Could i have a second child?

[Table cloth]

My son was born in October 2017, SS had some concerns as i have mental health issues and was at the time an 18 year old care leaver. Me and my sons dad are in a healthy happy relationship and still are.
Throughout december i had health concerns for our son and took him back and foward to the doctors and A&E. In January had a "brief resolved episode" we had called an ambulance and at the hospital when they tried to discharge us i refused to leave with him because of how worried for his health i was. The hospital eventually did tests and a CT scan which came back with a subdural hematoma. He had no other injuries. We where then accused of causing this and he was removed from us. Since its been impossible for us to prove that we didn't cause it and medical experts saying its most likely non accidental (which met the courts threshold of likelyhood) he was placed under an SGO with my partners brother. That relationship broke down and they are only allowing us contact once per year "until he can make up his own mind"

We did have significant financial difficulties - we have since resolved these.
My mental health continues to improve and am on the waitibg list after many years for the correct therapy.
The trauma of having my son removed however triggered Functional Neurological Disorder and i now suffer from seizures and other neurological symptoms.
We have moved area and have settled.

My question is, once i have completed therapy, if the time is right could we have another child? Or would SS just take any other children because we where accused of causing injury to our other son (the police investigated for 2 years and come up with no evidence to say that we had)

I hope you can understand what im asking, would a new child be taken due to being seen as at risk due to what happened before?
I didn't hurt my baby, and it kills me that i wont ever be able to prove that and get him back

[A123]

I've gone through something similar with regards to therapy, I had my daughter removed from birth apparently due to a number of reasons, I had a psychological assessment done through court which recommended I needed up to 2 years of dbt therapy I couldn't get it on the NHS as I was too stable my mental health team told the court and the psychologist argued that my mental health team discharging me was basically not a good idea well anyway I paid privately for the therapy got the case back into court had another psychological assessment all mental health issues had gone within 6/7 months of therapy court still said no due to lack of time to prove changes are permanent I've been out of therapy since October last year same time court finished but my daughter has gone for adoption I also had 2 children under an sgo, if you can prove significant changes you can apply to discharge the sgo and if the judge said anything about contact between you and your son you can take it back to court if the person with the order has stopped contact.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

My son was born in October 2017, SS had some concerns as i have mental health issues and was at the time an 18 year old care leaver. Me and my sons dad are in a healthy happy relationship and still are.
Throughout december i had health concerns for our son and took him back and foward to the doctors and A&E. In January had a "brief resolved episode" we had called an ambulance and at the hospital when they tried to discharge us i refused to leave with him because of how worried for his health i was. The hospital eventually did tests and a CT scan which came back with a subdural hematoma. He had no other injuries. We where then accused of causing this and he was removed from us. Since its been impossible for us to prove that we didn't cause it and medical experts saying its most likely non accidental (which met the courts threshold of likelyhood) he was placed under an SGO with my partners brother. That relationship broke down and they are only allowing us contact once per year "until he can make up his own mind"

We did have significant financial difficulties - we have since resolved these.
My mental health continues to improve and am on the waitibg list after many years for the correct therapy.
The trauma of having my son removed however triggered Functional Neurological Disorder and i now suffer from seizures and other neurological symptoms.
We have moved area and have settled.

My question is, once i have completed therapy, if the time is right could we have another child? Or would SS just take any other children because we where accused of causing injury to our other son (the police investigated for 2 years and come up with no evidence to say that we had)

I hope you can understand what im asking, would a new child be taken due to being seen as at risk due to what happened before?
I didn't hurt my baby, and it kills me that i wont ever be able to prove that and get him back

Dear Table cloth

Welcome to Family Rights Group’s parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie, FRG’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that your little boy suffered an injury which resulted in him being removed from your care. He has been made subject to a Special Guardianship Order to his paternal uncle. Sadly your relationship with the special guardian is not good and at the moment you are having very limited contact with your son – only once a year.

You are a young woman who has remained in a relationship with your son’s father which you describe very positively. You and your partner have made some changes in your lives, sorting out financial problems and moving home. Your mental health is improving and you are awaiting the right therapeutic support to help you. You have experienced neurological problems in the last couple of years. Understandably you would like to have another child and to be able to successfully care for them.

In relation to the current contact with your son, have you tried mediation with the special guardian to try to resolve the issue that has caused the relationship breakdown? Contact is always about the child’s needs so if you can show how your son would benefit from this you could ask children’s services to help with this too. You could also consider making an application the court for a Child Arrangement Order to ask the court to decide about how/when you could spend time with your son. There is more information in this advice sheet on Special Guardianship – what does it mean for birth parents? .

I think from your post that the court found, in the Fact Finding hearing in your son’s case, that you and your partner were both in the pool of perpetrators but could not determine which parent caused the injury. If I have misunderstood please do post back to clarify. I know that you are very clear that you were not responsible but the court finding will be taken as fact. If you do not have a transcript of the judgment it would be a good idea to ask for it and to review what was said in it. You might also want to discuss with the solicitor who represented you if you are planning to have another baby and get their specific legal advice on what to expect too.

In view of the fact finding, children’s services would have concerns for an unborn baby if you were to become pregnant again. However, they cannot just ‘take’ another child. They would need to assess you and your partner in relation to your current situation too, taking account of the history in relation to your son. This would include assessing what is different now to decide if you could safely parent your unborn baby. You would need to be prepared to cooperate with a pre-birth assessment and any other procedures that might follow such as child protection. If the case went into care proceedings you would of course have legal representation. Children’s services cannot apply for a court order for a baby until they are born. It would be for the local authority to prove that you and your partner could not safely parent your baby and how they have reached that conclusion.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict or reassure you what the outcome of an assessment will be. However, you sound as if you are thinking things through very carefully, getting the right therapeutic support for yourself in place and looking ahead. All of this shows that you are trying to make a responsible decision for you and any future child you might have. Some parents who have had a child removed from their care have gone on to keep subsequent children but every situation will be different, dependent on the assessment of risk and specific facts of the case.

You might find that these specialist FAQs helpful:

How will social workers decide if my baby is safe?
I’ve had a baby taken into care, now I am expecting a new baby and I want support but am afraid to ask
Young parents/help and advice for care leavers.

I hope this helps.

With best wishes

Suzie