Sensitive Issue

[staryeyed]

I posted about a year ago abot DS who was 4 at the time running out the front door without me realising- I thought he was playing in his bedroom. When I went to check the door was open so I ran outside to find him and called the police.

About a month ago we had a visit from social services. They sent a letter that said " a concerned member of the public had found DS1 wandering alone" which I think distorts what actually happened and makes it sound neglectful. When SS lady came she was pretty useless and said she didn't have the original report and thought that this had all happened a few weeks prior to her visit. She spent about 20 mins with us and closed the case. I was really worried about the visit and thankful when it was all over but now Im worrying that this inaccurate report of what happened is going to be on record.

It is worrying for you, but I would say that is a factual sentence. It isn't actually making a judgement on why he was wandering, but he was alone, and he was wondering.

It doesn't portray the situation as it happened though. It would have been more correct to say DS absconded from the house and mother called the police to find him. Instead it sounds like he was left to wonder the streets. Why no mention that I was frantically looking for him as were my family?

Have you been given a copy of the report this lady made after visiting you? I would have thought this was good practice so I think perhaps you should request one if you don't have it. Then you can write and ask for any changes to be made that you think are necessary.

Because their report was from the contact they had. If you had contacted them and said "Oh my goodness, my son escaped from the house, we were frantically looking for him" then the report would have said:

"Staryeyed contacted us after her son escaped from the house. After a frantic search they found him..."

But, presumably, it was a concerned member of the public that contacted SS, so the report has to be factual, which was that a concerned member of the public found your DS.

You could ask the department to include the fact that you were aware of his escape and had called the police and searched for him.

No I haven't I should do that.

I think i would be glad members of the public were concerned enough to take some kind of action. I think ss have no choice but to be involved, he was a vulnerable young toddler and he was wandering the street. Its you job as parent to make sure the doors are locked and child cannot abscond. Sorry it you think thats harsh, but its the truth.

Kids get into everything and are naturally curious, if they can open the door, they will. Social services dont know you from adam ( a good thing ) and you could be a drug addicted mother neglecting your child for all they know.

this has appened to me as well...my son was 1 and I didnt even know he could open the door so i started keeping it locked, then he figured out how to unlock it sso i have to remove the keys....now I'm just waitin for him to be able to figure out what key it is hence me having to hide them nw...it happens to the best of us,....children are so bright, if they wanna go, they'll find a way

hope you're ok
xxx

My son has done this a couple of times over the pre-school years inc having police helicopter involved and I am a foster carer involved with ss.

I would not worry as they closed the case. Yes it will be on file forever but they had no further concerns.

Just be extremly sure it does not happen again, keep the door locked at all times and the key high out of the way.

SS would be looking at a failure to protect issue if it were to happen repeatedly.