Connective Foster Carer Negitive Assessment on boyfriend With Social services

[Loveiskind]

Hi,

I am a connective person foster carer for my nephew for 14 months now and I have my own son also living with me. I met up with a long term friend over 10 years and a relationship blossomed. I had a malicious call made to Ss made anonymously and my partner was given a risk assessment. My partner was in an abusive relationship with a woman with lots of evidence against her but police always took her side. Ge has no convictions and court deemed her as unreliable witness so was no trail as he had evidence against her and solictor confirmed this even to myself. He is classed as high risk due to her manipulating. He is a great man and has never had no involvement with DV and is classed as probability and he is not allowed round my nephew or son. The CPS are aware she has nothing against him and has ruined his life. I am currently adhering to Ss expectations but i love this man and want a future. He has a solictor requesting this info all be considered as he is no risk to any one has contact with his own children and no convictions at all. How do i progress to try have this reconsidered with his court info as they are going off police callouts with his abusive ex partner. Our aim is to get a New assessment with all evidence against her. If i go court will a judge look at all evidence and reconsider as Ss do not listen and presume he is guilty with no evidence. Please help thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Loveiskind

Welcome to the Parents’ Forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am FRG’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties your family is currently experiencing.

You have explained that you are caring for your own son and you are also a kinship foster carer for your nephew. You have parental responsibility for your son but not your nephew.

You are in a new relationship with a partner. Children’s Services have concerns about him due to allegations of domestic violence made by a former partner, which he strongly disputes. The police investigated and supported the allegations. However, your partner was not convicted in court. Following a risk assessment, Children’s Services have concluded that he poses a high risk. Because of this, they have recommended that he does not have contact with your son or your nephew. Your partner is allowed to see his own children. Is this supervised in any way?

You are working with this safety plan but wish to challenge it as you do not accept the concerns because you think they were made maliciously by your partner’s ex-partner. His solicitor is assisting him to produce evidence to support his claim and to ask children’s services to re-consider their risk-assessment.

Have you/your partner read the risk assessment carefully and considered the concerns identified? Apart from the restrictions on contact, are there any other suggestions for either of you?

You would like to get a new assessment and are considering taking the matter to court. You are wondering what the best thing to do is.

I can see that you are in a dilemma as you want to continue to have a relationship with your partner without the restrictions that children’s services have asked you to keep and you want to ensure that you can safely care for your son and nephew.

You can find a link to our advice materials about domestic violence here, for your information, which explain more about why children’s services will be concerned about the police call outs you describe.

You don’t say if there is currently a child in need plan plan in place for your son. Your nephew is a Looked After Child.

I think that it is very important that you continue to work with the current safety plan as otherwise children’s services will be very concerned about your ability to keep both boys safe. They would have to move your nephew to a different foster placement if he were unsafe in your home and they would also have to consider what action was necessary to keep your son safe if you stopped cooperating.

Have you/your partner considered engaging with domestic abuse services (although you dispute the domestic abuse referred to) to demonstrate a willingness to be informed or, in your partner’s case, to address any concerning behaviour? You can find specialist services here.

In terms of what you can do, you could write to the social worker/s involved, copying in their team manager/s and your nephew’s Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) confirming that the children’s welfare is your main concern and that you are continuing to adhere to their expectations but formally asking for a fresh assessment of your partner.

I do not think it is a good idea for you to focus on the alleged victim or to blame her. The concerns are about your partner not the alleged victim. You are right that children’s services are working on the balance of probabilities and on this basis have deemed your partner to be high risk. They expect you to prioritise the children’s needs. However, if your partner’s solicitor is providing evidence in support of him, of course you can formally ask that this be taken into consideration and included in any new assessment, if children’s services agree to do one.

If you are dissatisfied with children’s services’ response you /you partner can consider making a complaint. You would also be able to go to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) if you exhaust the complaints process and are still unhappy.

What type of court application are you considering? If you are thinking about Judicial review please be aware that you would usually need to complete children’s services’ complaints process and complained to the LGO first. It is rarely used and often not a realistic option. Your partner has a solicitor and can check with them what his legal options are.

As a kinship carer, you are required to continue to work with children’s services in order to meet your nephew’s needs. You have obviously been thoroughly assessed and approved to care for him; this can be an intrusive and stressful process. You have therefore shown a great determination to look after him and keep him safe in his family. And you have cared for your own son successfully throughout his life. So I hope that you can find a way to continue to care for both boys safely, continue to work with children’s services and to challenge constructively, where necessary.

If you would like to speak to an adviser about your situation please call the freephone advice line on 0808 801036, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except Bank holidays). Or please post back with an update or further queries if you prefer.

I hope this helps

Best wishes

Suzie