Child protection conference

[Biscuits1011]

Anyone here who can help and answer some questions please?

It's risky asking for advice about a CPC on here as anyone with professional knowledge will be cautious about giving bad advice.
I can give you information about the processes if that helps?

Big room , lots of professionals from depending how old children are healthvistors , school, police, midwives etc
You and partner or someone to support
Everyone will put there case /opinions forward
Family history, why they think cpp should be in place.
There may be parts you don't get to listen to.
Then decision
Then review dates.

I'm going off past experience 10 years ago so maybe rusty /out of date.

That would be great thank you. I will try and give a bit of background.

ex has our children majority of the time. I am non resident parent. Not court ordered, but an agreement between us. Over the years, there has been quite a few mash reports about him. Ss were involved with him for a while, then they said no need anymore.. then something happened and he got into some trouble, police involved. Kids were in the house. Ss ended up bringing the children to me, and telling me to have them for now, he have supervised visits, while they do a section 47. So they are currently wothb

Posted too soon lol. They are currently with me. They’ve just decided a child protection conference is happening soon. I’m invited along with ex. They’ve never said anything about any concerns about me.. I’ve never had any reports or anything but I’m really worried about the whole thing so any advice or guidance would be amazing

When is the conference? What date?
Phone the social worker and ask some of the questions that you have, today.

You should have already been given a letter and a pack, detailing the reasons for the CPC. If you haven't politely complain/ask sw'er for it as a matter of urgency.

All the CPCs I attend currently are on TEAMS

It’s in 6 days. Have had no pack or anything just an email to say that it’s happening. Social worker is coming over tomorrow to do an assessment she said? But other than that I have no idea what’s going on

It sounds like they are worried about the children returning to his care or the level or type of contact he will have with them.
just because you have the children now doesn't mean they will skip off into the sunset and not see you again. They will want to put a plan in place to ensure long term safety and stability.
You've not taken the children into your care despite previous mash referrals and they will probably want to explore what you knew, what your parenting capacity is and how protective you are.

This is another thing, I find teams/zoom all really difficult and would much prefer face to face.

She should be sharing the assessment tomorrow, not doing it. You are entitled to see the report 5 working days before the conference. You're entitled to take someone with you as a support.

They absolutely should offer face to face if you ask for it

Sorry this is wrong, it's 3 working days for an initial conference and 5 for a review

This makes sense, thank you. I’ll be prepared to answer these questions then. I’m not worried about ss being involved for a while, they don’t worry me, this conference does though.

You should've ideally already had the pack - letter and reasons for the cpc. You read through it and then you are aware what their concerns are. Sending you in blind is unfair. Phone her today and ask for it.

Also I didn’t know about all the mash referrals. I was not told about all of them when they happened. No one contacted me. I’ve only recently found out about there being several. And the one I did know about, ss investigated and said all was well and no need for anymore involvement.

Do you think she will be bringing it tomorrow maybe?

@MaireadMcSweeney this is simply not true.

Where I work they will not offer face to face just because you ask for it

OP there is no reason why you would be told of MASH referrals

These will be from the public or professionals and are acted on (or not) accordingly

Your SW will likely discuss these at conference

We work to 'signs of safety' so professional will score your level of risk and their reasons.
Depending on the chair you may be allowed to score but it won't count in the total

The social worker we have, she’s a lovely lady but we’ve got a bit of a language barrier going on, her accent can be very hard to understand, I find it much easier face to face with her than over the phone. So I know I’ll just not understand anything if it’s over teams or zoom 😩. I will ask for face to face

Be organise. Write down times and dates of things you know. Have you got emails, or was it just a phone call, to tell you the mash referral was ok.

Pretend you were a private investigator, see it as a case, get any evidence you have sorted today.

Please phone them today. Your call will be logged onto the case. This will make a big difference. Please demand a copy asap. You will then be able to tell the chair of the conference, who hopefully will be sympathetic, how the case has been mismanaged.

Please be proactive. Don't assume she's going to bring it. If you don't ask, most likely she'll turn up tomorrow without it. Ring up today and ask for it. Please. Also tell her, I'm so sorry but I find your accent very strong and have trouble understanding you.

Why am I being scored though? Why would I be a risk? I have never had any reports on me, and ss have told me they are not concerned about me, but about what happened with the ex, and things that have happened before relating to him. I just don’t understand any of it 😳

I will message her now as we find it easier over texts, she is aware I find her difficult to understand sometimes so we often text or email instead. So I will do that now about the pack. Thank you

I fear / bet you that even if you ask she will come up with some reason why it's not ready and she can't bring it tomorrow. They don't like it when you have all weekend to read it and digest it.
I fear it won't even be sent out in the post till Monday and then by the time you receive it, if you even do with Royal Mail these days!, you might only have a few hours to digest it, that night, before the conference the next day.

They should.
it's completely unacceptable to keep child protection conferences virtual for the convenience of the chair and professionals. We have them hybrid so if parents want to come face to face they can.