Dear Scrappy123
Congratulations on the birth of your child.
I am sorry to hear that your partner was sent to prison. You say, he will be allowed out of prison in November, but he will not be able to live with you and your baby until children services have carried out an assessment.
Have a look at our
triangle diagram -which explains support for children and the different levels of children services being involved. Underneath the triangle, there are FAQ’s about children services and assessments.
The assessment will involve the social worker coming to your home, seeing you and baby together, and checking your home and where you and baby sleep. The social worker will want to know about your relationship with dad and whether there has been any problems, such as domestic violence.
The social worker will want to speak to any professionals who are involved with baby-such as the health visitor and GP. She will do checks with the police.
She will also want to speak to anyone involved with dad-such as his probation officer and should speak to dad and his family as well.
She will also want to know about your support network –family and friends.
So it will feel like you are under the microscope. The best way forward though, is to be cooperative with the assessment.
But the social worker should also explain things to you, should usually ask for your consent before she contacts any professionals about you and ne respectful of who you are-your culture and background for example.
Here is
information about the best way to work with a social worker.
At the end of the assessment, she should give you a report. She may want a plan of support to be put in place
(child in need plan).
A plan might include courses for dad and also support for you as well as what other ways professionals will be supporting you.
If at any point, children services thought baby might be at risk of harm, for example, from dad, then she may want a child protection investigation to take place. Here are
FAQ’s about child protection .
You may be able to have an advocate to support you. Here is
information about advocates.
You may also be interested in that support families of prisoners.
these organisations .
I hope this advice helps. But if you have any questions or need further support, please post again or call our advice line on 0808 801 0366.
Best wishes,
Suzie