SC

[Janderson9]

If baby’s father no longer wants to be involved and social care was involved because of his previous kids not being in his care will they need to still be involved with me?

[Bossman1959]

Hi this must be horribble for you.

Is your child on a protection plan, if so then I think, you will find they will be there with you till the next review. Obviously if they find everything ok and have no worries, then the plan will end.

However your child will be known as a child in need, so any education estalishments, hospital and doctors will all take an interest if they feel there is an issue.

Hope this helps

[Janderson9]

Baby isn’t on a protection plan as they haven’t done the first initial assessment it’s because he has 3 other kids and he doesn’t have them in his care due to not being on the birth certificates so I understand they have a job to do in that sense, but him and those kids aren’t going to be around so baby will be all in my care. They have told me they have no issue or think I’m the risk

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

If baby’s father no longer wants to be involved and social care was involved because of his previous kids not being in his care will they need to still be involved with me?

Dear Janderson9

Welcome to the Parents Forum, I am Suzie, an adviser at Family Rights Group.

Firstly, congratulations on your pregnancy and thank you for sharing your posts with us and other users of the Forum. I hope this response covers what you have said so far.

I am sorry to read that your unborn baby’s father has decided not to support you or be involved with you at this time. From what you have written the father is known to children’s services and may be concerned about being involved with them again.

It is not clear why you have said that he is not on his children’s birth certificates, and this is a reason why children’s services were involved with him. Here is information from our website about parental responsibility, who has it and how to obtain it etc.

You have said that children’s services do not have any concerns about you but would want to undertake an assessment of you and your partner if you were to ‘be together as a family’ or ‘parent together’. Here are our webpages for parents to be, I hope they will be helpful.

The National Childbirth Trust may be helpful too, here is a link to their site.

If you would like to speak with one of our advisers about your situation, please call our confidential telephone service on 0808 801 0366, our lines are open Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 3.00pm. You can access us on Webchat too on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.

Best wishes
Suzie

[Janderson9]

Hi Suzie,

I’ve agreed to do the assessment but they are asking if I consent to them contacting father to be I have said I’d rather no contact is had with him as he isn’t on the scene and it will be staying that way once baby is here. Do they have to contact father if he isn’t going to be around

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Janderson9

Thank you for your post.

It is good to see that you have now agreed to the assessment. I know that you have stated previously that the father does not wish to be involved with the pregnancy, but children’s services may wish to satisfy themselves that he does not wish to be involved.

Children’s services may be concerned that you and he may get back together once they are no longer involved, and this break may be be-cause he does not wish to engage with children’s services. You could be setting yourself up for more involvement by children’s services if you decided afterwards to try with him for your baby’s sake.

It is possible that once baby arrives as the father, he might want to have contact and be involved with his child. If he is, for example, assessed as a risk then you would have that to help you decide. Also, if he really is not interested if the social worker contacts him, he can say he is not interested.

Children’s services cannot force him to be involved or to agree to be assessed.

Do remember that things may change after baby arrives and at this stage it is for him to tell children’s services his position about the unborn baby.

I suggest you read the information in the links sent to you in the previous post.

Hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie