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.

This is bizarre. I say this because if dad was given or has shared parental rights he will be told why the child is on the child protection plan.

Ok so update tonight is that the Social worker has invited my husband to attend the next conference. He declined to say what the reason was for the plan so tonight my husband has text him to ask for his email so he can formally request in writing to know the reason for the plan. Can anyone shed a light on why they would withhold this!?

If he is invited to the conference he should have a copy of the plan, as every other attendee will. They will run through the plan, and any outcomes, then add to or amend as necessary.

Thanks, but that isn't for another month, so my husband has no idea what has gone on

Well he will get it at the meeting. Are you sure your husband doesn’t know?

He definitely doesn't know, we were in the car when the call came in and it came through the car speaker so I heard the whole call, it just all feels really weird and secretive but it's his child

Can he request copies of the minutes from the previous ones ?

That's what he's going to do when he gets the email address, I've said put everything in writing as that why if they refuse hopefully we get a reason

It really isn't ok for them to refuse to share that information, even if it is something that involves someone else's sensitive personal information they should provide enough context for him to understand what the concerns are generally. They should also be able to give him an email address over the phone, there is no need to make him wait for that.

As to your question last night, sorry for the delay replying. CP can happen for a variety of reasons, either a precipitating incident such as domestic abuse or an injury, or if she was previously under early help then it could just be that there has been no change/no effort to change/poor engagement with early help, which was made escalation necessary.

FII is incredibly rare and is the one type of significant harm where parents don't have to be told the reasons for the intervention (as this can so increase the risk to the child).

Risk of significant harm does not always mean something immediate, with neglect cases it is often more about long term emotional or health outcomes for the child, than any single "risk". I hope that makes sense.

Sorry for more waffle

Sometimes social workers are (incorrectly) weirdly cagey about information as we are talking about particularly sensitive information and I think they struggle to know sometimes how much to share with who etc especially if inexperienced, so it might just be that. They sometimes don’t even want to tell me as the GP what the concerns are due to worries about confidentiality 🙄 which is just ridiculous as it’s actually relevant and important for me to know more than just vaguely that the child is on a protection plan of some kind but nobody will tell me why! Drives me insane!

The only potentially valid reason I could think of for not being completely upfront with dad about what is going on is if they felt that dad is potentially abusive either to child or mother or both. And who knows what mum may have said to them so they may believe this is a possibility. They won’t want to trigger an abusive backlash which they will be blamed for for example. However even if abuse from dad was being alleged, I believe dad still has a right to know some basic information - like what category of abuse the plan is under and what has prompted the concerns etc. He should have a chance to tell the story from his point of view. Reasonable of them to let’s say withhold mum’s address for example if she doesn’t want him to know it. But he should have a broad brushstrokes idea of what’s being said, even if what’s being said is that he is abusing his daughter... however I tend to think that if that’s what prompted the original concern then they’d have been in touch with dad long before now asking what his story is. So I suspect that’s not it.

I think it’s a great idea to put your request in writing and I think it would be reasonable for dad to request a copy of the most recent child protection conference where it will be outlined what has triggered the concern, what various professionals have said about it and what mum has said, and what they have agreed needs to happen next, plus date of next review. They can redact mum’s address or part of her statement if they think it inappropriate to share with dad but he should know the gist of what’s being said. And be invited to the next conference as it sounds like he has been.

Thanks so much for both of your detailed replies. Tonight we have found out that the social worker has disclosed our address to her mum, and we are now going to have to look at getting back to court ASAP. We had written into the court order that we do not have to disclose our address to her mum due to 3 incidents that took place a few years ago, the social worker was made aware of this by my husband however the mum now has our address and has sent 23 threatening messages to my husband tonight. I am totally shocked at the incompetence and now seriously worried! We still have no idea about the plan, hoping to get a reply tomorrow from the social worker to the email we have sent

This happened to my brother, he had his dc every weekend and got a phone call one day to come for a meeting with SS. It transpired that his dc had been on a CP plan for some time, but his ex wife told the SW there was no contact SS realized this was not the case when my dn's headteacher (who knew dB held an active role) asked why he was not at the conference. Ex wife had been in a relationship with a man who there was a suspicion of CSA against and she was leaving the dc alone with him, hence the PLAN as there was risk of sexual abuse.
Hope you get this sorted OP, my dB went through hell for 18 months, you need to be very patient, but it paid off as he now has full custody of dc, who it transpired were most likely abused by this man 😭

I'd be escalating that they've shared your address when the court order states not to and your DH told them this.

I’m sorry I’ve not replied sooner.

There process will have been that something very serious had been reported which indicates the child is at risk of “significant harm”...do you know the reason they were accessing early help? It may be related to that?

Parenting has to reach a fairly basic threshold of being “good enough” and when it isn’t “good enough” to prevent the child being at risk of or experiencing “significant harm”, a strategy meeting is held.

All professionals involved with the child will be invited and information shared following which everyone votes on whether the child protection threshold of “significant harm” is met. If so a full assessment is then undertaken and this should be extended to draw on the strengths of he family network - including DH!!!

A child protection plan should have really specific actions to support the primary care giver to provide a safe environment for the child. It feels very difficult but the goal is for families to stay together safely.

I’m very shocked that your DH hasn’t been informed of the detail around risk and even more shocked that your address was disclosed. I would raise both concerns in writing.

I hope this helps a bit. It sounds like you are doing the right things.

@Incrediblytired thanks so much, as it stands we are STILL waiting for the social worker to respond to our email sent on Tuesday. we still have no information. It all seems very strange

Contact the children's service duty line (will be on the county council's website) and ask for the name of the social.workers practice manager, then ask that this manager contacts dad immediately or that you are given an email address. Unfortunately social workers are very stretched at the moment but in your case that's a big time delay and the social worker may have even gone off sick so it needs following up. Dad is entitled to copies of all documentation to date, especially the CP plan. If they won't give the practice managers details then ask for the group manager.

My husband has decided that when he collects SD this weekend for contact he will not return her to her mother, instead he will apply for an emergency hearing at court on the grounds he is being given 0 information on why his daughter is on the plan and is concerned for her well being being taken home. I'm not sure this is the right move but he is adamant this is what he is going to do. He already has an EOW court order in place so I'm not sure the likelihood of him being granted temporary custody whilst this is resolved

If you do this then contact social services whilst SD is in dads care and explain to them that whilst you do not know the reasons for the child protection plan you do not feel comfortable to send her back to her DM, ask them if they will support you to do this whilst you wait for the emergency hearing.
Tell them your concerns about the situation.
If social services will support you then you will not get in trouble with the courts.

I agree with your DH and have also done this (although a different situation) and because my DS was at risk of harm it was seen that If I didn't do it then I would have been seen as not protecting him but SS don't tell you that until after the fact.

@bounce89

If you do this then contact social services whilst SD is in dads care and explain to them that whilst you do not know the reasons for the child protection plan you do not feel comfortable to send her back to her DM, ask them if they will support you to do this whilst you wait for the emergency hearing. Tell them your concerns about the situation. If social services will support you then you will not get in trouble with the courts.

I agree with your DH and have also done this (although a different situation) and because my DS was at risk of harm it was seen that If I didn't do it then I would have been seen as not protecting him but SS don't tell you that until after the fact.

Thank you @bounce89

It's very unusual.

My DSS' have been placed on a child protection plan due to risk posed by a relative on their mums side and her failure to keep them safe from that person.

The social worker got DH's number and called him out of the blue one day to let him know they were launching a CP investigation.

His ex failed to mention anything to him at all so SS made it their mission to involve DH as he had PR.

I would also consider contacting your MP and telling them that social services won’t tell you what the risks to the child are and ask for your help. You can often contact your MP via Facebook private messenger these days and if they’re a good one they’ll help you - and children’s services senior management will not like it and will suddenly pull out a lot of strings to assist.

The only reason your husband may not have been included would be previous history of domestic abuse- or accused.
Otherwise he should have been informed from the strat meeting

Sorry for a bit of a late reply on this, depending when your step daughter was supposed to go back to her mum.
CSC will generally not support a parent to breach a court order regarding contact. Unless they are at a point where they are concerned enough to be considering alternative carers for the child. Having an existing CAO actually puts her dad at a bit of a disadvantage in this situation, as if there wasn't one then he could make a decision that he views to be in her best interest and her mum would have to go to the court to dispute this.
It is possible (for example) that she was made subject to child protection planning due to a significant incident of domestic abuse in the home and that since then her mum has left this relationship and the risk has therefore gone. CSC will be waiting to ensure the separation lasts and also waiting for the next conference date to step down the planning. If this sort of thing was the case the courts may not look favourably on her dad disrupting her life when there was already an order in place.
I appreciate that without knowing the reason for the CP planning it is impossible for him to know what is best and I would focus on speaking to social worker or manager that will share the appropriate information with him so that he can make an informed decision.

I don't blame him for being worried, but if she were at immediate risk of significant harm then it generally would have escalated past CP planning. He definitely needs to know what is going though and it is not acceptable that he still doesn't have that information. I would look up the complaints procedure for the department if he still isn't getting any answers (sorry of you already said you're doing that, I didn't reread your posts to remind me)