Sudden Change of Events - please help

[JulyBabyComing]

Hi,

I won’t go over the history again as I have already a couple of times.

Basically the social worker for my son and the social worker for my daughter had completed their assessments and recommended they both be on Child In Need plans with me returning to unsupervised and getting overnight stays. This was approved by their manager and the plan was being drawn up last week.

Today we found out that someone from senior management has blocked the decision - saying they want the recommendation to be for me to remain on supervised until we know the outcome of the unborn baby’s assessment. The unborn baby’s assessment hasn’t even started yet and we won’t know the outcome of the of the unborn baby’s assessment until I am 28 weeks pregnant - I’m currently 14 weeks pregnant, so a while to go yet.

The social workers we’ve been working with have said they were all shocked by senior management doing this as it goes against their assessment. They’re giving my mam (the SGO) the senior managers details so she can question it. They’ve also reiterated to my mam that this is only a recommendation and we can go against it, and said if we go against it it may go to child protection - but given that there’s no issues (other than historical) as the initial recommendation of Child In Need with unsupervised, would it really go to a child protection plan?

The kids have been so upset about not sleeping at ours, only tonight my son was in tears asking when he can sleep over again and my daughter has said she keeps crying and shouting because she misses sleeping over. We’ve told the social workers and they’re taking everything we’ve said back to their manager and they’re also seeking legal advice to help us.

It’s been so confusing, we were expecting to get the plan to return to overnight stays today and this has came out of nowhere and been a huge shock to us all. We were literally told by both of the social workers and sent a text off one of them saying the plan would be Child In Need with a return to unsupervised and overnight stays, the assessment was a good assessment, so to have this happen is heartbreaking. I even told the kids they could sleep over again soon because I had the word of the social workers and I feel like I’ve let them down so much. I’m not sure why a senior manager has gotten involved and overruled, nor am I sure why they’ve said to wait to go ahead with the plan until after the baby’s assessment has been completed. Is there precedent for this?

Can they make it a Child Protection plan when there’s no concerns based on present day?
If it does go to Child Protection, what happens?

Can anyone help?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear JulyBabyComing

Thank you for your updating post.

I am sorry to see that the good news you had regarding unsupervised contact with your children has changed. This has happened because a senior manager has overruled what the social worker and the manager assessed as appropriate in respect of unsupervised contact.

You ask whether the senior manager can make this change. The short answer is yes. This is the way it works in children’s services. The social worker’s team manager can overrule what the social worker recommends, and the senior can do the same overall.

The senior manager is not saying there should be no contact with your children only that the contact should continue to be supervised until the pre-birth assessment is completed and the outcome is known. I think the senior manager is being cautious because of the historical issues and the fact that you remain in the pool of perpetrators. This means that you were not absolved from causing harm to your child but the court could not make a finding against others in the pool so it remains that any one in the pool could have caused the harm. I understand the changes that you have made in your life since.

Children’s services can make recommendations to persons with parental responsibility about contact arrangements, but they cannot force them to follow those recommendations. What it is possible for them to do is take steps to safeguard children by doing assessments to find out what should be offered to the family whether support under a child in need plan or child protection if they consider the children are being put at any risk.

In your circumstances, the special guardian, and the father with whom the children live may find themselves in the position of being assessed if they decide to go against the service manager’s recommendations.

You ask what would happen if it went to child protection. There would be an initial child protection conference which would decide if the children should be placed on child protection plans. This is not a voluntary process like child in need. Please read information on our website about child in need and child protection for more details. I hope you find this useful.

It is important that you continue to engage positively with children’s services during the pre-birth assessment. Please see this GUIDE about working with social workers.

Hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[JulyBabyComing]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply, it’s been heartbreaking. I’m really beginning to feel that it doesn’t matter what I do, I’ll never been seen as good enough by children’s services.

The manager and the social workers are on our side, they’ve been having meetings with the senior manager to argue our case - especially with how distressed the children are becoming not having overnight stays.

My mam (the guardian) has told them that she’s seriously considering letting it go to child protection if the senior manager cannot come back to her with a resolution, as this is causing severe emotional harm to my son and I’ve had a positive assessment about myself and my current circumstances. The senior manager has asked to be given til Tuesday to find a solution to prevent it escalating to child protection.

I do not want it to escalate to child protection, simultaneously this cannot go on for another 4 months before we get an outcome for the baby; my children are waking up in the night crying for me, and this feels cruel to them.

I know I was left in a pool, but they cannot remove children on that basis alone and have to assess my current circumstances- which have been assessed positively. My mams not convinced that they could take it to a child protection plan given that there’s no current issues.

Can social services escalate it to child protection when there’s no present day concerns?

I’ve already had two assessments by two separate social workers carried out on me and both found no issues and were happy for me to see my children unsupervised on a Child In Need plan - surely this will be taken into account?

[JulyBabyComing]

I’m becoming increasingly worried that we’re going to keep being given very positive assessments but the pool will be the thing that stops us being able to progress.

When I had my son in 2018 I was given a really positive assessment back then but because of the pool he didn’t come home.
We’ve just had two separate social workers assess us positively and their manager signed it off for a Child In Need plan, and then a senior manager stopped any progress happening.
I’m really worried that this will happen with the baby too, that we’ll get another positive assessment but the baby will be taken because of the pool.

Can they keep removing children from me despite positive assessments because of the pool?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear JulyBabyComing

Thank you for your further two posts relating to the change in the decision to allow your children to have unsupervised contact.

You have indicated in one post that the senior manager is looking again at the decision not to allow unsupervised contact due to the impact on the children.

I do not think I am able to add any more to the advice already offered in previous posts regarding this issue. I suggest you read the responses again and the links included.

Hope that the senior manager will give a positive outcome regarding unsupervised contact.

Best wishes

Suzie

[JulyBabyComing]

Hi,

I just wanted to post an update for anyone it might help. Basically a manager who seems to be quite high up got in touch with my mam and said that the social workers had been saying that they’ve always said they’d recommend supervised, and my mam said that this wasn’t true and we had text messages off the social workers that state that the plan it to return to unsupervised and overnight stays. The manager asked to see these massages and so my mam provided the texts and other supporting messages along with a timeline of our interactions with them. This manager also said that what the social workers/their manager were asking about waiting for the outcome of the baby’s assessment wasn’t doable and there’s no protocol for that - the assessment has to have an outcome after 45 days and they can’t be relying on the outcome of another assessment.

By the end of the day after my mam had sent the email this manager had closed both my daughters and sons cases, and sent a follow up email confirming the cases had been closed and that my mam (the SGO) could make what decision she likes regarding my son, and that given there’s been no concerns over the past 4.5 years unsupervised can return if that is what my mam wishes to do. So my sons routine has returned back to what it was 2 months ago!

The same applies for my daughter, but her dad (who has a CAO) has been so rattled by all of this that he’s decided to leave my daughter on supervised. I’m hoping this won’t last long and he’ll see the devastating impact of that on my daughter and let her sleep over again.

Next week the babies assessment starts, wish us luck! I really hope all of the positives we have are undeniably clear and that there’s a very happy outcome

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear JulyBabyComing

Thank you for your updating post and for sharing the positive outcome you have had regarding contact with your children.

I think it is helpful to other posters when information is shared where children’s services has taken account of family’s wishes and look at their decision again.

Now the pre-birth assessment is about to start it is good that you are starting at a happy place and now you can work on engaging positively and focussed on this part of the process.

Best wishes

Suzie