Parenting Assessment

[heartbrokenfather]

Hi All.

I have had a phone call from my Contact Centre requesting that I come in an have a Parenting Assessment done later on this week.

Why it has taken children's services 7+ months to decide to undertake this Parenting Assessment I have no idea.

Can anyone here advice me about this Parenting Assessment?

Thanks for your time.

Best Regards.

[Anxious]

Not sure if that is the same thing as what my partner had.. but it was called a risk assessment.. this took 6+months to get done! So yeah it does take that long unfortunately..

If it is the same as the assessment my partner had it was just questions about how he handles discipline and the children's difficult behaviour, how his relationship is with the children and myself and about his involvement with social services as a child and whether this affected him or not.. very basic really.. a week later he was back at home..

Hope it goes well for you and brings you a positive outcome!! But it seems some progress is starting to be made if they are wanting to assess your parenting..

Let us know how it goes

[heartbrokenfather]

Anxious: Thank you for your reply.

The the past children's services have talked about doing a risk assessment many times, but as of yet, and as far as I am aware a risk assessment has never been carried out, or at least not to my knowledge and without my input.

This is something that my family solicitor has tried to bring up with children's services more times then I dare try and count.

When the contact centre phoned me they definitely said parenting assessment and not risk assessment, I don't know if this is the same thing just with a different name.

The last time children's services said about carrying out a risk assessment, I was told that the police officer dealing with my on going case would have to sit in on the risk assessment, as anything I said could be used as evidence.

I am also very unsure how to proceed with this parenting assessment, as like I have said before in my other posts. I am not to talk about or answer any questions that might be related to the on going police investigation.

I can see if I refuse to answer any questions due to this, that children's services are going to look at this negatively and say that I am not cooperating with them.

So I am stuck between a Rock and a Hard place, On one hand I answer any and or all questions and then children's services will go running to the police with anything and everything I have said. or on the other hand I refuse to answer all or some questions and get marked as being negative and not cooperating.

Can anyone give me some advice on this?

Thanks again for your time.

Best Regards.

[ange301126]

Dear heartbrokenfather, I think there is a possibility your defence will be jeopardised,compromised or whatever and previously I have asked questions about this of Suzie without any reply.
Criminal cases should be kept completely separate from CS assessments at least until they are over according to my criminal solicitor ( no charges were brought, I hasten to add) and you should seek advice from yours immediately before the assessment later this week.

It seems the CS are confusing the two issues but never forget they are badly managed and poorly trained,I'm afraid. I suggest that your social worker's idea that the Police would have to attend a risk assessment are the musings of one such incompetent. If it were true, the same would apply to a parenting assessment or any other.

However,things may ( just may) be looking up for you.In our case they carried out no assessments at all in the correct manner and there wasn't even a child-protection conference to say our children were at risk.All due procedures were ignored.

I wonder why this request has come from the contact centre not the CS office? Who will be assessing your parenting and for what purpose?

Why not take a dictaphone and record the assessment to protect yourself?

I have had to log in about ten times to post this, what's going on?

[heartbrokenfather]

I have been to the contact centre regarding this parenting assessment.
This is to be an 8 week assessment.

It lasted last then 20 minutes, this is mainly down to the fact they wanted me to sign a document there and then, but I advised them that under instructions from both my family and criminal solicitors that I do not sign anything without the go ahead from them 1st.

Here is the document they wanted me to sign, I have once again censored it.
Parenting Assessment Consent To Exchange Information - Censored.pdf

I was then given a copy of there parenting assessment plan. Below is a copy, I have once again censored it.
Parenting Assessment Plan - Censored.pdf

I will once again be contacting both my family and criminal solicitors regarding this parenting assessment.

Thanks again for your time.

Best Regards.

[heartbrokenfather]

Late this afternoon I received an email from my family solicitor. At first thought I was expecting it to be regarding the formal complaint that the solicitor had been writing up and sent to children's services.

My family solicitor has informed me that they have received an email from the local authority stating that the social worker has been attempting to undertake/prepare a parenting assessment but that neither myself nor my wife have been engaging with the process.

What are earth are children's services playing at, each time the contact centre phoned me I answered the calls, I answered there questions, and they arranged a time and place with me. I've turned up on the day and in good time, I have sat the first parenting assessment session, and even have the documents that was given to me at that time.

I have emailed my solicitor back asking to know on what date and time they received the email from local authority, I have also forwarded a scanned copy of the documents I was given.

Thanks for your time.

Best Regards.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Heartbrokenfather

Thank you for your update.

It seems that your solicitor is on top of things so I would make sure that you continue to work closely with him/her and keep them informed of any key developments at this time.

We do not encourage poster's to disclose documents about their personal situation here, particularly if there are ongoing court proceedings. We do however, accept that in this case you have anonymised the information before posting them on your thread.

Best Wishes

Suzie

[ange301126]

Dear Heartbrokenfather, I echo Suzies concerns.It is against the rules of the forum to reveal names or any detail which might possibly identify personalities involved in a case whether or not there are court proceedings ongoing.Like Suzie,I acknowledge you always 'anonymise' all your posts as is fitting .

I fail to see how dates can break the rules, however.Can you explain?

Whilst there is a criminal case , I understand that there aren't any family court proceedings to worry about anyway. Because they have commenced this parenting assessment,the signs are good. All the e mails have paid off and someone may have brought them back down to earth.Co-operate and be friendly with the lady and answer questions openly and honestly.If she has been given an insight into what you are alleged to have done, her lines of questioning might give you some clues yourself.Make friends with her and act naturally but remember she is a woman and don't disagree with anything she says. Go along with it.

The fact the assessment is taking place at all means no court proceedings are anticipated if you think about it.You chose yourself to cooperate with them and left home even before the bail conditions were set.You were concerned as to delays and now things have started to move at last( due no doubt to your e-mails).With luck all the various assessments will be complete by the time all the charges have to be withdrawn in November.

Have you been home yet.Without jeopardising proceedings tell us as much as you can. Has she any idea at all as to the cause of it all?

[heartbrokenfather]

I have been in contact with my solicitors, they have said they are happy for me to sign the parenting assessment consent to exchange information, and to go ahead with the parenting assessment, but to use extreme caution while answering any questions.

I won't say that I am happy about undertaking this parenting assessment, But then I don't think anyone would really want to and be happy about undertaking a parenting assessment and have yours and your whole family's life put under the microscope to be examined in fine detail. But I am wanting to show that I am willing to engage with the Local Authority (Children's Services).

I just want to be able to prove to the Local Authority (Children's Services) that I am no threat to any of the children and or my wife, but so far this has been impossible. I can only hope that after the parenting assessment they might be willing to listen to me more. But only time will tell.

As you quite rightly say there is an on going criminal case, and as such I have to be very careful what I say and what details I give out.

As you have already seen that any documentation that I share I take grate care in making sure that they are all Censored before posting. I make sure that all names, etc are removed.

Yes I would love to name and shame my Local Authority (Children's Services), But doing so is not going to help my family or myself, but only end up making things a lot worse for all.

The only thing I want more then anything is for my family to be back together as a whole once again, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Thanks again for your time.

Best Regards.

[ange301126]

Dear heartbrokenfather, I do not believe it would compromise crown court proceedings in which the residing judge has made no relevant order of secrecy or any that you are forbidden to talk about the case, if without naming personalities;times;dates or any other identifying feature such as the name of the defendant and the case number which is already in the public domain having been posted on the official court bulletin board, you were to say on this anonymous forum If your wife has any knowledge of the reasons for the charges against you..

There's a mouthful for you and don't exercise your right to free speech in haste.Consult your solicitor and ask Suzie's permission first if in any doubt.If you stiil feel unable to divulge it because it will compromise the security of the nation and possibly lead to world war three and the downfall of the United Kingdom and the monarchy as we know it then please tell me in a private message and I promise not to tell a soul.I do not believe the police or security services monitor these boards and surely not private messages.

I promise. Seriously , the situation is ludicrous.Sometimes lawyers amaze me.