Child's father has been recently convicted. Will social services be involved now?

[ChilliGlaze]

My child's father sees our son every other weekend. He has recently been convicted of assault. No jail time, just community service, fine etc. The crime is not child or DV related. He has previous convictions for drugs and violence prior to us having a child.

He recently asked for our child's birth certificate as his probation officer wants it. I'm reluctant to trust him with it..

Either way it has got me wondering. Will social services be involved as he has been convicted of a crime whilst being a parent? Is it only child abuse and DV they get automatically involved in? If they were involved and my child is now on a vulnerable/protected child order would they contact me to make me aware?

He'd never tell me if something like this was going on and there were concerns for our child. Not sure if I can contact social services to see if we're now on their radar.

He can order one himself for roughly £10.

The child is in your care, they won't put the child on an order without speaking to you. My advice is stop the contact though, he is on a slippery slope and social services will get involved if he continues to offend.

Oh and my child's dad has been convicted of child abuse, social services called me and asked me if he had contact, I said no and that was that. Didn't hear from them again.

If the circumstances are as you say then I cannot imagine that children’s services would need to get involved.

If he was violent to others in front of your son or if the incident involved a minor it would be a different matter.

Social services won't automatically get involved unless it's a crime that has taken place in front of or puts children at risk. As PP said, tell him to get his own copy of the birth certificate.

Don’t give him the birth certificate that sounds more for a passport application.

Assault, violence and drugs are good grounds to stop contact and tell SS why

@IAAP makes a good point. What if he wants it for something else? I can’t imagine a probation officer actually needing it. You don’t need one to make a referral to children’s services.

Have pm'd you

As a probation officer of many years, I can’t say I’ve ever requested a copy of a birth certificate for a child (open to the fact I may have been doing my job wrong for years but don’t think I have been.) As part of his induction he’d have been asked to fill out some paperwork with the children a details, DOB, where the reside, and if there’s been any social services involvement previously. This will likely have happened at court as well but as standard I would supply the childrens and fathers details and complete a check with social services to confirm they are/aren’t currently involved. The PO may well want to make a referral to social services, I can’t really comment without knowing more about his situation, however that would in ideal circumstances be discussed with him prior to the referral actually being made (unless they believe the children would be at increased risk if he was aware the referral was happening.)

I'd say that if his probation officer want it, he needs to give you the officers contact details so you can ask them yourself - and by details I mean an official email or a name which can call through probation office. Then talk to them yourself and if its legit (which its probably not, offer to send them a scan/copy).
But he needs to give you a name, for you to contact through official channels so you know he hasn't given you a mates name who will pretend for him.

As he has parental responsibility there is nothing I can do to stop him from obtaining his own copy of the birth certificate, for whatever reason he may want. I just don't want him to have the original and lose it.

The only reason I can think of that a probation officer may want it is if he's trying to dodge community service/classes by claiming he has child care commitments and responsibilities and they want proof he actually has a child.

I'd like to think that if there is SS involvement they'd contact me though I don't know how they'd get my details. Through previous HV appointments, GP, birth notes I suppose.

My guts telling me they wont be involved as the crime isn't related to DV, sexual assault or minors.

I'm going to try to contact children's SS to see if my son is known to them, I don't want any nasty surprises if we're in A&E one day or something like that and they tell me he's flagged as a vulnerable child!

Has your child got a passport? If not, I would apply for one now, in case that’s why he’s asking for the birth certificate. He might just be using the probation officer as an excuse.

@TheBakedPototo thank you for this useful information. He said as our child is under 5 he needs the full original birth certificate. All sounds a bit iffy to me.

We've never had any social services input before so hopefully those checks came back clear, they've not made a referral and we're not on the radar. It's not a bad thing to be referred to social services where its required of course, just fills me with anxiety that this may be going on without me knowing.

Op, you would know if social services were involved. They may have had referrals but they obviously know your child is safe or they would have contacted you. Do not give him your child's birth certificate, if they want it, they will contact you themselves. My children's father hasn't got my children's birth certificates and hes awaiting sentencing for child abuse, no one has ever asked for them and 2 of them were under 5 at the time of the offence.

I find it very odd that a probation officer would ask for a birth certificate of someone that isn’t their client. These are highly personal documents and I wouldn’t be too keen on giving my child’s birth certificate to anyone, regardless of their profession. If they want proof that he has a child, surely there are ways to get this info, a call to social services would be enough, I’d think. I agree with pp that it might be a case of him trying to get a passport for your DC. Apply for one yourself ASAP.

1 in 3 men have a criminal record.

Do you really think social services are involved with all their children?

No. Criminal convictions do not lead to social services involvement unless it is a crime with endangers the children.

Did you have any luck contacting social services @ChilliGlaze ? I’m glad you found that reassuring, I just can’t see any reason he’d need to supply it… even if he was trying to dodge UPW there’s so much flexibility with things like project in a box and a 30% education allowance - there’d be a way to work around ‘childcare’ if that’s what he claimed. Potentially an evening programme he’s trying to avoid? But even then a BC wouldn’t evidence t he e has childcare commitments.

I really do think you’d know if there’d been a SS referral. I’m wondering if a self referral/chat with early help might reassure you a bit? Could also give you some support in being able to talk to his PO on your behalf?