Police came to our house to do a welfare check on the children - advice sought

[BusyFrizzyLizzie]

This morning two police appeared at our front door at 8:00 saying they had had an anonymous report that we had been locking our children out in the garden and leaving them to scream for hours.

To be clear, this is entirely untrue. Never happened. I don't even remember when the children were last in the garden, given the recent cold and wet.

They asked if they could come in and take a look around. I was very shocked, and had nothing to hide, so readily agreed. The kids were in their uniforms having breakfast. Both very small (KS1).

The police looked about for 30 seconds and then said that they'd seen enough and were happy to leave. I asked if I should expect any further follow up from social services and they said no. They suggested it could have been a malicious report (I'm not sure that makes me feel better at all!). I volunteered mine and my children's ages and names, as it seems that it's for the best that they do any investigations they wish and find nothing untoward.

They were very apologetic as they left, and I fully understand their position. I would rather that spurious or malicious reports be investigated than children who are being abused go unidentified. However, I'm left pretty shaken by events.

Can anyone tell me if there are likely to be next steps, and if so what those might be? And is there anything pre-emptive I should be doing? Of course my eldest was thrilled that the police visited and was very excited about telling teachers and friends, so it will be all over the class by this evening 🙈... should I contact the school so that they're aware?

All very odd and I hope it's a one-off, but also don't want to sleepwalk into a bigger problems.

Thanks!

Gosh that sounds horrible for you. Of course you're right that it's best that they follow up all reports.

They will probably write up a report to be shared with social services, simply stating that they visited and all was fine. I very much doubt that this would result in social services making contact though - they'll be too busy dealing with more serious issues.

I think you handled it the right way although it was obviously a malicious report. The Police were just doing their job which could have saved a life if it had been true. It's worth telling the school just so they know what's going on.

How horrible for you I honestly don’t think you have anything to worry about.

But if social services send someone they will want to see that exit routes in case of fire are clear. Normal family mess is fine. The main thing they look for is the children each have their own bed and bedding.

We had a welfare check after my then tiny son had a huge meltdown. The police came and it went pretty much the same for us and we have never heard anything else since

I would worry that it wasn't a malicious report, but that the police somehow ended up checking the wrong address?

Were the police really the police? Potential robbers casing your home?
Was it the right home?

This is what my husband thinks has happened. It's all just so odd and unpleasant.

I've called the school, and the safeguarding lead seemed pretty bemused. Let's hope it's all a storm in a teacup.

Or that children nearby were screaming and the police were given the wrong address by someone who thought it could be your house?

They turned up in a police car, so if they're burglars they've gone to a lot of trouble to case a small terrace house in a not very desirable neighbourhood 😂

Do you have reason to believe that someone may have put in a malicious report, OP?

If not, then I share the pp's concern that this may have been a case of mistaken address.

It sounds like you handled the incident very well, and the police clearly had no concerns. Must have been upsetting for you though.

None at all! Although of course I'm wracking my brains to think of anyone I could have offended.

Thanks for all of the reassurance. I'll try to put it out my mind and channel my other half's approach!

I think I'd contact social services and the police suggesting they double check it was right, just in case it is a mistaken address.

I think you were right to let the school know - these things are less unpleasant out in the open.

That's not a nice experience though, anyone would be shaken.

Ask yourself who would be in hearing distance or who could have seen such an incident if it had taken place.

Disgruntled neighbour upset over parking perhaps?

Or someone who doesn’t live near you but would have reason to be malicious? Angry relative? Jealous ex?

Get to the bottom of it before it escalates.

I agree with suggesting to the police that they should double check the address. Tell them that you can't think of anyone who would put in a malicious report.

I would hate to think of some poor kids potentially being neglected or abused and nobody going to check on them because of a simple error.

This is more likely a chronically bored person who makes false random reports to pass the time. They do the same on local Facebook pages too, report false incidences, then sit back and enjoy the frenzy. The very good news OP is that no one who matters has concerns about your DC.

I know I’ll get accused of ageism by saying this but do you have anyone nearby that could have any form of dementia type illness that might have called them? I say this because a relative of mine had lewy body dementia which came with very convincing hallucinations and he called the police a few times about people screaming in his garden.

I did suggest that they check the address as they left, so not sure I will follow up again.

For what it's worth, we live in a pretty grotty part of inner London where the police are massively overstretched so it is reassuring that they will send two officers out early in the morning to follow up child welfare concerns. I've previously read on MN that people haven't had their reports followed up. That's not the case here, so do report if you have suspicions.

That said, I definitely don't want it to happen again at my house! I'm surprised by how hard I've found it to shrug off.

Thank you all for your support.

I think it's understandable that you're finding it hard to shrug off, OP. It came out of nowhere, and must have been a shock when they turned up.

You obviously know that you're not abusing your dc, but it is horrible to think that others might consider you capable of that, or indeed that someone might have enough of a grudge against you to file a malicious report. I think most people would be quite disturbed in your situation tbh.

Given that you have no obvious "enemies", I do think that a mistaken address must be the most likely explanation. Could be an error on the part of the police, or possibly a mistake made by the person who originally made the report.

Not a nice experience but the police obviously realised straight away that there was no cause for concern, so try to take comfort from that.

I had this about 10 years ago. Two pcs arrived while we were eating breakfast. I made them a cup of tea, they chatted to ds aged 6, then they left. I never heard anything else about it. I assumed it was a mistake.

You watched Home Alone last night, didn't you?

(Me too 😂)

You can ask the Council and police for a SAR and then you can see the report. When this happened to me, the Council forgot to redact the name of the person who made the malicious report (which confirmed my thoughts about who had done it).

Oh I hadn't even picked up on that reference. Deary me, I'm losing my sense of humour!
😂

Op you have nothing to worry about tbh just let it go.
I reckon it's someone playing stupid games and wasting police time.
Some people are just sick and very bored.

I once had a vist from 2 women from the nspcc because, my kids had no beds never seen going to school.
I was constantly swearing and shouting no food in the flat etc.
Well I let them in and they discovered I did not or ever have kids.
Still dont have kids.
They were lovely had a laugh about and check to make sure I was not hiding the kids lol.

Thanks. I'll bear it in mind if we hear any more from it. At this stage, as you've all now assured me that there aren't other protective steps I need to take, I'm going to try and forget all about it.

Sorry to hear that it's happened to quite a few of us!

Even if social services did make contact, they're not going to find anything are they. Appreciate it feels invasive to have people nosying around when there's no issues.

The biggest thing for me would be how this all came about in the first place? Its so confusing. Hopefully the house number was just miscommunicated or something when the report was made.