What information should I have received from Social Services?

[concernedgran]

My wife made an allegation to the police and left the family home with my 2 children. The allegation did not involve the children and no further action was taken or charges made. Although I was initially put on 28 days bail, this was dropped after 4 days.

My wife has threaten, through a solicitors letter, to get an occupancy order if I do not move out of the home. I have also been informed through her solicitor that an assessment is taking place by the Children, Family and Wellbeing service at Social Services to find out "what the children have experienced and how they feel". Apparently they are holding 3 sessions at school, the last of which may be after Christmas. 

I have been trying to arrange to see my children but received no response and now have to go through her solicitor. I want the children to be in their own home and am prepared to leave temporarily so this can be resolved. However I do not want to do this until arrangements are in place for me to see my children. The response from my wife's solicitor is that she will speak to the Children, Family and Wellbeing service to see what they say.

I have contacted social services to try to find out if I am allowed to see my children and have been told there was no social worker allocated and it is a contact issue which they don't get involved in.

My questions are:
Should I as a father with parental responsibility have been formally informed by Social Services that an assessment is being carried?
Should I have been formally informed by Social Services if I am not allowed contact my children?
Am I entitled to see any report that results from the Social Services assessment, even if redacted in parts?

Any help you can give me would be very much appreciated.
Thank you

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear concernedgran,

Welcome to the parents' board and thank you for your post.

You say in your post that your wife made an allegation against you that initially resulted you being placed on bail, which has now ended, and no charges have been brought. Your wife has moved out with your two children and has informed you of her intention to apply for an occupation order. You have been informed that there is a children and families assessment being completed by children's services, which you were not aware of. You say you are prepared to move out of the family home but would like contact with your children, which you have been unable to arrange so far. You have been informed by children's services that there is no allocated social worker and that this is a contact issue.

It is likely that a referral was made to children's services as a result of the allegation that your wife made against you. Children's services may have decided to complete an assessment under S. 17 of the children act. If an assessment is being completed, there should be an allocated social worker - it may be worth clarifying this if you have been told there is no allocated social worker. For more information on what to expect from an assessment, take a look at our Family support advice sheet

The social worker should complete the assessment in 45 days after which a decision should be made as to what level of involvement children's services will have - this may be no further action; a referral to early help; a child in need plan or if there are concerns that your children have suffered or are at risk or suffering significant harm, child protection enquiries may be initiated. You can find more information on child protection procedures here

In regards to contact with your children, it would be beneficial to contact children's services in order to better understand their concerns around you seeing your children, and to ask for a risk-assessment or for a safety plan to be developed accordingly. You can ask the social worker - there should be one, if there is an assessment being completed - to assist you in arranging contact and propose how you would like this to take place. If you are not assisted in this way, you can also apply to the courts for a child arrangements order. For more information on how to do this, look at our advice sheet here

In response to your questions:

1) As the children's father, the social worker completing the children and families assessment should have informed you of this and you should be included in the assessment so that risk and protective factors can be adequately assessed.
2) Social services should communicate with you if they have any concerns about you having contact with your children and should work with you to address this so that contact can take place safely. Children's services do not have the power to prohibit contact with your children without a court order, however, if this happens in an unmanaged way, they may escalate their level of involvement or initiate care proceedings.
3) Any assessment that is completed should be shared with you; if there is information that may cause risk to another individual, this should be redacted.

If you would like to discuss this with one of our advisers, feel free to call to our advice line on between 09:30 and 3pm from Mon-Fri. Please note we are now closed until 4th January 2021.

I hope you have found this helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie