my 7 weeks baby was taking away from us cous of the bruse on

[raskila]

Hello.Please help us.Our baby gilr is in foster care.One evening we sow bruses on her buttom.we swear to god we havent hit her or hurt her in any onther way.The doctors cant explain way this happend.now we have to wait till investigation is over,we have no idea how long it can take.im sorry about mistake i made writing this,but english is not my first language.any advaise pls.what we need to do,its killing us.many thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Raskila

Welcome to the discussion board.

I am one of the Family Rights Group’s online advisers.

Sorry to hear that you are having such a difficult with Children’s Services involvement with your baby who is now in foster care because she was found with bruises that can not be explained.

Did you agree to her going to a foster placement? If so, this is very good because it means she is now placed on a voluntary agreement under section 20 Children Act.

The social worker will be able to see you are working with them, to try to keep her safe, while the child protection investigations is taking place.

Once all the tests (or assessments) are completed, you should find out, if they think that your daughter's injury was an accident or they think that something more serious happened to her, and if (and when) she will be able to return to you.

They may want to hold a child protection conference. This is a meeting that you and your husband would be invited to so all the agencies ie social worker, health visitor, paediatrician (a specialist in child health) can share any information they have about you and your family, and discuss what family support they may be able to offer to you to help keep your baby safe.

Do you having supervised contact with in a family centre? If so, there may be a worker who takes notes about what happens during contact. For example, they may want to know how well you are able to feed and change the baby and meet her basic needs when you are together.

Therefore, it is important that you try to show how you can manage your baby’s needs, and are able to try to stay calm during contact, at what must be a very difficult time for you.

For now, I strongly suggest you continue to work with the Local Authority and all of the professionals and speak to a solicitor before your baby back to your care.

If you want to talk about your situation in more detail, please contact the Family Rights Group advice line on 0808 801 0366 Monday to Friday 09.30 to 03.00 pm.

I hope I have answered some of your questions.

Best Wishes


Suzie

[raskila]

Suzie,thankyou so much for your answears,you did help a lots,we do feel a bit better.And yes we did agree our baby to go to foster care(its heart breaking)but we dont want arguing that wont help,its good that we done this.We a good parents we dont drink dont do drugs,we dont smoke,we have clean house,its a safe place to be for a baby.Do you have any idea how long an investigation can take?its so hard not to have our baby with us.Do they have a right to take our baby for good from us,even when they have nothing on us?she have some blood tests taken at hospital and they said that extended clotting factor IX is mildly low,that can mean she may have a serious problems with her blood,doctors repeated blood tests two times they still waiting results,but they take our baby anyway from us,even the test is not clear yet.Many thanks

[raskila]

yes we can see her 3 times a week supervised contact

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Raskila

I am glad you found the information helpful. The length of the investigation can depend on many factors. But since your daughter may have complex health issues, and the outcome is uncertain, I can only advise you to be patient as possible. Try to focus on having positive contact with her when you do see, until you receive her test results.

Children's Services can not move your child in the long term without your consent. To do this, they need to apply for a court order. If they are thinking of doing this, they have a duty to consider which members of your family and friends, could care for her first.

You may want to ask for a family group conference (fgc), this is a meeting chaired by an independent person where you will be invited to agree safe plans between you and the wider family. This meeting can only take place if either you or your husband agree to it taking place

Have you been advised to get a solicitor who can give you legal advice. If so, you may want to do this at http://www.lawsociety.org.uk.

Best Wishes


Suzie

[raskila]

Do you think we should get a solicitor?im not sure what to do.I did have one when they arested us.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Raskila

At this stage, I think it would be helpful for you to have an independent family law solicitor so they can advise you of your legal options at this time. It certainly can not do any harm involving them at an early stage.

The solicitor you would have had at the time of your arrest, would have been a specialist in criminal law and the two are very different.

Best Wishes

Suzie

[raskila]

we did get family law solicitor,hope she can help us.Thankyou Suzie for your help.

[lovemybaby]

be open and honest right from the beginning. they will help and support u. they can work with u if they know what has happened. otherwise its hard for them to trust you. good luck with everything

[raskila]

We being open and honest from day that we went to the hospital.We have nothing to hide.We just hope they will see this.Thankyou for your support.