What will social services do?

[ssworries]

What happens if you refuse a CIN (child in need) plan? Will SS automatically escalate it to CP (child protection) because they will claim the parents are now not working with them? Has anyone refused one of these CIN plans or asked to come off one and what was the outcome?

If threshold is met for significant harm then possibly.

But usually if they have recommended CIN and you decline, it will close.

I would urge you to reconsider though because the recommendation for CIN isn't made lightly.

Why do you want to refuse?

I've had experience with SS due to my daughter's mental health. I've found the majority of SWs to be as useful as a soggy paper bag but mostly harmless and I have had one exceptional SW who went above and beyond to help us so if it's a case of not liking the SW ask for a new one.

Most of them are useless but ultimately harmless and if you're lucky you might get a decent one who will actually help you.

No it won't automatically get escalated. It will only get escalated if there's good reason to, they're not the stasi.

Thank you. I understand that the recommendation for a CIN is not made lightly and in my case, I'm done with it because we're getting zero support from them, don't feel we need it anymore anyway, and all they do is point me back to the health visitor with any questions. It's just a monumental box ticking waste of time. I didn't even know it was voluntary until 2 weeks ago and we've been on it since Jan.

I just don't want to make everything worse for us by refusing CIN and inadvertently escalating it when I could just stay on CIN and not rock the boat and get done with them in the next 6 months but I likewise don't want to waste our time and have this intrusion in our lives so if I can be done with them sooner I'd prefer that.

Yes, just ask them to close the case and say you no longer feel you need the support. Sounds like there's no reason to suggest they'll escalate to CP. Just say you'll keep engaging with the health visitor.

Hi everyone, just wanted to update this in case anyone else is looking for info on CIN plans in the future. We had the closing CIN meeting this week and the SW and her manager were both there along with all the professionals we've been working with. The manager asked all the professionals to go around and in turn say whether they thought we should come off the CIN plan or not and it was unanimous that they all thought we didn't need to be on it now (this felt a bit like standing around the firepit on Love Island during a recoupling), then the manager said she was closing the CIN plan. We had an exit interview with the SW and that's that.