Social services

[2018aajc]

Hey guys just need some advice, my ex and his partner have been together 2 years. Our child sees his dad 3 weekends out of the month, my ex moved in with his girlfriend and her 2 children over a year ago after they had their own child together. Anyway my ex suffers from mental health and let’s just say shouts a lot at her children etc. anyhow her little girl has gone into holiday club and has said that she is always shouted at etc, they have now gone to social services as I think it’s twice she’s done it in the past week, all I want to know is as I have a child with him does this mean we will get brought into this as well as I have no idea how it works? Thanks for any advice

Well, if SS are checking on whether a child is at risk from an adult with poorly managed MH problems in her household, and your child spends 3/4 of their weekends in this household, yes, of course.

I mean, aren’t you concerned your child may be at risk?

It's likely that social services will decide what 'threshold' the allegation meets. The thresholds go from Level 1 - Level 4 (child protection) Level 1 - 3 involve the parents of the child being asked to voluntarily engage in a 'plan' and a child and family assessment to see what is happening etc and how it can be improved. Level 4 is more serious.
It's likely that the allocated social worker or family support worker may contact you and ask to speak to your son. This can be done either at your home or at school and focuses on gaining the child's voice as to their 'lived experiences' and would enable social services to know the bigger picture as to whether dad and partner are shouting at all of the children or if it's more the perception of the other child that they always get shouted at.
It's normally all very low key and designed to make people think about their parenting etc
You don't have to agree to your son being seen.

As I said I was only looking for advice on what SS do as I have never been in a situation like this.