New pregnancy

[Rubberduck]

Hi, I apologise in advance as this will be a long one.

I had my first son in March 2025 and we had child services involvement until August 2025.

A bit of background, both myself and my partner both spent time in care as children and I have a long history with mental health services so when I became pregnant we agreed to a pre birth assessment. During that period my partner's mental health took a complete nose dive and had involvement from the police and emergency mental health services as having children service involvement triggered a lot of trauma from growing up. There was a single DV incident during this time which the police and everyone knew about. It was suggested that partner move out and that only I remain at home in preparation for babies arrival. We agreed but unfortunately this led him to take an extreme overdose and was hospitalised for several months, in which time I gave birth.
Baby returned home from the hospital with me with no problems and no concerns. Dad had supervised contact in a centre for a few weeks before going unsupervised completely.
At time of case closure me and partner were not together but co-parenting. I had completed a DV course in the local children's centre and partner was on an intensive 6 month course, involving therapy and relationship work. A re-referral was made one month after case closing, September 2025, as one of my support workers noted he was in the house and I had mentioned that we had started spending some time together getting to know eachother again with the hope that in the future we could return back as a family unit. A social worker came out had one conversation with me and case closed. No re-assessment and she said a note put on the file to say we had both completed work and what we chose to do after that point was up to us and unless there was any safeguarding risks that us being together wasn't a cause for the case to reopen. Unfortunately I never got this in writing, which I am now regretting.
Fast forward a few months to end of January 2026 and partner moves back into the family home full time and things are going well. We go on several family holidays and I fall pregnant.
We are excited, feel we are in a good place but I have this huge fear that though it was agreed we could do as we wish that we are going to end up with child service involvement again for both our current child and unborn. I have my booking appointment with the midwife soon and I won't hide our previous involvement if it gets asked about but what can I expect. Will there be a re-referral and I'm worried they will think we've done something wrong by not telling them we were back together (though we had no reason to believe we had to and had no contact person)

Thanks in advance for any replies

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Rubberduck

Thank you for your post and welcome to the discussion board. My name is Suzie, I am an online adviser from Family Rights Group and will be replying to you today.

You and your partner are care leavers and you have a history of mental health services involvement. When you become pregnant with your first child you agreed to a pre birth assessment. During this process your partner’s mental health deteriorate, in part, due to children’s services becoming back involved in his life. There was one domestic abuse incident and following this it was suggested that you move out of the family home and for you to concentrate on the birth of your child. You agreed to this. Your partner found it very difficult and he took an overdose. This led to him being hospitalise for a number of months in which time you gave birth to your child.

You and your baby returned home, there were no concerns, contact with father was initially supervised in a contact centre for a few weeks before moving to unsupervised. At the time of children’s servicing closing their file, you were not in a relationship with the child’s father but co-parenting. You and your partner both went on courses in to reduce risk. You took a domestic abuse course and your partner undertook an intensive six-month course, involving therapy and relationship work.

You continued to have support workers in place and one of these workers made a referral to children’s services as they noted your partner was in the house. You had informed the support worker that you and your partner had started to spend more time together and that you hoped in the future, if things were going well, to resume your relationship and to become a family unit again.

Following the referral, a social worker came to your home. They spoke to you and subsequently closed the file with a note on the system to say you and your partner had completed the necessary work and there was no safeguarding concerns or role for children’s services. You resumed your relationship with your partner, he moved back into the family home in January 2026 and since this time there have been no domestic abuse incidents.

You are now pregnant and have a midwife appointment soon. You are worried about disclosing your history of children’s services involvement for fear of another referral to children’s services. Further, whilst you say it was not a requirement to inform them if your partner moved back to the family home, you have some concerns that you will be criticized for not doing so.

From the information you have shared you and your partner have worked hard to make the changes you needed to make to ensure your child is kept safe and well. This bodes well for any future assessments from children’s services.

I would advise you to be open and transparent with midwifery services. There is likely to be a referral to children’s services and they may carry out an assessment. If a referral is made, initially the social worker will contact you for an update to gather information and to advise whether a pre birth assessment will be completed.

It is always a good idea to make sure any agreed actions and professional views are put in writing to ensure a paper trail is available should you need to refer to it. You mentioned your last contact with children’s services and the verbal feedback the social worker gave to you. There should be a record of this visit, which states the social workers rationale for no further action. I would advise you to inform the allocated social worker of this visit if they do make contact with you. I have added HERE a link to information and guidance regarding previous social work involvement. You may find it helpful to refer. I have further added HERE a link to ‘working with’ social workers guidance. We created this to support people involved in children’s services. The document sets out how to work well with social workers and what you may wish to consider if things are not going so well.

I hope you find the information helpful. If you have any further questions or enquiries regarding children’s services, please do come back to us here or via or other methods of communication (please see our website for further information).

Best wishes, Suzie.