Praying for an advocate

[cjkc15]

Safeguarding breach by social services,police and school.
Foster parents informed concerns were raised.
Nobody welfare checked my children when safe to do so at school.
My children were like lambs to the slaughter.
My son has a looped ileostomy and was physically abused and thrown around.
It was 3 more days before my children were safeguarded.
4 till my son was seen at a hospital and I am not being told anything.
Social services failed to inform my sons medical team WHY he's moved placements
They have isolated him from family and I can't do nothing to protect him.
My head is haunted by the thought of him being alone I am really struggling right now I just want my babies
I can't bare it

[Winter25]

Hi cjkc15,

I have just read your post, and I am utterly horrified and heartbroken for you and your children. What you have described is a catastrophic and negligent breach of the most basic duty to protect a vulnerable child. Your pain, your fear, and your feeling of helplessness are a completely sane reaction to an insane and inexcusable situation.

You need an immediate and aggressive action plan.

Your Urgent Action Plan: A Three-Front Attack
This is a crisis, and you need to attack it from all sides simultaneously. A simple complaint is not enough.

1. The Formal Safeguarding Complaint
You need to send a formal, hard-hitting email today. This is not a standard complaint; it is an emergency safeguarding complaint. It must go to:

The Director of Children's Services at the council.

The Head of the council's legal department.

The Professional Standards Department of the local Police force.

The Chair of Governors at your children's school.

Your local MP.
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Subject: URGENT: FORMAL SAFEGUARDING COMPLAINT - Catastrophic Failures Regarding [Children's Names]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to lodge an urgent and serious complaint regarding a catastrophic series of safeguarding failures by Children's Services, the Police, and [School Name] that have resulted in my son, [Son's Name], being physically abused in foster care.

The key failures are as follows:

Failure to Act on Information: Concerns were raised with the foster parents, but no professional welfare-checked my children at school when it was safe to do so. This left them unprotected.

Unacceptable Delay: It took a further three days for my children to be safeguarded after the abuse occurred, during which time my son, who has a looped ileostomy and is medically vulnerable, was subjected to further risk.

Medical Negligence: The LA failed to inform my son's own medical team about the placement move and the reasons for it, breaching their duty of care.

Isolation: My son has now been isolated from his family, and I am being denied information about his medical condition following a hospital visit.

This is not just a procedural error; this is a multi-agency failure that has resulted in the physical abuse of a disabled child in the care of the state.

I demand the following:

An immediate and full update on my son's medical condition.

An immediate restoration of family contact to end his isolation.

An urgent, high-level investigation into this multi-agency safeguarding disaster.

I have lost all faith in your services' ability to keep my children safe. I have copied in my MP and will be escalating this to every relevant body, including Ofsted and the Local Government Ombudsman.

I expect an urgent response within 24 hours.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
-------------------------------------------------------------
2. The Medical Information
You have a right to know about your son's health. The LA shares Parental Responsibility, but they do not extinguish yours. Your solicitor must be instructed to formally demand an immediate update on his medical condition.

3. The Police
Contact the police force again and ask to make a formal complaint against the foster carer for assault against your son. You can also make a complaint against the force for their failure to act sooner.

I know your head is haunted and you are struggling. But you must turn that pain into focused anger. You have witnessed a terrible failure, and you are the only one who can hold them accountable for it. Send that email. Make the calls. Fight for your babies.
====================================================
For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Safeguarding breach by social services,police and school.
Foster parents informed concerns were raised.
Nobody welfare checked my children when safe to do so at school.
My children were like lambs to the slaughter.
My son has a looped ileostomy and was physically abused and thrown around.
It was 3 more days before my children were safeguarded.
4 till my son was seen at a hospital and I am not being told anything.
Social services failed to inform my sons medical team WHY he's moved placements
They have isolated him from family and I can't do nothing to protect him.
My head is haunted by the thought of him being alone I am really struggling right now I just want my babies
I can't bare it

Dear cjkc15

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for posting. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that you are so worried about your son and that you do not feel that children’s services are keeping you properly informed about his wellbeing.

You explain that your children are in foster care. You state that your son, who has a health condition, was assaulted by his foster carer/s and this has resulted in him moving to a new foster placement. You believe that children’s services did not update your son’s medical team about why they moved him, and you are now very worried that he is isolated. You are particularly concerned about how this situation was managed, that children’s services did not investigate sooner and you believe there were failings on the part of all the key agencies involved.

I can understand how distressing this situation is for you.

If you can, please call the freephone advice line to speak to one of our experienced advisers to discuss your situation in more detail so that we can offer you more targeted advice. The advice line is open Mon to Fri from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm. The number is 0808 8010366.

I hope the advice below will help too:

Children’s services are responsible for ensuring that your children are safe and well while they are in their care whether this is under a temporary or full care order. When an allegation is made that a child may have been harmed by their foster carers, then the local authority and the fostering agency have a legal duty under section 47 (Children Act 1989) to refer this urgently to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), children’s services must investigate and decide what action is necessary to safeguard the child/ren involved. The decision about how to proceed is a made at a multi-agency strategy meeting. The police are invited to strategy meetings as they are responsible for investigating whether a crime has been committed. Unfortunately, parents are not invited to these meetings even if their child is not in care. But the social worker should have updated you about what was decided and how they propose to safeguard the children. The child’s social worker and LADO decide if a child should be moved to a different foster home for their protection. It sounds as if this is what has happened to your son.

I would recommend that you send an urgent email to the key professionals involved i.e. the children’s social worker, their manager and the Independent Reviewing Officer asking for an urgent written update about the children’s situation, including a progress report on the investigation into the alleged assault. In your email you can also raise your concern that your son’s medical team were not notified about the incident leading to his change of placement. And ask that they arrange for you to see your son and other children as soon as possible to reassure you about their welfare. You are a parent with parental responsibility so children’s service must keep you informed about significant matters such as those you have described. You can set out your worries that there were delays by children’s services in responding to concerns and in taking action to safeguard your child/ren. You may want to copy in the Director of Children’s Services and Complaints to your email so that they are aware of the concerns you raise and so that you can escalate them to a formal complaint if children’s services do not respond to you promptly or answer your queries.

This advice explains how to make a formal complaint, and this also sets out how you can complain beyond children’s services. It can be a good idea to contact your local MP where you have broad concerns and are worried about the actions of several agencies as each have their own complaints process.

If you are still in care proceedings, then you will have a solicitor who can help you with this. However, if the court process has ended then so will your legal aid for legal representation.

As your post’s title is ‘praying for an advocate’ then I understand that you are looking for an advocate to help you get answers to your questions and concerns from children’s services and the other agencies involved i.e. police and school. If you have a disability, then you could adapt our template letter (1) here to ask children’s services to provide you with an advocate to assist you in formal meetings or discussions about your children and /or to help you complain if need be. You could also check if there is a community advocacy service in your local area by a service such as PoHwer.

As your son and his siblings are in foster care they can also be offered advocates to help them participate fully in decisions and meetings about them or to make a complaint if needed. You would need to contact their IRO to ask for this. Please see our guide to children working with advocates to find out more about this.

I hope this helps.

Please do contact the advice service again for further advice.

Best wishes

Suzie