School and ss

[BigRedLondonBus]

Today I picked up my son from school and was told to instead go to the office, there I was taken to a room with his teacher and another member of staff. Apparently my son told them I leave my dd (8) at home alone when I drop him to school in the mornings, no idea why he told them this! This has never happened and even if it did it isn’t illegal, but they have called them social services on me over it. I’m thinking this is extremely heavy handed. They didn’t even speak to me first to check. Is this normal procedure for schools? I obviously told them
It didn’t happen (dd has been ill recently so hasn’t been at school) my sister watches her who lives 5 minutes away. Dd was also with me when I went down to the school. I know ss will be visiting now but I just don’t get why they didn’t ask me first.

School should have asked you for clarification and taken the response into account when deciding whether to refer to the MASH team.

Again, not true. Safeguarding concerns should be referred to the MASH or similar, who will then make the decision to ask the referrer to discuss it with the parent if safe to do so.

Having said that, I don’t think this incident warranted a referral to children’s services. I would have phoned the parent first (DSL here).

Aren't there any guidelines for schools to know what justifies a report to SS?

Yes - schools in my LA use the levels of need framework and DSLs are re-trained every year to ensure their understanding and knowledge is up to date.

Oh well OP, the school will have to be on best behaviour moving forward. I'd be minded to ask for a copy of their safeguarding policy and if there is any variance from it I would write to the chair of governors.

The school’s safeguarding policy should be on the website and parents should be reading policies anyway, not just when they have a disagreement with the school!

Seems to be mixed opinions on whether it’s standard procedure or not, hmm. It’s a 10 minute walk, less than a mile. No additional needs. The reasons I’m “justifying it” is that I don’t think leaving an 8 year old home alone requires ss report as I’ve looked it up online and it seems it’s perfectly acceptable and up to the parents to decide. I just think it’s abit much without speaking to me, maybe what he said was taken out of context or taken the wrong way, I don’t know, he won’t explain what was said or why so it’s hard to understand

As others have said, 'report to SS' doesn't mean your child will be taken away (or even any action will be taken), it's just one flag that will build up a bigger picture.

I had something similar happen when DS was playing a bit enthusiastically and knocked a full cup of hot tea over himself. We took him to A&E and they told us it would be reported as a safeguarding concern.

We got a phone call from a rather bored-sounding health visitor who told us to keep an eye on it and take him back to hospital if the burn looked like it was infected.

Point is, that in itself wasn't anything to worry about, but if it kept happening, or other injuries had happened, it might have been.

I knew that, but it was still horrible at the time.

(FWIW, I agree with you though - nothing wrong with leaving an eight-year-old on their own for half an hour if they're a sensible kid.)