SGO seems to have broken down

[faybelou6125]

My two boys are placed with the eldest nana. Everything was going well until I had genuine reasons for safeguarding concerns. I rang social services and asked for advice as I was terrified that my contact would be stopped. I was advised to contact her and discuss this with her and that someone would in contact within 24hours. Nobody rang me at all.

I did what I was advised only to find within 24hours I would receive abuse over the phone. I was accused of things and had my contact stopped. Told I can now have supervised instead of my usual unsupervised.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Faybelou6125,

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

From your post, it appears that sons are in the care of your eldest’s grandmother under a special guardianship order. You say that all was going well until you had some safeguarding concerns, which you reported to children’s services. You were advised to discuss the concern with the grandmother and that somebody would be in contact, which has not yet happened. You say that since then contact has been stopped and that you have been told you can now have supervised contact as opposed to your usual unsupervised contact.

Firstly, you do not mention the nature of your safeguarding concern. Whenever children’s services receive a referral, they must decide within 24 hours what action, if any, may be necessary for them to take. I am not clear from your post whether children’s services have decided to complete an assessment – I would advise that you contact children’s services again and ask for an update on your referral.

Secondly, it appears that you have had a good relationship with your children’s special guardian, up until this point. If a social worker has now been allocated to your family, you may find it helpful to discuss with them how this relationship can be rebuilt – they may be able to support you to access family mediation, for example. Even a social worker has not been allocated to your family, you can still request to speak to someone from the special guardianship team to discuss this.

From what you say, you have been having good contact with your sons. If you feel that the special guardian has unreasonably changed your contact arrangements, you may also want to seek legal advice with a view to applying for a child arrangements order. You can also call Child Law Advice on 0300 330 5480 for some free advice.

I hope you have found this helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie.