Advice over formal complaint to LA please

[CY23]

Hi there,
We have made a formal complaint to the LA for not considering that our child should have been looked at and not private arrangement. We have failed stage 2. The LAs argument is that because we had offered help and support and mum was talking privately to her social worker, saying that she did not want to care for her child, she did not want him anymore, wished for child to come to us, that it is a private arrangement. We were not privy to these private conversations and we were called into a meeting where the SW asked us to have him, not mum. I have written a brief timeline, could you advise me of whether this looks like private fostering or Looked after status please. Dec 17 - mum said to SW she didn’t want to care for child, no bond and didn’t love him. SW asked us to have him. We said no as could not care full time. Feb 18- mum fell out with us. We walked away from situation for ten weeks, as we felt that our help was masking mums neglect and emotional abuse of child. In the ten weeks, lots of Child in need
meetings, where SW planned to get us back involved as ‘we were good support to safeguard child’
During this time, mum’s mental health deteriorated and she had suicidal attempts. Child had challenging behaviour and presented at school, self harming, unkempt, dirty clothes, smelt of urine. May - SW telephoned us to arrange to come to our home. Two SWs visited our home and said mum not coping and can we help. They invited us to a Child in Need meeting. We began to help again.
June 25- CIN meeting held at school. Lots of discussion (90 minutes) about putting in strategies to help mum care for child at home.
Straight after CIN meeting, SW asked us to attend another meeting at her office. When we arrived, she was in a room with mum. SW spoke. Mum did not speak throughout meeting. She sobbed and went outside part way to smoke. SW said that mum had asked for child to be put into care and they had asked all family members to care but they said no. She said he would have to go into children's home if we said no, because of his challenging behaviour. We said yes. She said that she would try to get us funding and to keep any receipts. SW said to collect him on weekend was best for child. We had plans to go to London so said we could collect following weekend. We collected child on 8 July. 23 July- CIN meeting held at school. Mum not present. SW started talking we need to do a fostering assessment and mum needs to transfer benefits. We just followed her directions. She told us we had to report to council he was with us. I questioned that as thought council would know as she asked me to take him. 24 August - SW told me to supervise contact between mum and child. Under no circumstances child to be left with mother unsupervised as she had raged and threw chairs in SW office, threatened to take child from our care on a train and kill herself, she also divulged to SW that she was on bondage and torture sites and invited strange men to house for sex with child in next bedroom, 30 August- started fostering assessment. Mother refused to transfer benefits for 11weeks. Said it was her money. 10 September- CIN meeting. I handed my receipts in to SW. we had to buy everything as child could not bring any clothes or belongings from home as they were covered in pet excrement and urine. SW said no response for financial support as private arrangement. Headmaster said that he was not happy as Social care had encouraged this placement.
September - mother had another suicide attempt. October - mother took child from our care. Had child two days and SW and school learning mentor visited her home. Poor home conditions, pet excrement and urine, chaotic home environment, child had challenging behaviour and self harm, SW worker was knocked by dog and had to go to A and E for concussion. Mum said she was suicidal and was going to A and E. School learning mentor brought child to me, in a state. Child was extremely distressed and self harming. Mum never text/ called or came to collect. I text SW to inform her he was with me and I could keep him as long as needed in this emergency situation. SW telephoned me back and said keep him with you and don’t let anyone take him. There needs to be another meeting. October- CIN meeting- mother said she wanted child four days and no weekends but she wanted his benefits. SW said she could do three days, we have him four days and we apply for his benefits. Mum not happy. We were not happy with this shared agreement as we did not think it in his best interest. The plan failed as mum did not adhere to her days. Child deteriorated- self harming, unkempt and not washed at school on her days, child told school mum shouting and made up a song about killing his mum. Child hurting himself and others. Was excluded. SW had to attend mums house twice a day when Child was there due to poor parenting and home conditions. Towards week 3- mum declined any days so he was back full time with us. SW told us child not allowed to go to mums house as her mental health deteriorated and home conditions poor- dog and cat mess everywhere. August 2019- mum took child from our care against child’s wishes and took him to an unfamiliar town, in a house with people he did not know after living with us consistently for over a year and little contact with mum. She didn’t have his medication and refused to bring him home for his CAMHs appointment. Child distressed on phone and talking in baby language. SW refused to carry out a safe and well check and said it was a private arrangement. We had to apply to court for emergency CAO and PSO which was granted. SW did a section 7 report which was recommended he live with us. They are saying that there is nothing in case notes about mother asking for child to be put into care. It says that mum was saying to SW that she wanted child to go to us. It says many conversations around this and SW was giving her advice how to approach asking us to have him. It says her friend mentioned that we were thinking of having child full time. News to us! We still had all reasons that we could not care for him full time. Except that she never did ask us or discuss it with us. It was the SW that asked us after a 90 minute meeting discussing strategies to support mum to care for him. We were shocked when the SW asked us. We said yes because she said that he would have to go into a children’s home and likely be moved around because of his challenging behaviour. We didn’t want that for him. Surely the underlying message was that mum wanted to give up child. It was only her preference that he come to us?
We don’t know whether to take our complaint to stage 3 as we are very shocked that stage two was not upheld. Please advise if you can. I am so sorry for the length of this. Kind regards and thank you if you can help.

[Robin D]

Hi CY23. Welcome to the forum.

I can't help with the rights ond wrongs legally, I will have to leave that to Suzie the FRG advisor. However, on your final question about going to stage 3, I strongly recommend you do for two reasons:
1. There are loads of examples of complaints not being taken seriously until stage 3. I know this from personal experience as well as being a contributor here for a long while.
2. If you go through Stage 3, and they still insist its a private arrangement, you can then, (and should in my opinion) refer the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman. You cannot make that referral until you have exhausted all stages of the LA complaints procedure.

@Suzie may be along to provide more helpful information.

I wish you luck .... Robin

[CY23]

Thank you Robin for your advice and good wishes. Appreciate your reply.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear CY23,

Thankyou for your post. I am sorry to hear of the extremely difficult and distressing time that your family and the child have been through.

You say that you have made a formal complaint which has not been upheld at stage 2. You would like to know if you should escalate it to stage 3 now.

From the information you have given it sounds that you have a strong case to argue that this was not a private family arrangement and that you should indeed have been recognised as kinship foster carers (and should have received the necessary practical and financial support), and the child recognised as a looked after child. I would advise you to escalate your complaint to stage 3 with your evidence attached. If you are not successful at stage 3 then you can then take your complaint to the local government ombudsman. This process can be lengthy, however it is well worth pursuing as the ombudsman often finds in favour of the complainant in these type of situations and can ensure that children’s services backdate any payments that they should have made to you.

You may find it helpful to refer to our template letter specifically for carers who wish to make a complaint where children’s services have made the decision that a carer is not a kinship foster carer. You can find this HERE (letter 5).

Unfortunately from the date that the CAO was made you would not be entitled to a fostering allowance. This is because the CAO has given you parental responsibility. However it is possible to request that a financial assessment is carried out and consideration given to a child arrangements order allowance. A CAO allowance is discretionary, however if children’s services do agree to pay it then it should not be less than the core fostering allowance locally. You can find more information about this on the Kinship website HERE.

We have further detailed information and advice on our website HERE about the complaints process, and information about complaining beyond children’s services (including to the ombudsman) HERE.

If you would like to discuss any of this in more detail then I would suggest that you ring our free, confidential adviceline (0808 801 0366 – Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak with an adviser.

Alternatively you can use our webchat service or our web enquiry form for further advice.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[CY23]

Thank you so much Susie for your detailed reply. I appreciate it very much.

[Raja2A]

I am unsure of all the details but in our situation we looked after the children on and off for a while (weekends etc when things were kicking off at home) my understanding was always that if we kept them (everyone in agreement on any of these occasions it would be considered private agreement despite the social workers bringing them to my address) eventually the children were removed on an interim care order and at that point it became kinship care as the children were looked after children only once the interim care order was in place. Not sure if that helps or not but just thought I would explain how it worked for us.

[Robin D]

@Raja2A and @CY23 .
You might find this page useful.https://frg.org.uk/get-help-and-advice/ ... s-services.

A local government ombudsman report and ruling into Lancashire County Council in September of this year may also prove useful. https://www.lgo.org.uk/decisions/childr ... 086#point4

Good luck ... Robin

[CY23]

Thank you Raja2A and Robin. Appreciated