Help please

[Fisalida]

So we are in a very weird situation.
I was hoovering and my 10 weeks old baby started crying, my 8 year old daughter picked her up and was bringing her to me, I didn’t hear them coming close and I accidentally bumped the baby on the head with the hoover.
The baby cried and I picked her up, comforted her and she stopped crying. She didn’t have a red mark or a bruise, nothing. She fell asleep and after 30-40mins woke up. We were playing, she looked normal, and she fell asleep again. After one and a half hour I got a bit worried that she was sleeping a lot, and we tried to wake her up, she fed and fell asleep straight away. I thought I should call 111 to get an advice in case she had a concussion, when were on the phone with them the baby literally couldn’t open her eyes. The operator said they needed to call the ambulance because she is too young and in any case of a head injury they always do. So the ambulance came and she was wide awake by then looking around, happy and smilie, they examined her and they said we can see that nothing is wrong with the baby but we are not experts so we will have to take her in the hospital for a checkup.
So we went in, she got checked by the Triage nurse, I told her the story etc, and she asked me to wait for the Paediatric doctor to see her, but she cannot see any major issues.
The baby is feeding, is alert , no bumps or bruises and the most important no vomiting!
The doctor checked her from head to toe and asked me how it happened etc, she straight away said you can go home, the baby is absolutely fine and she definitely doesn’t have a concussion, everything happens within the first 4 hrs and it was already 5+ hrs passed since the incident. So we went home relieved that it was a silly accident and that we can forget about it.
However, the following day we got a call from Social Services saying that they will initiate an investigation due to believing that I might have hurt the baby on purpose and/or we are neglecting her by allowing our 8 year old daughter picking her up and moving around the house. We were so surprised to say the least.
They said they will call the hospital and our daughter’s school and said that they will call us straight back, they never called back and after many hrs we called and they said the hospital said they didn’t have any concerns, but they are still waiting from the school. The Social Worker also mentioned that she is suggesting a home visit but after her supervisor agrees with it.
Another day passed and we haven’t heard from them. Yesterday we had to call them, to get an update on what is happening. They were still waiting for the school to respond.
We are a very happy family and this has made us so stressed, we obviously don’t touch our kids but the way they talk to us makes us look and feel like monsters.
What should we expect next? Are they such bad communicators or are they doing it to intimidate us?
Many thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Fisalida,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Parents’ Forum.

My name is Suzie and I am an online adviser who will be replying to you today.

I am sorry to hear about the stressful time that you have experienced.
It’s so good to read that your baby daughter is absolutely fine and did not have a concussion. Obviously, you were careful and vigilant and made sure that she was thoroughly assessed at the time.

It’s unfortunate that you were not informed of the referral to children’s services by the health professionals and were understandably taken by surprise when you subsequently heard from children’s services.

Children’s services may have already explained to you that they have a legal duty to make enquiries if they receive any information that a child may be at risk of significant harm, but I will go into a little more detail here in case it is useful to you.

Child protection enquiries are sometimes called child protection investigations. They are also referred to as ‘Section 47 enquiries or investigations.’ This is because the legal duty to investigate is set out in Section 47 of the Children Act 1989.

Social workers firstly need to gather information about the child and their family. This will help them to decide what action (if any) they need to take to keep the child safe. It may be that the child protection enquiries conclude that your baby is safe at home and that no further action is needed. You should be advised about where children’s services are up to with their enquiries; which agencies they may still need to hear from, and if a decision on whether a home visit is necessary has now been taken.

All children’s services departments have to follow the government guidance set out in Working Together 2018 when conducting a child protection enquiry.

You can read more about Child Protection Enquiries here
And Child Protection here

I am sorry to hear that you have not heard back from children’s service about the progress of their enquiries in a timely way and fully appreciate how this has worsened the stress you and other family members are experiencing.
The delays you describe will not be due to a deliberate attempt to intimidate you, though I appreciate that you feel scrutinised and that the whole process is unsettling in the extreme.

You should have been given contact details for the relevant social work team and team manager so that you can seek updates.
There will also be a contact number for children’s services on your local council website, under Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

I hope that this information and advice is useful to you. You may wish to seek further advice in the future. In addition to the forum you can telephone the advice line to speak to an experienced adviser, or have a conversation via webchat. You can also submit an email enquiry for a private response.
For details of these options please go to this link -
Further ways to seek advice from Family Rights Group

Best wishes,
Suzie

[Fisalida]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you so much for your reply.
I am really not sure why but the social worker who did the initial phone call to us, even though she called the hospital and my older’s daughter school and the responses she got that there are no concerns about the kids, she requested to still go through with the home visit.
The social worker who visited was a really nice lady person, she visited my daughter at school and she only had positive things to say about her experience and then us at home.
She told us that she cannot see the reason of investigating this accident further and after she will contact again the services that have been provided care to me and my baby she will close the case asap.
Of course they should follow their procedures, I am all about this but it was slightly stressful for us.
Also the social worker on the phone was a bit awful to me, blandly accusing me of harming my baby on purpose. That’s what initially distressed me. They cannot be like that because they have no idea what I have been through to have this baby. Trying to conceive since 2019, following cancer battle,
Going through sooo many failed IVFs. She is my little miracle!!!

Thank you for your help.
We are waiting for the report to put this bad dream behind us.