Positive viability but not recommend for Family and friends due to PNC ?

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serenitymae
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:03 am

Positive viability but not recommend for Family and friends due to PNC ?

Post by serenitymae » Sat May 08, 2021 1:15 am

In May last year my GD 1 was taken into care with an unexplained injury. I stayed at the hospital with her for four nights until a SW came and told me my daughter did not want her to come with me. My daughter called and said it was because the SW had told her it was because of our initial PNC report and due to us having past criminal convictions. We felt we had no choice but to support the child’s father. In Aug 202O we had an initial viability which was negative and we were told by an online solicitor to challenge this would mean our GD1 would stay in care longer. Our GD 1 was sent under a supervision order 500 miles away with her father. In Oct 2020 our daughter gave birth to another baby (GD 2) and after some serious consideration we put ourselves forward to be assessed for her. In January we had a pos viability assessment and the judge ordered a full kinship/ fostering assessment which has just come back not recommended. The main reason was safeguarding due to the PNC information, upset by this I checked our previous viability assessments and to our horror the SW had put my husband had been arrested and convicted of an offence under The children Act 1989 and there was also an allegation on the PNC check. We refused to let our assessment be shown to the court until after panel and spoke to the police regarding our PNC info. The police checked and said our PNC was negative nothing at all on it, apart from convictions which our DBS showed and we were passed by the LA for work after discussing this. My husband sought legal advice and has been told it is a criminal offence to put false information before the judge and to file a crime with the police, which he has. We have now received a letter from the LA stating the judge wants a statement as to why we wont allow our assessment to be shared by 4pm on 17th may and we are to appear in court on 21st May to tell the judge ourselves why. We have no legal and dont know if we should be applying to be party to proceedings or as interveners or if we need to do any of these at all. The LA have not been helpful and I am certain they want us to fail in order to adopt our GD2 and justify sending GD1 to her violent father. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have got the form C2 but am at a complete loss of what to put on it. We passed the house check and our references were all positive this has been an awful long year and we only want to care for our GD’s but we have been treated like criminals and not offered any sort of help or advice from the local authority. We can not afford the legal fees that we have been quoted as we have a disabled teenager and no real savings. I work as a senior counsellor and know safeguarding this would be an absolute tragedy if our GDs were adopted.

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 950
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Positive viability but not recommend for Family and friends due to PNC ?

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed May 26, 2021 2:43 pm

Dear serenitymae

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Board.

I am sorry to read of your situation and for the delay in responding.

By now you will have been to court and may now find the information on our website about kinship care arrangements helpful. You will find information here, about party to proceedings and the process of court in relation to care and related proceedings.

Child Law Advice may be able to give you some legal advice, as may Support through Court .

With regard to records held on the Police National Computer, you may be able to find out how to access or change any incorrect information that is being held about you here.

If you would like to speak to an adviser in confidence on our helpline, the line are open Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays) on 0808 801 0366, from 9.30am-3.00pm.

Best wishes

Suzie

serenitymae
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:03 am

Re: Positive viability but not recommend for Family and friends due to PNC ?

Post by serenitymae » Wed May 26, 2021 6:00 pm

Thank you Suzie, we were allowed to be in court on Friday and we are to put a statement in by May 7th as to what we do not agree with in our assessments. We know that the PNC was definitely negative so I am unsure where they got the information from. As for our SGO it has to be sent to us by Friday 28th May at 4pm and we have to still have our fostering panel meeting on the same day at 10am. Things have slightly progressed since Friday as social services asked us to drive our daughter to Cornwall for contact as they could not get her a train ticket. We were allowed to join her contact session ( which was wonderful but also very upsetting). Our grandchild had many bruises on her legs and body and the social worker allowed the child’s father to put her in his car (very very distressed ) and leave her alone whilst he came back into the building to retrieve her belongings and chat with the social worker. We also discovered women's underwear in the child’s changing bag and heard the father state he had a female staying with him ( which he is not allowed to do). He had only recently (two weeks ago) offered a female he did not know his address to come and stay for a cuddle or maybe more? I immediately contacted the local authority regarding this to be told she would contact the Cornwall social worker and get back to me. As yet I have had nothing back. I have however been allowed court documents which have all the errors social workers have made and show their concerns regarding the child’s father. I have contacted an ISW company although I am not sure if this will be of any help. I was also very disturbed by the sheer lack of professionalism we witnessed by the actual judge when discussing holidays with the legal teams involved and also the judge declaring she had not read the files pertaining to the assessments, I was sat gobsmacked at the insensitivity shown when discussing their holidays when trying to book a ten day hearing at the end of this year whilst we have two grandchildren literally in limbo and no concern for the length of time this court case has taken/ will take. As far as the judge is concerned if the local authority have no concerns with the fathers care then it is ok to leave her with him for another six months and the baby in foster care for another six months. I am furloughed from my job as a senior counsellor and because I work we cannot claim legal aid and so to use a ISW will use every last penny I have saved for visits to see our granddaughter in Cornwall. I am really just at a loss now with what we can do apart from keep fighting in court (if allowed) at one point the Local authority’s barrister actually laughed when the judge stated we had no legal representation. Our daughter obviously wants her children returned to her, but she is emotionally immature and has no idea whats going on, shes just listening to her solicitor who is very clearly working alongside the local authority. I will try calling the number again as much as I can over the next few days, and have looked into probono legal help, Mckenzie friends and the courts own help to absolutely no avail. I just keep praying that the truth will come out and the judge will see that we are not fighting social services we are fighting to keep our granddaughters safe and within the family.

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