desperate in kent

[tackle]

Hi all, our first post, I’ll try to keep it as concise as possible but as you can see from the title we are literally desperate, we’re going through an absolute nightmare & we seem to have no control over the situation whatsoever.
Our story starts back in ’97, our son, who I will refer to as R, was 12 weeks old & was admitted to hospital with what was later confirmed as severe respiratory syncytial virus, a fairly common virus but with varying levels of severity.
At the time we were told R was very ill & we had to be made aware that given his age & the severity there was a real risk of infant mortality (their words not ours).
Although he recovered, upon his discharge from hospital we were told it was likely to reoccur & could also cause other health problems in the future.
Since then R been very susceptible to coughs & colds which almost always make the jump to bronchiolitis/severe respiratory infection.
Obviously this caused problems when he started at primary school, as soon as he came in to contact with other kids with colds, he would get sick & go rapidly downhill, his attendance at one point was recorded to be 51%.
All we could do was to attend our G.P. who would almost always prescribe antibiotics & sign him off of school (& supply a certificate to support this), we would then pass this on to the school & at the same time ask if any work could be supplied for him to complete at home.
Unfortunately we were told there was no legal requirement to supply work so all but two teachers would refuse to help, the two that did help did so on a personal basis, in the belief that the system was very wrong.
This limited work was completed & returned to both teachers at the end of each week for marking.

When R attended secondary school the problem continued, & again we would have to attend the G.P. & go through the familiar process, by now it had got to the point that almost all absences would have to be documented, the only exception being a couple of bouts of sickness/diarrhoea, the kind of thing that anybody can get & usually only last for 24/48 hours, so we wouldn’t usually attend the docs.
As with the primary school, the secondary school would offer no assistance when he was sick.
Things got worse in august 2010, upon returning from a holiday to the usa, R contracted severe sinusitis, probably as a result of the long crowded flight, our response was to visit the G.P. who prescribed four courses of antibiotics, one after another (although one was only partially taken as R was violently sick after taking it).
R then developed chronic urticaria with oedema, this would appear all over his body, with daily attacks, many of which would happen in the early hours, causing severely disrupted sleep, he would often be awake for an hour or more until antihistamines kicked in, obviously by morning he (& his mum & me) would be exhausted.
Again we had the support of G.P.’s, the school, being a foundation school were not so helpful, as well as supplying certificates we were then asked to supply copies of prescriptions & empty medication containers when completed…….this we did, which meant I was making regular 30 mile round trips to deliver these.
We in turn asked that the school supplied work in order that R would not fall too far behind his classmates, this was initially agreed to but then less than a week later, much to our dismay the offer was withdrawn.
This was made worse by the fact that our sons best friend broke his arm in two places during a pe lesson at the same school, this required an emergency operation & obviously time off school, when his dad called the school to inform them of the op & subsequent absence he was immediately, without asking for it, offered homework by the school, which he received in all bar one subject.
Of course the school were worried about legal action over the broken arm but the fact remains if they can offer work for one student, then they can surely do it for any other legitimately sick child.

At one point I even got a call from the vice principal demanding that I go back to my G.P. & insist that R be referred to the hospital school program, this would mean he would be removed from the register therefore not affecting the schools ofsted rating, this I refused to do.
Then out of the blue the school announces its no longer accepting certificates from the G.P., which apparently its within its rights to do although I still don’t understand how.
After much discussion & research my wife & I agree that in light of the lack of help from anybody other than our G.P., that we would remove our son from the register begin home tuition at our own cost.
We informed both the school & the attendance & behaviour service of this, the schools response was to say that they are referring R to KCC social services.
I was gob smacked & very angry, although when social services visited we were very courteous, open & honest, expecting them to see what a loving family we are, & I asked them under what basis they were visiting, this they did not appear to understand so I stated that for them to visit they must have some form of allegation to investigate, their reply was there was no allegation, just that the school were concerned……YEAH RIGHT.

In June I fell ill, was rushed in to hospital where I remained for 2 weeks, my own doctor has said I am very lucky to be alive, one of my problems was burst ulcers in my duodenum & my oesophagus, unfortunately these are not healing, probably due to the increased stress I am currently suffering.
Shortly after being admitted my wife received a call from the social worker, demanding to come to see us, she explained the situation & was told “its ok, your husband doesn’t have to be there”……my wife told her that we were jointly involved & she would not entertain them while I was at deaths door.
Her father later called them & said if there was anything to be said or done, he would represent us until the health scare was resolved, this they did not respond to.

The next contact was late in the afternoon on Friday 29th, we got a call telling us we were invited to a child protection committee meeting on the following Tuesday (2/8/11), with a brief description of who would be there (police etc), at this point I slightly lost it with the social worker who then passed me on to her manager, who explained it would be chaired by a person from an independent organisation, although given the short notice she did not know who the chair would be.
I asked what field the chairs background would be in, I was told that they came from various fields, including social services.
I then asked that if it transpires the chair was in fact a former social worker could I be informed of this, which the manager said she would.
I then set about calling dozens of solicitors in the area as I felt we should have some form of legal council as this was getting out of hand, finally on Monday lunchtime finding someone who could attend the following day with us, I then visited the solicitors office to complete any documentation required.
The next morning I received a letter from social services inviting us to their office at 4pm the previous day to view her report.
I called her office & was told she had called the previous day to remind me of the meeting, obviously I was in town at the solicitors when she called, less than a mile from social services offices, when I checked the answer phone at home, she had called at 5pm, which is the time her office closes.
The meeting was scheduled for 2pm on 2/8/11, we arrived at 1pm & met with our locum solicitor at 1.10pm, at 1.30pm we received a copy of the social workers report, 30 minutes before the meeting.
While we didn’t have time to read the report as we were getting the solicitor up to speed, the front page of the report was littered with mistakes, which we felt was indication of what the rest of the report would be like.
At 1.45pm we were approached by the chair, an obnoxious woman who came at us in a very rude & aggressive manner, & then told us that if we exhibited any rudeness or aggression we would be removed from the meeting & it would carry on without us…….talk about the pot calling the kettle black, unbelievable.
She then told us that there would be two possible outcomes of the meeting, the first is a forced child protection plan, whereby if we fail to adhere to the plan the next step would be court.
She said the other possible outcome would be a voluntary plan which we could choose ignore if we wished…………obviously she had already made up her mind as to our “guilt”, as she did not mention a possible third option, one where there is absolutely no case to answer.
I then asked the chair what field she came from, she explained how she was from an independent council funded organisation.
I then asked the question again, clarifying what field she was in before she became an “independent” chair…….she stated she had been a social worker for more than 20 years.
Our solicitor pointed out that we had not had time to read the report, the chairs response was say if we wanted the meeting adjourned to a later date she would allow it, but if we chose for the meeting to go ahead we would not be allowed to question or dispute any information in the report.
We decided to adjourn the meeting, the rest of the committee members came in & it was clear from their attitude that they also felt we were “guilty” of something, & an interim plan which allowed for R to be seen once a week for the next 3 weeks, we did not agree but were told by the chair we had no choice.
We left the meeting & when we got home we read the social workers report, it was disgusting, full of lies & twisted truths, snippets of information presented in the wrong context in order to paint us as liars or lunatics, its no wonder we had been treated so badly at the protection committee meeting, they had all had the report for at least a week, if I had seen the report as a third party I would have had concerns as well.

The next morning I received a call from the lead social worker, author of the report, she spoke as if we were best mates, all full of laughter & friendliness, & stated she needed to make an appointment to see R.
I pointed out that while I would allow a sw to visit, it would not be her, & that I would be sending a letter to her manager expressing my disgust at her lies & bs in her report & would be making an official complaint.
She then went in to full defensive mode, blaming everybody else for information supplied to her, even though I had pointed out what was the truth, this carried on for 20 minutes, even though I pointed out numerous times that it was inappropriate for us to discuss this further.
Eventually I told her im cutting the call & I would discuss matters with her manager, then the line went dead.
Over the following two weeks I set about first putting in a complaint & then putting our rebuttal on paper.
The social services report spanned a total of 14 pages, although it was obviously padded out as much of the “information” was repeated throughout (she even contradicts herself in her own report).
Our rebuttal spanned 20 pages & this included 41 points which we disagreed with, most of which we considered to be lies or cynical misinterpretations of the truth, presented completely out of context.
We addressed these 41 points, stating why they were lies etc, & gave a full & detailed explanation of what the truth was.
Our rebuttal was in the hands of social services 8 days before the next hearing (23/8/11), which was more than enough time to be distributed to the various committee members.
On the 22/8/11 we were visited by a sw, the second visit in 2 weeks by this particular sw, on both occasions we had allowed him to be alone with R while they spoke, when the sw left at around 4.45pm he handed me an envelope which I opened once he had gone.
The letter was dated 22/8/11 & acknowledged receipt of our rebuttal but stated it would only be accepted as part of our complaint against the lead sw, not as evidence in the child protection committee meeting on the 23rd.

Also, the previous week we had visited a doctor/psychologist who’s incorrect report formed part of the basis of the sw report, the doctor had recently apologised to us for her report, stating that her involvement was a mistake, as R had been falsely labelled by his primary school headmaster (now retired) when he had failed to do his job properly.
This was confirmed by the current headmistress who had also been my sons teacher for a whole year, she also supplied us with a very good character reference for R, which I submitted at the committee meeting.
With regards to the doctor/psychologist, we explained the lies & allegations made in the sw report, her reply was that we were a very loving family & that social services wouldn’t be saying these things about us, there was no grounds for it.
I gave her a copy of both the sw report & our rebuttal & asked that she read them both at her earliest opportunity.
2 days later she called us stating she was shocked at what had been written about us, she said her own report had been used in a piecemeal fashion even by people who she had no contact with & who did not have permission to use it.
She backed this up with a letter to the sw, demanding that 12 points of information be altered or deleted as they were incorrect, & she stated she would also be attending the committee meeting in support of us.

When we attended the committee meeting it was a disgusting farce, we were not allowed to raise any of the points in our rebuttal, the doctor/psychologist was not given free speech nor were her requests for the report to be amended acknowledged, even during the decision making process she recommended a voluntary plan but was bullied in to changing her opinion to a forced plan.
Everybody there on child protection closed ranks in the most corrupt “fit up” you could possibly imagine, the chair was clearly far from neutral.
The outcome was a forced plan, the categories of harm being emotional as a primary with neglect as a secondary, they even tried to say that medical intervention should be classed as physical abuse.
This week I received the official minutes from the meeting, even they appear to have been altered in support of social services, numerous points left out but false information added, the fact that the minute taker is employed by social services is extremely suspect.
Also I received the outcome of our stage one complaint, no surprises when I read it supported the lead sw, needless to say we are now moving on to stage 2.
We are also awaiting an extended appointment with our local mp as I feel the only way to get fair treatment on this matter is to take it out of the hands of this group of liars.

We would appreciate any help that anybody can suggest, we have done all that is required of us throughout our sons life with little or no help from anybody other than our G.P. who still give us his full support, note that at no point do social services criticize the G.P. or his treatment, just us for visiting him when required.
clearly a pattern had emerged very early on, if anybody in health, education, behaviour & attendance, or any other agency had concerns they should have raised them way back, R was entitled to support but it was never received.

We cannot understand how these lying scum can get away with saying & doing what they like, the whole affair is akin to a third world kangaroo court.
I should also point out that according to Ofsted Kcc social services are the worst performing social services in the country, they have had a major shake up recently but this clearly is not enough.
Currently this is having a very real effect on our health as a family, my wife & I don’t sleep much these days, always worried what the next knock on the door or arrival of post will bring, but a bigger concern is the effect this is having on our son, he has begun to have some bladder control issues, especially at night, this is worrying as he is 14 next month.
His doctor has confirmed these are like to be a direct result of stress & anxiety, obviously caused by this whole fiasco.

Im sorry for having to supply so much information, in fact I left a lot out but as you can imagine its all of the same nature.
Thanks for taking the time to read our story……..mark.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear John,

I am really sorry to hear about all the difficult time you have been having recently. I am glad that you have a solicitor to guide you and provide legal advice and support.
I think these are the main issues that you raise:

Your son is on a CP plan and you are not happy with the process
I am glad that you are cooperating with the Child Protection (CP) Plan and allowing the SW to see your son. Although you do not agree with the decision made at the conference (you may want to make a complaint about it-see below) it is still important that you cooperate with the CP plan. At the review CP meeting (within 3 months time) the conference may consider removing your sons name from the Cp plan. This would happen if it was agreed that your son was not at risk of suffering continuing significant harm.

Please see our advice sheet child protection. This gives full details about the process. http://www.frg.org.uk/pdfs/9.%20Child%2 ... edures.pdf

Part of the plan is for core group meetings to take place. (These are the smaller meetings involving you and Mum, the SW, other professionals that are most involved with the CP plan. The reason for the core group meetings is to pad out the CP plan. It allows you to have a greater input. For example, if you needed any support then you could request this at the meeting. If you felt that some of the CP plan was not fair then you could ask that the CP plan be amended. Government guidance expects parents to be involved as they know their child better than any one.

Your son is 14-and may be of an age where he is old enough to be making a lot of his own decisions. What are his views about the CP plan? He may benefit from having an advocate at the review who could be talking to the SW on his behalf.
Try: NYAS http://www.nyas.net/
Or action for advocacy http://www.actionforadvocacy.org.uk/

Accurate records

Government guidance makes it clear that CS records need to be correct. I know that you are unhappy with the inaccuracies that are contained in the sw report. Factual errors must be corrected. However, in respect of a difference in opinion, the sw is entitled to hold her opinion that is based on fact. You should ask that your rebuttal is placed on CS file.
There is also a process where you can complain about how the CP conference was conducted or the decision made. If you think your views were not heard because you were not allowed to put your report into conference then you could consider a further complaint. Please see page 9 of our advice sheet on complaints.
Your compliant should go to the chair who will then pas it onto the complaints department.

I have probably only touched on some of your questions. Please post again or you could discuss in depth with one of our advisors on the advice line. This is free and open between 9:30 and 3: 30 Mondays to Fridays.
Best wishes,
Suzie

[TKH]

At 14 he is old enough to arrend himself and to bring someone he wishes to support him.He probably wouldnt be able to stay for the whole thing and would need soneone to leave with him incase upset (you wouldnt want to be in a position where you have to choose between staying with him or missing the end of core group meeting)Even my 12 year old sent a video message and 14 and 16 year olds went.

[ange301126]

we suffered from the same sort of thing( fraudulent statements) in a different context where we were in a court setting from the start.You must try and knock it on the head from an early stage and as you will appreciate this will be by no means easy.One problem we had was that even our own solicitors did not seem to be working all out for us and had more trust in the CS and their colleagues than their own clients.You are at an earlier stage than us and I suggest you get a good solicitor ( not necessarily a family law one who are the most cooperative with the CS) and instruct him to write a warning letter to the Local Authority Director of Children's Services. If they do not respond positively ( quite likely) ask your solicitor to make an official complaint to the Police demanding a full investigation.
The situation you are facing now could go on and on and on unless you act decisively to combat the misinformation and propaganda the CS will be intent on sowing.
Hope this advice is helpful, but be warned,include in your letters to the department offers to cooperate and accept support and even ask for specific support you may need such as finance for private tutorage.Avoid any suggestion that you are antagonistic to the Local Authority as a whole and keep all correspondence.Hope this is of help.False statements of fact are fraudulent if they do not tally with the facts freely available to a social worker so if she made the report up without questioning you as to the real facts and giving you the opportunity to offer disagreements and give correct information and an account of circumstances she may be guilty of libel to the meeting you attended and in a court setting sworn statements could be thought perjurious by a jury.She may be acting with malicious intent.