False Allegations , Lack of communication and unempathetic responses from Social Servi

[MUM2019]

My son is now nearly a year old and has been with his foster family from an interim care order since the beginning of August 2020.
My son suffered from a linear skull fracture from falling out of our front door onto slabs. He behaved fine after and ate and drank well there was no signs of bruising , swelling or any other form of injury at the time my son continued to play and behave as normal so we forgotten about the accident and carried on as normal. The next day I discovered a large swelling to my sons head we went to A&E for them to find the fracture.
This was unexplained as I panicked thinking they would take my son away from me or give him over to his father who at the time did not have any parental rights but still saw our son weekly. Myself and my son remained at hospital for 4 days and within this period the XXXX Hospital completed a full skeletal x-ray and claimed that my son had possibly had a cluster of old ribs fractures. I could not believe that my son had ever had rib fractures and these x-rays went off to specialists for them to be reviewed within that time myself and my partner where arrested for suspicion of GBH.
The rib fractures came back that they were not fractured or never have been. Did the XXXX hospital put forward these allegations of non-existing rib fractures to solidify an abuse case ? If so how do they get away with such devastating lies ?

It has been devastating from day one , before I was arrested at the hospital I was not allowed to say good bye to my son even thought there was two police officers present and my social worker.
We were allowed to see my son before he was discharged from hospital with a supervisor present. Then see him twice a week at a contact centre again supervised. Our Social worker has claimed from day one that she does not possess a works mobile ??? again unprofessional we cannot get hold of her during emergencies. A couple of weeks ago my son had fallen over whilst being in the care of his foster family he had managed to climb onto a foot stall in the Foster carers kitchen and banged the front of his head , The foster carers took my son to A&E I was informed by my social worker , she would not tell me what kind of surface my son had hit his head on despite repeatedly asking, her response was "He is fine , he hit his head on the floor" . Again her next response shocked me "I am working for the next few hours If I do not have any updates I will let you know in the morning" . We were absolutely disgusted by this response and made a complaint to the out of hours social services. My social worker lacks empathy and compassion and we have had no support , meetings have been pushed back or ignored and we were meant to have a meeting last week which another social worker rang to explain our social worker was busy she did not have the decency to call herself.
Sadly our fact find has been pushed back from January to March which again is completely unnecessary as they have the explanation for my sons head injury and the rib fractures are non-existent. What more do local authorities want to go for in cases like these ? Until this is all over it is affecting my career as I am a carer for the elderly I will not be able to return back to work until this pending investigation is cleared from my DBS.

We are asking if anyone has had similar false accusations thrown against them during cases like ours and how they have dealt with it legally as ideally we want to take the radiologists who have made the rib allegations to solidify this case to court after we get our son home.

Very Frustrated Mumma

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Mum2019

Welcome to Family Rights Group’s parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am FRG’s online adviser. I am sorry for the delay in responding to your post. I am also sorry to hear that your son suffered an injury and is currently in foster care.

You are understandably finding this process very difficult and frustrating especially as the Fact Finding hearing has been postponed till March. You have expressed your concerns about the social worker’s practice. You are interested in other parents’ experiences. Perhaps some other parents will post back in response. However, every situation is different and decisions about your son will be based on the court’s findings and his welfare.

Here is some website information that you may find useful in relation to the concerns about possible non-accidental injury which led to the court case for your son:

parents accused: which expert?
child protection resource online : common concerns we hear from parents - the social worker tells me my child has been hurt
The Transparency Project: the use of experts in family court cases involving children: a guide for families and professionals

Your solicitor(s) are the most important people for both you and your partner to be liaising with about your son’s case. They will be able to discuss the medical evidence with you and advise you on the legal process and more specifically about how to challenge or respond to evidence from the different professionals involved including the medical experts. The best time to do so is usually during current care proceedings whilst you have legal representation.

It must have been very distressing for you when your son had to go to A & E having hurt his head in his foster placement. It sounds as if prior to this you had already found it difficult keeping in touch with social worker as she has said she is not contactable by work mobile. You did make a complaint via the emergency duty team at the time – has a team manager contacted you about this? If not you could ask to speak to or you could email the social worker’s manager if you want to discuss your concerns with them. Wherever possible it is best to try to find a way of working with all the professionals involved including your social worker and your solicitor as their roles in relation to you and your son are significant at the moment. Sometimes this is difficult to do for many reasons but here are some tips which you may find helpful:

working with your social worker ,
working with your solicitor .

You don’t mention if, as part of any parallel planning, any extended family or friends are being assessed as potential carers for your son, if needed. Although of course your aim is that your son will be returned to you, do make sure that any suitable family or friends are put forward too, as a contingency.

The following advice sheets should be useful for you as they explain more about the processes that you are dealing with:
Contact with children in care
Duties on children’s services when children are in the care system
Care (and related) proceedings .

I hope this helps.

Please do post again if you have a new query that we can help you or if would like to discuss your situation with an adviser please call our freephone advice helpline 0808 8010366 - the lines are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm from Mon to Fri.

With best wishes

Suzie