Sex offender no longer on register now being assessed by SS

[muriel]

Hi,
My husband was convicted of possession of IIOC 17 yr ago. give a non custodial sentence and on the SOR for 5 years. having lost jobs and been unable to get work, he has been "rehabilitated" and was released from probation orders early. we have rebuilt our lives and had a son who is now 9 (conceived well after coming off SOR). we have had no contact with SS up till now.
2 weeks ago i received a phone call from SS to ask me if i could ensure my son had no unsupervised access to our son as an accusation had been made about my husband. He lives at home, was not asked to leave the family home only to be supervised. we have complied with the "order" and due to my sons autism and my husbands long term health condition we were assigned a social worker and a section 17 assessment was instigated.
We have since found out that the allegation is one of historical abuse and we are waiting for a police interview this week. He was advised to get a solicitor by the policeman he spoke to.
the Social worker is waiting until the police interview to visit us.
I'm having flash backs and panic attacks to when he was arrested before and absolutely beside msyef that our family life is going to be ripped apart. especially having read the threads on this forum, that he will be asked to leave the family home and not allowed contact. i don't know what to do or where to turn for help. and the agony of waiting to find out what this allegation is is just unbearable.
does anyone have any advice please?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear muriel,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I will be responding to you today.

You say that children’s services are undertaking an assessment (under Section 17 of the Children Act) as an allegation has been made against your husband. Children’s services have not asked your husband to leave the home but have asked you to ensure that he has no unsupervised contact with your son at the moment. Children’s services have said that they will visit you after your husband is interviewed by the police.

I hope that the following is helpful to you.

Firstly, it may be helpful for you to read our website pages here which provide information about assessments under Section 17. This will help you to understand what the assessment will involve. The assessment should be completed within 45 working days and you should be provided with a copy of the report at the end of this time period.

I would suggest that you read your local authority’s protocol for assessment as well as their threshold document. These will set out how assessments should be done in your area and how they should respond to the assessed needs of a child.

Children’s services may decide to complete a risk assessment on your husband given the nature of the allegation. This risk assessment would consider whether it would be safe for your husband live at home and whether a safety plan needs to be put in place. They will consider your safeguarding capacity and responses to this situation. It is important for you to co-operate with the risk assessment process and work with children’s services towards the best outcome for your son and family as a whole. Here is a link to our guide for working with social workers which you may find helpful.

It is important to understand that although children’s services do not have the legal authority to say that your husband cannot live at home or have no contact with your son, if they do advise this and you go against their advice this may escalate their concerns about the risk of harm posed to your son. You should make sure that you are clear about what the consequences might be if your husband lives at home against the advice of children’s services. You should make sure that you have a clear conversation with the social worker about this and ask them to put it in writing to you.

Your husband may wish to consider accessing support from organisations which work with people who are worried about their own sexual thoughts or behaviour towards children, including online behaviour. The Lucy Faithfull Foundation and Stop it now! organisations offer this support. The Lucy Faithful Foundation also offers support to the partners of sex offenders so you may find it helpful to take a look at their website as well.

I hope you find this helpful and should you wish to speak to an adviser, please telephone our free confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday. You are also welcome to post again in this forum.
Best wishes,
Suzie