Pre birth assessment

[Bubbles92]

I have an 11 year old who is in temp foster care and I’m currently 21 weeks pregnant I have spoke to the safeguarding midwife and she made a referral to social services I had a call from a worker from what I think was MASH last week and she said from everything that we discussed over the phone and the midwife has passed on it all seems positive she said obviously they need to speak to my partner as he is not known to the social or the police has never had any involvement and has already done a Claire’s law I’m just wondering will they still do a pre birth assessment because I’m constantly on egg shells waiting around to find out as she said if they don’t need to be involved they won’t as it all seems positive as he has already had checks done on him and he’s never had any involvement this is his first child and I really want it all to work out she said they say new baby fresh start we have a stable relationship and like I said no previous involvement please help and advice would be great to put my mind at ease

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Bubbles92

Thank you for your post. This is Suzie, Family Rights Group’s online adviser again.

I can see how worried you are about children’s services’ potentially becoming involved with your unborn baby. Your 11-year-old son is not in your care; he is in foster care and has been for several years. Because of this, the midwife has made a referral to children’s services so that they can decide whether to offer a pre-birth assessment.

It is good to hear that you and your partner have a stable relationship and that he has had no previous involvement with police or children’s services. It was very sensible to do a Clare’s Law application. Your partner is not your 11-year-old son’s father. Your baby will be his first child. I am sure that you are both very excited about the pregnancy. Of course, you want it all to work out.

You have already done the right thing by attending your antenatal appointments and being open with your midwife that your son is not in your care and is in foster care. You also had quite a positive interaction with the MASH worker who called you to discuss the referral. You are wondering if they will still decide to do a pre-birth assessment.

Unfortunately, I cannot give a definitive answer. Children’s Services should decide within one working day of receiving a referral whether to offer an assessment. So, they should let you know very soon what their recommendation is. If you haven’t heard back and as this is understandably causing you anxiety, then you can call MASH directly for an update.

In many cases, when an expectant mother has had a child removed from her care in the past, children’s services will often decide to do a pre-birth assessment. The assessment aims to find out whether the baby will be safe when they are born, and whether you will need any extra support. When doing this assessment, children’s services will consider what has happened in the past. But they must look at your current situation and consider whether this baby will be safe.

It does sound that your relationship and situation are very different to before which is good. All the feedback you have had to date is positive too. And the important thing now is that you look after yourself and the unborn baby and that both you and your partner engage fully with services.

We have specialist resources for parents to be which you can find here.

The best things for you and your partner to do are to:

• Stay in regular touch with health services and keep appointments.
This includes seeing the GP and midwife regularly. This will make sure that the right health care (‘antenatal care’) is in place during the pregnancy. And the right care after the birth.
• Continue to work with children’s services – the social worker doing the pre-birth assessment and your son’s social worker.
This will help make sure there is a good pre-birth assessment done. It will help to develop the right plan for when the baby once born.
Working with children’s services may involve:
The social worker clearly explaining any concerns.
You and your partner working with the social worker to understand any concerns.
• You and your partner taking steps which may help to overcome any problems including understanding the difficulties which led to your son being removed. And working through what has changed since then. If there were concerns around domestic abuse in your relationship when your son was removed and your current relationship is healthy then this is an important change which the social worker should highlight in their assessment.
• Understand what support is needed to help with the new baby. And how to get this all put in place.
• Involve wider family and friends. You can think through what support they can offer and who could care for the baby if you were unable to. You could ask the baby’s social worker to arrange a family group conference (FGC) to bring together your/your partner’s support network to make sure you have any support you need in place when the baby is born.

I hope that this has been helpful. If you and your partner engage positively with children’s services, then this is more likely to lead to a good outcome for you and our baby.

Please post back if you need any further advice or to update. If you would like to speak to an adviser in more depth about your situation then please call the freephone advice line 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm.

Take care.

Best wishes

Suzie