting.

Not all reports from various agencies will be in written form, some will be given verbally at the meeting and recorded in the minutes, which means there may not be a report for you to have. They are entitled to give their report verbally rather than written if they wish to.

The meeting is recorded fully, including any possible inaccuracies, but if it’s shown that this is incorrect, it will be duly minuted, but the original comment/information will remain in the minutes.

They legally have 20 days to provide you with a copy of the minutes, so you can’t chase anyone up at the minute as the timescale hasn’t been reached yet.

You cannot complain to the Chair that a Child Protection Conference was held, they don’t make the decision as to whether one is held and in fact I don’t think you really have a clue what they’re role is from your comments.

How do you know a report that wasn’t produced at conference is full of lies? it could be possible that their report contains confidential information that cannot be divulged to you - maybe about another parent?

but this specific report which was full of lies, they kept it away. Still it has not been shown to me.
it may be that this report contains confidential information that you are not party to, and was shared on the confidential section of the Child Protection Conference. If it was, you have no right to access that information. Secondly, if you haven’t seen the report, how do you know it was full of lies?

@LadyPenelope68 thank you for your input, however, I totally understand what is happening - is it reasonable for a chair to tell the family that they are not here to be heard?. If the meeting is recorded, and I find the minutes to not have the detail of the chair saying certain things, is the recording saved?
Also I don't respect that you are keen that the conference chair is acting correctly.

@Soontobe60 no, the case is not that complex.

@LadyPenelope68 they spoke about the report in the meeting and said certain things, to which I pointed to was contradictory to what they are discussing :).

FYI, I have been in such meetings before with a prior chair, who was totally ethical and upright in their manner, this new chair is totally violating.

also I would like to add

@LadyPenelope68 you yourself have just said that the chair will have a working relationship with the SW. Do you totally expect that every single chair in the whole country will not develop a friendship bond or a 'good working relationship' with the Social worker that they constantly work with?
In what sense do you think that this is 'impossible' or not going to happen?

Please do not hold this assumption that the SW and Chair are innocent, they could very well be doing injustice in this instance.

Again, I’ll reiterate, you need to educate yourself in the role of the Chair and the specifics of the Child Protection Conference and how it works.

The Chair of the Conference acts as an INDEPENDENT person there to chair the meeting. They may be best buddies or even husband/wife with the Social Worker, but that doesn’t make a bit of difference - the circumstances leading to your child/children being considered at significant risk are investigated by Social Services with supporting information from multi agencies. The Chair is NOT involved in that process whatsoever.

The Chair does NOT make the decision about whether your child/children are placed on the Child Protection Register, that decision is made by all the other professionals at the meeting, it’s a multi-agency decision, not one individuals decision. There may be information that you are not privy to, that’s also influenced the professionals to make their decision.

As for the comment about you are not there to be heard, I would say, in basic terms that is sort of correct. It isn’t really what the Conference is about, it’s not a court of law for you to prove your innocence or guilt. The meeting is about the needs of the child and protecting that child, not your needs. It’s for PROFESSIONALS to share their information and work together to make a decision. You don’t get to have a say in that decision.

i would suggest your priority be focussing on working with agencies involved who are working to protect your children, not picking holes in how the meeting was chaired. Cases don’t go to Conference unless there are considered to be “significant” risk and the decision to place a child on the CPR is not taken lightly and is multi agency.

You mention complaining about the decision. Yes, you can do that but the decision to place on the Register won’t be over-turned (even the links you’ve posted state that), due to the fact that it is a multi agency decision, so unlikely to be the wrong decision.

You can request a change of Chair.

I've been to CP conferences as a professional and given my update verbally. I only send a written report if I am unable to attend in person.