Pre birth assessment

[Anon1313]

Hi everyone.
I am just looking for some advice on what to expect as I'm worried out my mind.

I am 32 weeks pregnant. I have a social worker coming to visit me tomorrow,my health advisor has informed me that this is about my ex partner (babies dad) and something to do with his behaviour but she can't be specific as she didn't make the referral to them but she knows of it as they have spoken to her.

Now,I ended my relationship with babies dad pretty much as soon as I found out I was pregnant,due to his personality and the way he would talk to me. I was only with him for about 3 weeks when I fell pregnant so I don't know a lot about his past.
I told him to start with that I don't want to be with him but once the baby is born that he can see her with that being only at my house as I don't trust him. This resulted in him being very nasty to me over text everyday as I was 'keeping him from his child' so I ended up just saying what he wanted to hear just to stop him being so nasty to me.

This all changed when I realised the way he was speaking and acting towards me I didn't want that for my child so I told him he needs to sort himself out before he has anything and I blocked him and changed my number.
He now talks through my mum.

Anyway,now I have this letter from the SS and they're visiting because of him and his past behaviour.

As I don't know alot about his past I just want to know what to expect.
Can I get in trouble for saying he can see her If they end up telling me he is a threat but I didn't know?

And will the fact that I've cut of all contact to protect my child work in my favour?

Sorry this is so long and thank you

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Anon1313

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Board.

I imagine that you have already had your meeting with the social worker and s/he has outlined some of the reasons for the concern. From what you have written you clearly understand how to safeguard yourself and child from harm. You have identified that the father has some issues that must be resolved and that you have ended your relationship with him and indicated that your child would not be left alone with him unsupervised.

The social worker, depending on her/his level of concern may have made suggestions to you about safeguarding and outlined why the local authority has concerns about the father and what you can do to safeguard yourself further. You may want to know about how social workers work with families, this information can be found in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015.

You say that the father of your child may want to have contact with the child and this might be done safely with you supervising the contact. I do hope that you were clear with the social worker about what your future plans were for contact. Our advice sheet about parental responsibility may be useful to you as might this booklet about making arrangements for children from the Advice Now website.

I hope my comments help, if you would like to speak to us on our confidential service please call 0808 801 0366, lines are open Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm.

Best wishes

Suzie