Its a really long story. I work in a residential childrens home with children and young adults with learning dissabilities which is where I met the mother. She was living where I work when she was a teenager then went on to be fostered by my friend who was also working at the home and I stayed in contact with her. She then moved out and to cut a long story short had 4 children 2 boys then 2 girls, I was at the birth of 3 of her children, When she had the 2nd she couldnt manage both so gave the eldest to his dad to care for as they had split up, they then slept together and 3 months after giving birth she was preg with number 3 , she then couldnt cope with 2 so close together so both the boys lived with their dad and she kept the girl but had regular contact with both boys. Their dad then got sent to prison and the 2 boys lived with their aunt and had no contact with mum for a year due to their aunt not allowing it, They ended up being taken into care for neglect and unexplainable marks on them. At which point she was due to give birth to number 4 but knew she couldnt manage them all with her learning dissabilities. I was with her at the birth of number 4. My bf and I had just passed the assement to look after the boys pending a psychologist report. When we recieved this it recomended the boys be split up and go to a theraputic home, their case was bad and they had a lot of problems, with behaviours and eating and so on. In the mean time the mother wasnt managing the 2 girls and they was taken from her care last october which is when we was asked by her solicitor to put in for them as we already had a positive assment. So we did that and had a few assesments done and the girls had a psychologist assesment.
Which said they dont normally split siblings up but could justify splitting up the girls. They wasnt sure on our loyalties with the mother and S who was then 3 was recomended to stay in care with specialist carers. She is a very lively little girl who hasnt always had her needs met and they felt could be to much for me and my bf. They said the recomended placing E with us which is the baby or she can go up for adoption. The childrens gaurdian recomended E be placed with us and yesterday social decided to put in their final statement and place E with us. We start contact sessions with her in August before we go back to court. Up until yesterday peoples positions where all different and we wasnt sure which way it would go. So we are very relieved we just now need to find a house and start getting prepared. They recomend at the moment contact 4 times a year for her mum, babys dad is different to the other 3 and he has mental health problems but is in agrement with this and has currently stopped his contact with her due to his own problems. Yesterday I had a meeting with the social worker for her to go through the sgo report with me and E's care plan. I then did my final statement for court with my solicitor.
We have been told we will get the SGO allowance for 2 years then will need to re-apply for it and the social worker is also going to try and get us a setting up grant.
Thanks for reading
