LA made changes in their initial report from hosp document...

[ijustwanthelpplease]

My husband and I have bee accused of NAI. We have identical twin boys (9 weeks when taken) and a 1 y/o (14 months when taken).

One of our boys had something wrong with his arm, we took him in. He had a fracture. We don't understand how. They had to do safe-guarding which apparently also required a social worker coming to the house to check on me and the other boys and evaluate me, them and household (is this true that this is required, can anyone confirm - this was initially under the guise of "offering me help" but then changed to requirement to check the environment and other boys). This didn't happen because it was New Years Day and staffing issues, instead two uninformed policewomen from a different area arrived (is this normal? Their report was released recently and didn't discuss the household or other boys or me) who did who didn't ID themselves and didn't even know why they were here arrived.

They did full body scan of our son as per child protection. Found multiple healing fractures. We were devostated and confused.

The next day two social workers turn up after they told me the night before at a call at almost midnight that there would be no social workers coming. They issued a letter asking us to agree voluntary placement. We agreed. ICO in place. Boys taken.

We were issued a bunch of documents. These went to a faceless court over night that decided it wasn't voluntarily placement but forced.

I have a document from them from the very beginning that states the reason the boys were taken is because NAI and because we didn't agree for them to be taken into care, which is not true atall. It also states the other two went to placement while the one with the broken arm remained in hospital. This is untrue, they all went, and when the other two went to hospital the next day for their child protection scans, the head nurse asked to check on the cast of the injured twin and was confused he wasn't there. I was reassured he was okay at placement. I had no choice but to take their word. He was fine, thankfully.

The document outlining these other fractures our 9 week-old son had made no other statement than "healing fracture" of whatever bones it was. However we recently had a document disclosure which gave us the original hospital document the LA compiled this letter from. They didn't include the descriptive words about these fractures. Words that include "miniscule", "subtle", "thin", "abnormality". While a fracture is a fracture, I feel these descriptive words are very important. Why did the LA remove them in their initial letter to us? To me, it sounds like they're claiming the fractures were worse than they were.

Is this normal? Why wasn't the initial release by the LA an accurate representation of what the hospital stated in the initial report?

Please reply. So much about this whole thing feels fishy and like protocol has not been followed. We are low-risk parents but treated like we are not. They keep acting like we have something to hide when we don't. I don't trust them. I feel like they're going to be armchair psychiatrists because we have no mental health records because we've never suffered with mental health problems (until now, I am trying to get councilling to deal with this. I have been open about this. I don't know if this will go against me. I'm not unhinged).

Thank you if you read this.

[KatKat10]

I find it bizarre that children's services are amending medical reports, they are not qualified doctors. Have you explored that your children may have underlying medical conditions relating to their bones and can you request to get this investigated at hospital?

Have you got a solicitor, as it sounds like you agreed to something you shouldn't have, under duress. Although, you mention that the court have recognized this.

The more I read on this forum, the more I wonder what an earth is going on out there with Children's Services, there appears to be some sort of overdrive in removing children from families. I hope the family courts are recognizing this and will ask for an investigation into Local Authority's to look into the types of practices going on. Having experienced absolute hell and ongoing court case, I sympathize with others going through the same thing and can relate to the lies that are told by CS.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear ijustwanthelpplease,

Welcome to the parents forum and thank you for your post. I am very sorry to hear about the extremely difficult time you are going through at the moment. I hope that the following advice is of some help to you.

Firstly you ask if it was required for a social worker to do a safeguarding visit to your house after the concerns about your baby’s injury came to light. This would be standard practice where there are child protection concerns and there are other children in the household. You son’s injury would have a triggered a child protection investigation (also known as a Section 47 investigation) and it is a requirement for a safeguarding check to be completed as soon as possible on all the children involved. As it was a bank holiday there were no social workers available, so the police were asked to do a safeguarding check in their absence. Again, this is not unusual; it would have been preferable if a social worker had been present but if this is not possible then police are able to carry these checks out.

I cannot comment specifically on your question about why the wording was different in the documents provided by the local authority and the hospital. I would suggest that you raise your concerns about the specific descriptions of the injuries in the different documents with your solicitor. Your solicitor will be able to advise you as to whether they feel that this should be highlighted in court and if any challenge should be made about these documents. You may also wish to consider getting a second opinion from a health professional. You should discuss this with your solicitor if so.

It is positive that you are having some counselling to help you whilst you go through this process but you are worried that this will go against you. It should never be held against a parent that they are seeking support and I would encourage you to continue being open and honest with the professionals involved. Mental health concerns would only be raised if there was evidence to suggest that a parent’s mental health may impact negatively on their parenting and place a child at risk of harm. Seeking support whilst you are going through a difficult time certainly does not suggest this.

You can find information on our website HERE about care proceedings, and HERE about non-accidental injury.

I hope that this is helpful. Please post again if you have further queries or you can call our adviceline (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) on 0808 801 0366.

Best wishes,
Suzie