Advocacy

[MarkEd]

The sections below are from 'Getting the Best from Complaints':

1.1.3 This guidance is for representations, including complaints, made by children and
young people. It also applies to parents, foster carers and other adults making a
complaint. Throughout the guidance the term children and young people is used when
referring to the complainant, however this term includes adults making a complaint about
services to a child.

3.2.1 If a child or young person wishes to make a
complaint, local authorities are required to provide him with information about advocacy
services and offer help to obtain an advocate (see section 3.4).

3.4.2 The Complaints Manager should ensure that a suitable person meets the child or
young person to discuss the complaints process and ensure that any questions or
concerns that the complainant may have are fully addressed.

Many la's will tell you that if you are an adult involved in a children's act complaint about the way they have behaved, you are not entitled to advocacy. From my reading of the Social Care complaints framework you are, and they are obliged to ensure you have been offered it.

My advice on Social Care complaints is:
1) Digitally record everything, with their knowledge. Take a friend who can take notes at meetings.
2) Apply for all relevant documentation, including emails via DSAR.
3) Contact the council and copy in the ICO, to request corrections of any inaccurate data in your record.
4) Make friends with the la's IT department. They are not SS, and are effectively their digital policers.
5) Read every part of 'Getting the Best from Complaints', and any part of Working together and Information sharing protocols that are relevant to you. Make a file of quotes and use them to remind the council regularly of their repsonsibilities.
6) Keep every bit of paper, email etc.
7) Involve your local children's councillor, and your MP early, and copy them in on your correspondence.
8) Don't trust independent panels, or the LGO!!! Challenge the qualifications and expertise of any independent panel, and ensure that at least one, pref. the Chair, has consultant child protection training and previous experience as an independent chair.

[GTHY22]

Please contact me if you can help.

Im in process of writing complaint to LGO, children social services have left a marriage broken, based incestigations on ignorance and prejudices and left a wife with mental health issues with psychotic episodes alone with kids. A helath vistor, social worker and mental helath showed complete incompetence and asked me to leave my home based on social profiling, social worker asked i seek legal advice against my wifes wishes.

I left my home, i could see my wife was seriously ill, probably not taking medication even calling my 3yr old daughter with a heart condition an attention seeker, when she cried, she got no comfort and , ending up vomitting, it was that bad. Social worker simply advised not to say that.

I was dumbfounded that they could ask me to leave. I escalated matters nothig happened. Approx 12 days later a volounter supporting my wife escalated matters, wife didnt know whether she had fed my child or given her medication. Wife was almost hospitalised and children taken out of her care, it transpired she hadn't been taking her medication for 2 months. Because of wifes psychotic episodes a helath visitor believed it was domestic abuse or husband being controlling with not a shred of evidence.

The stress left cahos in the family, social services then to coverup seperated meetings, causing stress around contact for kids, marriage left broken after further psychotic episodes whivh i qas being accused of.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear GTHY22

Welcome to the parents’ discussion forum and thank you for posting.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group. I am sorry that there has been a delay in responding to your posts due to high volume of work.

From your post I can see that you state you had to leave your home because of allegations of domestic violence which you say are unfounded and for which there is no evidence. You believe that the situation arose because a health visitor considered your wife was in a controlling relationship and the effect this was having on her and your children’s wellbeing. As you may be aware, as a health professional the Health Visitor has a safeguarding role and, as such, can make a referral to children’s services if, in her opinion there are safeguarding issues relating to a child.

It may help you to understand the issues relating to domestic violence and its effect on children if you read thisinformation .

You have expressed concerns that rather than domestic violence your wife has a mental health condition and this has not been taken into account. I am not able to comment on whether your case was properly investigated by children’s services once they received the referral. I am only able to advice that there are procedures to be followed when children’s services receive a referral from any source. Our advice sheet An introductory guide to Children’s Services provides information about the procedure.

If you believe the process has been unfair to you or procedures not followed you can, as you have done make a formal complaint to children’s services and, if not satisfied with the outcome of that process can take the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. You have said you are in the process of doing so. You may find it helpful to read our advice sheet Challenging decisions and making complaints .

Hope you will find this information helpful and should you wish to speak to an adviser you can telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays).

Best wishes

Suzie

[Lil123]

This is so true! My son is disabled and non verbal nearly 12 YO. I asked for advocate for him and it was refused by his SEN school due to COVID19 restrictions not allowing them to be let in. I called Corman Voice and they said every child over age of 4 is entitled to one. They wanted to raise safeguarding concern when the SEN school refused it. I was too fearful of the consequences of making a fuss, so I have had to let it go for now.

And as for LGO comment below - totally agree. I made a complaint recently to LGO and they came back with incorrect information about my sons care as a reason to not uphold my complaint. Its like their default position is to assume parent is being difficult and that at all costs they must find a way to not uphold the complaint. It is a complete joke!! I tried to point it out and went to NSPCC on it. They referred me to Children's commissioner who have gone silent on me since I responded to the garbage given to them by LA about my concern. I find it shocking that these services who are supposed to care about real life child human beings actually care very little about them. They are just numbers and pieces of meat to most of the people that work in these organisations. Covid has brought out the absolute worse in some of these institutions!

8) Don't trust independent panels, or the LGO!!! Challenge the qualifications and expertise of any independent panel, and ensure that at least one, pref. the Chair, has consultant child protection training and previous experience as an independent chair.
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