Need advice

[Bubbles]

Hi all

I need some advice, my child (4 years old in reception) made a disclosure at the school on friday. We have no history of any problems with SS or the school.

The school reported it to SS, they did not inform me that they were going to make a referral. We picked him up from school at 3.

At 3.30pm on a Friday I get a call from a social worker about a mark being reported on my child asking for more details eg dr surgery and details of other children. At this point i thought it was a bogus call.

On Monday I spoke to the school, that I had this call and they confirm yes the made the call.


What has really annoyed, distressed and upset me is that i was not informed by the school that a referral has been made. I understand they wouldn't tell parents if they felt by doing so it would put the child in more danger. However, they must have a reason why they felt this. The social service call didn't call me back till tuesday to tell me she wanted to see my child in school, which was fine as we had nothing to hide.

Is it reasonable to think that we should have been informed that a referral has been made

any advice would be good

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Bubbles

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am FRG’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties you and your family are experiencing and also that there has been a delay responding to your post.

You are currently having an assessment as a result of a referral made by your 4 year old’s school in response to something that he had said and in relation to a concern about a mark on him. You are concerned that you were not informed by the school that they were making this referral which you did not know about until you were contacted by a social worker later the same day. Since then your child has probably seen been seen at school as you agreed to this. Hopefully you will be a little bit clearer now about what is happening.

In relation to why the school did not tell you that they were contacting children’s services, have you asked them directly why? This is probably the best thing to do first of all as they should be able to explain their reasoning and the basis for this decision. You are right that usually the referrer will discuss with a parent when they want to make a referral and seek the parent’s consent to this; this will nearly always be the best approach to take. However, there can be situations when professionals share information/refer without a parent's agreement if it is necessary for a child’s welfare and protection. Even then, they will still usually let the parent know. But sometimes they will be advised by children’s services not to inform a parent; this could be if doing so would endanger a child in some way or compromise an investigation.

In your situation, you were able to pick your son up from school and he was not seen by a social worker until Tuesday so the situation does not seem to have been seen as urgent.

Do ask the school (the named safeguarding lead) to explain their decision and the reason behind it and also check with the social worker what advice children’s services gave to the school when receiving the information.

I can see that this has caused additional stress and could impact on your relationship with the school if not resolved.

You may find our advice sheets on family support and child protection helpful.

If you have any further queries please do post back or speak to an adviser on our Freephone helpline 0808 8010366 which is open Mon to Fri from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm.

With best wishes

Suzie