Page 4 | Who is responsible (child protection scenario)

TheLimeQuail · 2025-05-14T18:37:17+00:00

Parent has 3 children removed from their care. Changes identity and moves away. Has another child under their new name that they then assault and hospitalise. Could this have been prevented

HotDogKetchup · 15/05/2025 20:19

A good point re NHS numbers. Isn’t it the midwives who alert social services - what prompts do they get besides asking?

Neurodiversitydoctor · 15/05/2025 20:46

geekygardener · 15/05/2025 20:07

My little girl has two NHS numbers. One of them contains her records and history the other is completely clear for now. She is seeing specialists at the hospital and they told me they don’t have any history or record for her to look at her previous weight and height. I obviously explained the above and provided a background but they never questioned it and simply stated they have no history so would need to monitor her weight starting now. If I had not volunteered the info then that would have been that.

I am also aware that system one does not always link up between services. Health visitors can’t always access GP records for example. Often hospitals have different records to the GP. It’s got something to do with different parts/versions of system one. It is not one big open data base that can be accessed by all staff in every nhs service across the country.

Children’s services do not have a system that links to nhs records or probation records either. Many local authorities use entirely different systems. So one area next to another could likely have totally different recording systems and they definitely can’t access each other’s. Any information sharing from one area to the next and from health services to children’s services etc has to be requested by individual staff through email.

There was talk at one point in the recent past of allowing social workers to have access to people’s medical records but it never happened. Many people thought it was a huge invasion of privacy and human rights etc very big brother. I don’t see how it would have worked anyway given other NHS organisations can’t even see each other’s records.

Nobody should have 2 NHS numbers this must be an error.

geekygardener · 16/05/2025 00:27

@Neurodiversitydoctor yes it is. Somewhere in the nhs world they created a whole new nhs number and file and person pretty much. There is a number/file for her from birth up to age 8 then it’s as if she vanished and then a new one entirely from 8 as if an 8 year old just appeared from thin air one day. It’s actually a nightmare because I struggle to book her appointments, view letters or anything else really. Trying to get it sorted out and everything put into one file/number is like pulling teeth. I have given up

Neurodiversitydoctor · 16/05/2025 04:27

geekygardener · 16/05/2025 00:27

@Neurodiversitydoctor yes it is. Somewhere in the nhs world they created a whole new nhs number and file and person pretty much. There is a number/file for her from birth up to age 8 then it’s as if she vanished and then a new one entirely from 8 as if an 8 year old just appeared from thin air one day. It’s actually a nightmare because I struggle to book her appointments, view letters or anything else really. Trying to get it sorted out and everything put into one file/number is like pulling teeth. I have given up

The hispital need to sort this out, it will be Chilld Heath Services or CHIS.

SD1978 · 16/05/2025 04:31

Social services are not the police. There is t a register you go on for child abuse. They moved, changed their name and I’m not sure how you think they can be tracked down. If there wasn’t police conditions to report where they were, a service like child protection have absolutely no power to do so.

cheesychipsontheoche · 16/05/2025 06:05

There is no central register as mentioned above - a pp was referring to contact point which was planned to be a centralised register holding a massive amount of info on children but it got pulled prior to full roll out. I remember doing the training for it.
another pp has mentioned cpis - where health professionals can check with an LA for previous child protection involvement but if a person had changed their name or not disclosed previous children this would not routinely be checked or flag up.
social services can only make enquiries on people referred in. They can’t continue to monitor parents who have had children removed once those children have permanence elsewhere. there is no legislative basis to do so.

Doingmybest12 · 16/05/2025 07:52

I just want to say social care and child health are actually pretty good at keeping tabs, working together to piece things together in their areas , know their local populations (although this is diminished with many authorities not having local intake teams now ) but this is despite the lack of joined up information and only works in so far as some genuine information is shared by the family or network around them or someone happens to come across a person or scenario they recognise and can dig out a link from data available.