SD on child protection plan

[whatsontonight]

Recently found out SD has been placed on a child protection plan and has been on it for the past 3 months. Does anyone know how we can find out more information? Only just been informed by the social worker but all they want to know if so we have any concerns about home life, not giving us much information about why she has been put on it.

Surely her dad should have been informed if he has joint parental responsibility? If I was him I’d be insisting to know what the plan is in place for and if he has concerns I would be seeking majority or full custody of the child.

Is said child in school? How old is SD? Does he have PR? And is a contact schedule in place?

Alarm bells ringing that he hasn’t been informed. How involved is he In SD’s life?

The social worker said the mum told him he was out of the picture and he only found out that was a lie after speaking with the school. Confused as to how that could of been believed as we went through court 3 years ago and social workers were involved. The social worker dealing with this seems unwilling to give out much info, surely legally he is entitled to this?

@sassbott child is in school yes, he has a contact order for EOW in place and PR.

Social workers are hit and miss.

1. once schools are back, he needs to have a remote meeting with the school. This will normally be with the child’s form tutor and whomever is in Charge of safeguarding.

He needs to be exceptionally careful about what he says and how neutral his language is.
All language needs to be around ‘best interests of the child’, never about his rights as father.
He needs to document / date/ send an email to self after any interaction with school/ social workers, summarising content of convo.
The school should have a Care file in place, and any meetings with him regards this will be recorded and put in that file.
2) he should ensure the contact order is shared with the school and social worker (he is allowed to-share that with professionals involved with the children).
3) with the school he needs to ask if they have any concerns. And how he can help support said child and the school.
He at no point says anything remotely negative (or criticises the child’s mother). SS are very quick to side with mothers and state that the father is inciting conflict (sorry it’s unfair but true).
4) he needs to document his involvement as much as possible with email trails (all evidence that can be used in family courts if required).
5) finally I would also contact children’s GP and get a full record of medical documents to see if any concerns have been flagged to those professionals also.

Regarding disclosure of records? They don’t actually have to disclose anything if they don’t think it is in the best interests of the child. My ex boyf had to go to court to get records disclosed as it required a judge to say they could be released. Plus they couldn’t get released to him, it had to be to a legal representative. It really depends on what is in there.

He needs to start digging. Calmly. Professionally. And document everything

Thanks @sassbott, we don't know who the gp is, she has moved to 3 different towns and different schools in the last 2 years so we don't have a clue where to start with that and her mum will not give any information at all. It took us emailing 3 schools in the latest town with a copy of birth certificate and court order to find out which one she actually was attending.

But we didn't have any concerns about home life so now we are confused and worried as to what's gone on, from what I can see online the child protection plan is quite serious

likely her mum had a relationship with a violent man.

They don’t implement child protection plans lightly and yes they are serious.
Make contact with the school and then take whatever steps are necessary to get the Gp info.
The school should have that info on file.

He has to stay calm, measured and focus all language on what he can do to support the school and the children. After his contact periods (assume EOW), he should start updating the school on how said child was etc

It’s clear he’s not implicated in whatever the concerns are, otherwise he would have been being investigated by now. So yes, it appears something has happened in the mother’s home and she’s doing her best to hide that fact from him. That won’t look good on her.

As an aside, no one (including school or Gp) gets to fob him off. If he needs to, he files an application himself to the court to get whatever he needs to know.
I never understand how so many parents aren’t all over knowing school/ gp info! If one parent isn’t disclosing, drag them into a family court and get it out of them!

How very bizarre. I’m a GP and don’t think I’ve ever come across a situation where someone with parental responsibility and who has the child live with them some of the time wouldn’t know of a child protection plan. These are only implemented after a child protection conference which parents are usually invited to. Although it’s also odd that her dad doesn’t know which GP surgery she is registered at I guess. I agree if one parent is not disclosing school or GP information I can’t understand why that wouldn’t have triggered court action.

I’d say her dad is absolutely entitled to full information about what has happened here and why a child protection plan has been initiated. He should have been involved from the beginning and it sounds like mum has deliberately cut him out of the discussion which won’t go well for her as already suggested. Although I guess people may also be asking why the dad was content with being so out of the loop. The first thing I’d be asking is what category the child protection plan refers to ?neglect/physical abuse/sexual abuse/emotional abuse etc.

This is very odd. So there is a social worker he has dealt with and knows he is in contact with the child, so a file on him, and now th child is on protection and no one read the file and knew he was seeing his child every other weekend?

@OTannenbaum thanks that is really useful information we didn't know there were different catabolises. Also we were reading up on the child protection plan and it did state both parents should of been at the conference so wondering if another one could take place that my husband can attend, something to ask the social worker.

@Bluntness100 the social worker who seems to be dealing with the plan is a different one to who we dealt with before as that was about 3 years ago. She's had at least 4 different social workers since then. The latest one we were in contact with was in January 2020 my husband still has her contact information so is going to contact her and see if she knows anything

Why on earth did you need to email a load of schools with the child's birth certificate? You were having her EOW - surely she knew what school she was going to?

SD won't give out any information (obviously told not to by her mum) or lies about it. She said she was at one school and it turned out to be a completely different one

I'm a little bit rusty as its a while since I worked in child protection, but there will be regular core group meetings held for a child on a plan, this is where the core group of professionals & parents/guardians meet to review progress against the actions that would have been agreed in the child protection case conference. It's unlikely that they will hold the case conference that has already taken place again, but he should be looking to be part of the core group meetings and will then automatically be included in the invite to the next case conference. This should help him understand what has led to the plan, as the actions agreed will be to remedy whatever the concerns are.

My daughter was going to be place on a child protection plan as we fled domestic violence.. But children services said there was zero safeguarding risks with me so she wasn't.. I'd be careful what the mother has said about the father... It could be because of lies she's told about him maybe...

I've been a safeguarding lead for twenty years and I've come across this a couple of times - it's been when the social worker has taken mum's word that dad is out of the picture and it's not been checked.

In our area CP is the highest level, Child in Need the next one fine and Early Help the lower tier.

Your council might have a central safeguarding number you could call and get some information.

Thank you all very helpful. I will update tomorrow as we find out more information hopefully

I'm a child protection social worker so am happy to answer any questions about the statutory processes if that helps.
Depending how long she has been on a CP plan there will be another conference, the first review is usually 3 months after the initial conference and then they are 6 monthly after that. Between these there will be a core group meeting every 6 weeks. I imagine these are virtual at the moment (due to covid) so it should be easy for him to attend. Her dad needs to tell the social worker that he wants the invite to all future meetings, get the date for the next one straight away. It is important that he stays calm and civil in the meetings, as if he and her mum start arguing with each other (not sure if this is likely, but she may start this, and he needs not to rise to it) and the meetings can't proceed then they will start holding separate meetings for them both and he is likely to end up missing out on some of the info just by the nature of it being 2nd hand. Ask for a copy of the assessment and child protection plan, provide an email address for these to speed up recieving them if you can.
All of this is assuming he has PR, but if there is already a CAO then I assume that is the case.
I expect her mum has lied about his involvement, and unfortunately the pandemic has made many Children's Social Care departments unmanageably busy, so things are slipping through the gaps where they shouldn't.
I hope he can get some clarity soon.
(Sorry that got long)

I’m a social worker and you’ve been given solid advice above. This is serious and you must request dad is invited to all meetings. I’d put in writing that you are deeply concerned and want to be fully involved, then send it to social services.

Thank you both really helpful advice. My husband is going to speak to the social worker tomorrow and request all of this information

@SewVeryLazy or @Incrediblytired could you please outline the process of how a child protection plan starts? Does something serious have to of happened? We know at the start of 2020 she was on an early help plan?

A child protection plan would be used when a council has reason to believe a child is at risk of significant harm. My first thought was fabricated or induced illness just based on the pattern of moving around/multiple schools. IME those cases can be quite delicate which may explain why father wasn’t involved early on. He absolutely should be now though. CP plans can sometimes follow an escalation through from early help to child in need and then on to CP if there are no improvements or an escalation in concerns - it wouldn’t necessarily be prompted by a single event

@GingerAndTheBiscuits

A child protection plan would be used when a council has reason to believe a child is at risk of significant harm. My first thought was fabricated or induced illness just based on the pattern of moving around/multiple schools. IME those cases can be quite delicate which may explain why father wasn’t involved early on. He absolutely should be now though. CP plans can sometimes follow an escalation through from early help to child in need and then on to CP if there are no improvements or an escalation in concerns - it wouldn’t necessarily be prompted by a single event

Seriously? You went to fabricated or induced? If you don’t have the ability to comment, that’s ok, , you should then refrain.

Was just a thought Bluntness based on the few details OP has available. I would have thought a serious incident of DV, neglect or physical abuse would have led to a more concerted effort to make contact with father (on the basis that social workers are usually pretty upfront these days about asking at the outset who could care for a child if parent was unable). The suggestion case may have moved from early help upwards over the course of a year and the hesitancy of social worker to share information reminded me of other cases where FII was a factor, that’s all.