To cut a very long story short, my husbands daughter is 5 and a half and we have a court order in place to see her every other weekend and agreed times during school holiday. Just over 2 years ago Social services were involved due to some concerns regarding her Mums ability to look after her. She was living with a violent partner, using drugs and arguing and fighting in front of her daughter (she was approx 2.5 at the time) It was actually her parents who contacted the police & Social services initially as she was suffering from domestic abuse. She also has bi polar and BDP which she was not taking medication for at the time and it was obviously also impacting on the situation.
There were various other things as well. Social services got involved and she agreed for her daughter to temporarily live with her Grandparents (as they live very close to her) for the duration of the investigation with supervised visits (this ended up being 10 months) After all the parenting assessments and everything were out of the way it went to court and they ruled with the decision of Cafcass for her to go home to her Mum. A plan was put in place for the future and a 12 month supervision order (which ended in May 2020) My husband fully supported his daughter going back to Mums care as she adores her Mum and we thought a robust support plan was in place to stop the same situation arising in the future.
During the supervision order we reported a few concerns to Social services regarding her being back with her partner, the house smelling of Cannabis when we dropped my step daughter home. She has very bad asthma and always has a cough and they smoke in the house. It was followed up but nothing ever came of any of it and all that happened was it caused a breakdown in communication between my husband and his ex where she would stop him speaking to his daughter on the phone during the week.
We eventually stopped reporting anything as we also didn't want my stepdaughter to get in trouble for telling us, we were worried that she would stop telling us things, so we started logging everything that she told us. some things were more concerning that others but she told us on 2 separate occasions that her Mums new partner who came on the scene before the supervision order ended had hit her Mum and made her cry and that she had tried to throw her teddys at him to get him off her Mum. (This was coming from a nearly 4 year old at the time) We made Social services aware that a new partner was living at the property and she denied it. It wasn't looked into any further.
We haven't reported anything to Social Services since the beginning of last year, but over the weekend my stepdaughter disclosed some things that have been happening at her Mums house. She hasn't mentioned violence for over a year, just arguing and shouting, She told us a detailed story (which I wont go into) about her Mum hitting her partner and that he kicked her Mum in the tummy. She also said that we cant tell anyone as her Mum said she will get taken away. She said she isn't allowed to tell her friends at school or her Nan and Grandad as they will be angry with her Mum.
My husband called 101 as we were unsure what to do for the best. they sent a police officer to our house and they spoke to my husband and then asked to speak to my step daughter. He was so good with her and she told him what happened in the house. He referred it to Social services. My husband told his ex he had called the police and that they would be doing a welfare check and she was nice as pie ( which is unusual) and said that her daughter had made the whole thing up and she was so upset she had said all this....and she doesn't ever have even a disagreement in front of her daughter...also asked us when they would be coming so she could make sure she was home. She also said does she not like me??... why is she saying this??
The next evening we received a phone call from her and she was going absolutely mad asking why her daughter had spoken to the police without her permission (which we hadn't mentioned) and also that Social were involved now and her anxiety was really bad and that we will never have a good relationship if we go behind her back. She then messaged after wards saying her partner had left her now and he was insulted by what her daughter had said...and didnt want anything to do with her anymore as he didnt want his name involved in Social Services. My husband explained he was worried about her just as much as his daughter and that if she has indeed lied about all of this then we need to get to the bottom and understand why. She hung up and has ignored our phone calls and messages since. We dropped her to school on Monday and her Mum would have been picking her up so we are obviously a bit worried in case her Mum has told her off for telling us what is happening at home. We have heard nothing from Social Services so my husband has called them today for an update.
I suppose I just wondered what happens now really... We are both so worried about her. My husband is also feeling guilty that he fully supported a plan with her returning to her Mum and we are now back in this situation. Any advice would be great!