Data held by social services

[ThereGoesAnotherBit]

I've put this on step-parenting as I suspect that other boards may just latch on to the wrong part of this.

We're about to go to court with my DH's ex over their children, for the second time, as she keeps breaching the original order and we also have significant concerns over their health and safety when they are with her. The order at present is 50-50 but we just don't think that's safe anymore.

As a result, and also because we know something is going on with them through school, we have done a Subject Access Request to the local council for all records related to the children, but mainly in relation to social services.

The standard time for an SAR is within 28 days, but they've replied that as there is such a large volume of records (it specifies the number of pages), it will take up to three months.

We're shocked and concerned and I wondered if anyone else has requested similar records in order to compare the sizes and get an idea of how worried we should be at this point. Especially as the delay obviously means we have to either delay court or go without having the full facts, and we're worried that a significant volume of records could mean we actually need to do it even more urgently!

Perhaps someone else in a similar situation (or working at a council!) might actually be able to say it's completely normal, and that lots of the pages are not of interest or duplication of hospital records or something like that....

I should also say that we're passing on that information to the solicitor, but she's off for a week so we won't get a response yet.

Anyway, thanks for even just reading, and grateful for any help!

I used to have a role in the police where we had to look through council/social services records for DV arrests and redact identifying info. Some of the records were absolutely enormous, well into the hundreds of pages. If there has been SS involvement each meeting is documented and often duplicated to go to different people so it’s not all necessarily separate information. I would say though the big files were definitely where the family had had a lot of intervention. I’m struggling to see how/why dad has not been kept informed though? If they’ve had child in need/child protection meetings he should have been involved. Was he not told?

Your husband should have the key information, notes are always longer than they need to be, with empty space and duplicates so it might not be anything to worry about. I think I'd feel the same as you though.

I agree it is fairly normal for there to be lots of notes but no one can say for sure it depends what they entail. However as their dad he should have been involved or privy to that information.

He should call the social care duty team and ask to speak to someone who can give him information on his children, involvement and any significant concerns for their well being over the phone. If he explains the reasons he should be able to get something quicker than this.

Thanks for the replies! I didn't think I'd hear from anyone. It seems from what we can gather so far that it's all at early help level and not got as far as child in need/protection, which is good, but even more concerning that it's extensive enough to run into the thousands without us ever being informed that there are issues with her care.

Your DH needs to call someone within SS, explain that he has PR and get someone to explain what exactly is in the files. He should also be meeting with the school (there will be someone in charge of safeguarding) and ascertain how involved the school is and whether there is a care file in place.

I personally would try and get as much info out of school/ SS as possible, explain that there is a pending court hearing and see what can be released to you to help you/ the judge within that hearing.

I’d be amazed if you were in the territory of having grounds to do an emergency hearing and that neither the school/ SS had informed/ spoken with your DH given he has 50/50 access.

How long has this been going on for? How did you find out re these concerns?

We have significant involvement with the school who are a huge support to the children. Their mum refuses to work alongside school and us on issues, and refuses all meeetings.

The reason we've requested the information is because these ongoing concerns, breaches of the CAO and her refusal to work with us has escalated to the point where it can't continue and is impacting both their health and education too much for us to let it continue. That's why we're going for a new CAO- we're not requesting an emergency hearing.

However, as we were unaware of a significant involvement with social services we're worried that this level of information being held means that there is more to be concerned about than we already knew.

We have asked Social Services if there's anyway they can give us some of the information faster. If they say they can't then we'll have to see what the court says.

As you have 50/50 and previously been through court for the CAO, SS should be aware of the outcome and that Dad as PR. He needs to call them and request a call with the social worker on the childrens case. I'd be asking what their process is for ensuring all parents with PR are contacted/made aware of a referral followed by why they have not spoken to him prior at all. If you're in contact with the school like you state, the school should have told them Dads actively involved with the children so the 'weren't made aware' excuse can't really stick.

I know we had something similar occur and on our CAFCASS Letter it outlined the social service referrals for mum, topic/reason for referral ie 'neglect' dates and outcome. Your solicitor would also have a copy of this automatically before the hearing as CAFCASS make it available to all involved parties in advance

Not much to add op but I work in this field and where I work Early Help don't have Social Workers (that's just CIN and up) it might vary though dependent on area so when you contact anyone it might be better to contact Early Help first as ss might not hold te information as in it would be transfered to them if the children were but otherwise would be in a different part of the system.

@Clareyck

Not much to add op but I work in this field and where I work Early Help don't have Social Workers (that's just CIN and up) it might vary though dependent on area so when you contact anyone it might be better to contact Early Help first as ss might not hold te information as in it would be transfered to them if the children were but otherwise would be in a different part of the system.

The information request is to the council as a whole, so should cover both early help and anything above that.

We've been told so far, that it's not gone above early help since the last CAO, so there shouldn't be a social worker as you say (I also have some professional knowledge in the area).

The school have been very supportive and repeatedly remind other agencies about the CAO and needing to involve dad, but they can't force it unfortunately.

We also understand that any involvement that is solely for mum and not the children, we wouldn't need to be informed of. But for that amount of documents to be in the childrens names, it can't be just her needs and must involve them more deeply.