My partner has a son, 4, from a previous relationship.
Mother was arrested for child neglect in 2022 (child was 2) after he escaped from the house and almost drowned. Home was inspected and found to be "an environment of neglect" that posed "significant risk to the child".
Police stated that this was the second time in 1.5 weeks they had been called for the same reason. She hadn't noticed he had left the house. They also said a missing report was filed from him when he was 1, one year earlier.
There was a Section 47 issued, which concluded as follows:
"Decision: Claims substantiated, but the child is NOT judged to be at a continuing risk of significant harm"
Despite the claims being substantiated, the case was not referred to the child protection conference.
Is this right?
We have renewed concerns about him having escaped again (voice recordings) earlier this year, as well as pictures that confirm that the house is once again unfit for children. He's also complaining about being hungry all the time and hiding food to take back with him to her house. We've told social services who have just said they don't have the resources to help (!). They had a phone convo with the mother, who said everything was untrue, and that was the end of it.
We can exercise PR, but social services advised against this unless something else happened. The voice recordings were taken in March and we didn't act based on some (clearly) terrible advice - they told us to "just have a chat with mum".
We don't feel justified just keeping him at this point as things seem relatively stable. All mention of being hungry, and his house being a mess, occurred in March. A few days ago, however, we received a photo of his living room (mother is usually careful to only take photos of child outside...) where piles of boxes are clearly visible, also indicative of a return to the previous state.
He has a half-sibling who he is close with living there too. We've spoken to 3 family lawyers now who have all said the court won't split up the siblings and so to not go to court, unless something else "big" were to happen - i.e. he escapes again. It seems he has, but his sibling found him, not the police, so it was never recorded. All we have are the voice recordings.
I'm at a loss! We've contacted everyone and no one is helping.