Family Rights Group | Kinship carers’ Forum

Hi. I am being texted with threats that an ex friend is going to phone social services to make up lies to try to get me to lose my grandson. What should I do. I have copies of the texts.
She also defrauded me of almost 1000£ and ordered things on my phone. I wasn’t wise to her ways. Advice please. I have been warned not to report to police incase of retaliation against my home.

I see no alternative but to contact the police pointing out the threats and seek their advice.

I would also contact your local children's services dept and advise them the same. It would be better if the police were informed first. They will almost certainly want to visit you and the child to ensure everything is OK. If they did not, and something tragic happened to your grandson, they would be accused of negligence. It also means if a report is sent anonymously through the NSPCC or similar, the authority is already aware. However, having that sort of investigation going on is not easy to deal with, but I think you have little alternative.

If you wait, and the threat is carried out, then you say, "Ahh but, they are malicious allegations", the police and CS will want to know why you did not report it at the time as clearly it could affect the child's welfare.

The alternative is to pay a solicitor to send a cease and desist letter, but that's likely to be ignored, and cause more threats.

These sorts of people thrive on the power rush. Ignoring them is never going to help.

Please note this is my personal advice. One of the FRG advisors may have different recommendations. You could also ring the advice line as at the top of the page, Getting Advice. Sorry writing this on a phone with limited network so can't look up the link.

Now on the laptop. Advice line details are: Monday to Friday between 9.30am and 3pm (excluding Bank Holidays) on 0808 801 0366.

Dear Sanctified,

Thank you for your enquiry and welcome to the Kinship Carers’ Board.

My name is Suzie and I will be replying to your post today.

I am sorry for the delay in this response.
I see that you have had really useful advice in your reply from RobinD.

I’m so sorry to hear about the threats you have received and that you have been defrauded of a significant amount of money.

This is such a stressful situation for you and your family to have been placed in while you are caring for your grandson.

I agree that it would be best for you to contact the police so that they can investigate the offences your ex-friend may have committed and advise you as to how you can best protect yourself and your family from her actions in the future.

As you have a child in your care police may notify Children’s Services of their involvement, so it would be advisable for you to let Children’s Services know about the situation in advance.

Also, should Children’s services receive a referral (anonymous or otherwise) about your grandson it could help if they had been forewarned by you of the possibility of a malicious allegation. This way all the available information could be linked and a social worker would have a clearer picture to work with.

Children’s services do have a legal duty to make enquiries if they receive any information that a child may be at risk of significant harm.
Social workers firstly need to gather information about the child and their family. This will help them to decide what action (if any) they need to take to keep the child safe and promote their welfare.
It may not be necessary but IF it becomes relevant in the future you can read further information about child protection enquiries .
here
Please follow this link to find out about your options if you have further questions that Family Rights Group can help withFurther ways to seek advice from Family Rights Group .

Best wishes,
Suzie