Reported to social services

[Badwowwow]

My local authority went on to fortnightly collections and since then I have struggled so much with rubbish! I have 4 kids and there is too much to last 2 weeks! I don’t have a car so can’t take it anywhere myself and can’t dump it anywhere. So because of this and it being Xmas I have had extra rubbish! A few times the foxes have torn the bags open if it’s not in the bin and I clean it but still left with additional rubbish as my local authority won’t collect any additional rubbish and will only collect what’s IN the bin. I have admitted this is a struggle for me as sometimes bin collectors don’t turn up then I’m left with a situation where the rubbish hasn’t been collected for even longer. Well someone has reported me to SOCIAL SERVICES!! Because of this, Social services! Really! I’m so upset that someone would do this. What will happen now?!

I may be mistaken, but I think you need to give consent for them to contact the school?

We fill our recyling bin much more than our black bin. Are you recycling properly?

If there is six people in your house you are entitled to a larger bin.
Ask your council.

Have you looked into getting a rubbish crusher/compactor. It is a tool that you clip onto the bin and push downwards. It compacts the rubbish so you can get more in.

For a big family needing a larger bin, you typically qualify for bigger sizes (like 240L or 360L) or an extra bin based on the number of residents (e.g., 5+ people) or specific needs like nappies.

Contact your local councillors to help you. You need a one off collection for your current overflow and then ask for an extra bin. It’s their job to get this done for you. I’m a local councillor and if a resident contacted me in your situation I would sort this for you immediately.

If I say no consent do you know what will happen? I just think this was clearly a nasty referral and don’t want that down on our school record.

I cant help with the social service other than to say if it's really just rubbish and Christmas and foxes, then it wont amount to anything.

On a practical note, could you get your own bin/secure storage to keep excess rubbish in when you cant get it in the bin? Then move it to the bin once it's emptied? It will stop the foxes/wind/other vermin.

But... unless you have to put all your rubbish including recycling into one bin or if you have multiple children in disposable nappies, or have one of the small bins, I don't understand how you are filling it that much (ignoring Christmas and missed deliveries).

There will likely be other people more qualified to speak to this than me, but I don't think they can override it, unless there are other grounds for concern. And some overflowing bins wouldn't amount to that.

I have been advised by someone to store it in my back garden till I can clear it which I think I will definitely be doing from now on, I will put one in the back garden to store it in.

Thanks

Can't advise on social services (although I agree with you, it's ridiculous that you've been reported for this) but a bin compactor might help with the rubbish issue, £30 on Amazon.

Have you contacted your LA about this problem? Emphasise the impact it’s having on your living standards and children’s health and wellbeing. You could ask on FB for a man & a van to do a big clearance of stuff to the tip, to get on top of it all. You’d have to pay obviously.

Just thinking of a solution to the bin problem - is there a single, elderly person on your street? I asked my lovely next door but one neighbour if I could pop a bag in her bin over Christmas if I dragged her wheely out for her!
Deal...

You can get an extra bin if you have young children in nappies / pull-ups. Or you can with my council anyway

I will look at the bin compactor thanks. I’m just still in so much shock that someone reported this to social services. Environmental health fair enough but social services just seems plain spiteful especially when there was no mentions of concerns over my life in appearance or otherwise just that if the outside is messy they “suspect” the inside could be as well.

Agreed. OP are you absolutely positively sure it is only about the bins or has more been reported. This isn't about bins (although I'm sure that's part of it). I think there is more to this than either you know or are letting on.

Missed collections - you nag the council and they will come and collect? We've had missed collections before, and they made a stop when they are next out.

I have 5 kids, and 4 grown adults and don't have this much rubbish, for social to be called over rubbish seems like maybe you need to address how much rubbish is normal!?

The social services thing is crazy and I’d be fuming with the neighbour and also upset, but I’m afraid I’m with everyone who’s wondering how you’ve generated that much rubbish. We’re a family of 5 but a 6-person household, plus a pet cat. We have a normal sized waste bin and normal sized recycling bin and we manage fine on fortnightly collections. For a little while I had 3 DC in disposable nappies (so I’m not exactly a sustainability hero myself!!) — still fine. Just make an effort to recycle, including taking your plastic packaging to the big supermarket.

i would get very focused on ensuring the inside of your house is clean and well organised with made beds for the children and the fridge and cupboards well stocked. The outside of your house could be remedied with a Facebook post. In my village all of would take is a post asking for help with rubbish collection and I would be inundated with help - both paid and probably offers of help if I went into more detail.

Your neighbourly is probably sick of the rubbish and potentially sick of the chaos that usually comes with four kids which is why they’ve jumped to social services when rubbish is really more of a sanitation issue and an entirely different area of the council.

There was absolutely nothing else mentioned. All they said was that it was an anonymous referral from a neighbour saying that I had lots of rubbish outside of my house and that they are concerned with what the inside is like given the rubbish outside. No mention of my kids at all. Even the social worker said it should have been environmental health not SS but she said she has a duty to investigate and will want to contact their schools.

Our black bin collections have moved to once every 3 weeks so we have to be shit hot with the recycling. When we have extra rubbish like a Christmas, we do a skip run. You could ask on Facebook if anyone could do a skip run for you? Just make sure they’re genuine and not going to fly tip. They don’t tend to charge loads.

They said they will get round to it but staff sickness has meant it is taking longer than expected. But they will not take any additional rubbish.

Yes I’m fuming, her bin is always empty, a nice person would have offered to let us use it on bin day but she’s always ignored me for whatever reason when I tried to say hello when I first moved round here.

Take your extra rubbish to the local dump? We did that before Christmas as packaging was removed from Amazon deliveries or gifts coming in. Made life a lot easier