Family Rights Group | Kinship carers’ Forum

Hi
I have recently had a phone call from the kinship team saying she would like to come out and could we have ID ready to sign consent for a police check DBS.
Me and my partner have already had police check done in part 1 or 2. This is for a full assessment.
My partner and I had issues in the past approx 7-8 maybe longer years back and he has domestic violence on his record because of this which we have already explained the circumstances around what happened in part 2.
They want to explore more into this as they have wrote this on the assessment. If they get the DBS back will they then decide on it then and there whether to carry on with the full assessment. Or will they carry out the full assessment and then decide if we are viable to look after my granddaughter. Any advise will be appreciated x

Hi again.

I suspect that they are 'concerned' about the historic domestic violence and probably think that by getting a full DBS they may learn more than the simple police checks that are completed by the local constabulary. How they will then use that is anyone's idea! However if things come up that they are currently unaware, they should at least talk to you about it before taking any decisions. Unfortunately, should they pick up any reticence from you about going through the DBS process it may trigger alarm so I strongly suggest doing as you are asked.

The other thing to be aware of is that there is an appeals process with DBS if, when the certificate is returned, you believe the information held is incorrect. The certificate should come to you, not to the LA.

I hope this is of some help and reassurance and I wish you luck.

Robin

Dear TYT5Y3

Thank you for your further post.

I understand from the information in your last post that you are having a special guardianship assessment. You are worried that the difficulties you and your partner had some years ago which were recorded as domestic violence may impede your fuller assessment. The social worker is already aware of the history and is wanting your consent to apply for full DBS checks, as is usual practice. You are concerned that your assessment may end once the social worker has received your DBS.

You have already had helpful advice from another kinship carer, RobinD. He encouraged you to go ahead with the DBS and be prepared to discuss the results openly with the social worker, who will need to consider the outcome with you. You do not say if your partner was convicted of a domestic violence offence or whether allegations were made. The DBS will clarify this; you have already been open with the social worker so be prepared to discuss these matters in much greater detail with them. Their focus is on the welfare of the child you are being assessed to care for.

If your assessment is negative, please see specific advice on how to challenge (on page 9 of our advice sheet 2C) on special guardianship: care proceedings).

The onus is on the social worker to communicate clearly with you about and during the assessment; you can ask them to provide you with written information about how they carry out these assessments.

I hope this helps. Please post back or contact the advice service again via one of the options linked to here, as needed.

Best wishes

Suzie

Hi, thank you for the reassurance. We have consented to the DBS to be done but seems to be taking a long time.
Our next visit will be for the animals to be assessed and to speak to my daughter about her feelings.

As I had a negative assessment on part 1 viability I was not allowed unsupervised contact, since appealing and going through part 2 and now in SGO assessment I have been asking for unsupervised contact since passing part 2 with my granddaughter, who is now currently in foster care. SW said she would read through our family time recordings and kinship SW said she would like to see my granddaughter here with us while she has her visits but still nothing back, I email, I text, I ring with no reply and occasionally a response to say she is super busy and she still has not read through the recordings. I am frustrated with this as my granddaughter is nearly 5months old now and I only get to see her for hour and a half once a week.

Is there anything I can do to speed this up or help them ?

Dear TYT5Y3

Welcome back to the kinship carers’ forum. Thank you for your post.

It is good to hear that your assessment is progressing well although slowly.

You are having supervised contact with your baby granddaughter once a week for an hour and a half. You have been asking for this to be reviewed so that you could spend unsupervised or more time with her. Unfortunately, this has not happened. The social worker has been busy and not read all the information, and our DBS has not come through yet. You are wondering what you can do.

You could:
• Ask the assessing social worker to chase your DBS or let you know if there is a delay or to confirm the usual timescale. If there is information missing or needing updating you could provide it.
• You could ask your granddaughter’s parents/social worker if you could attend family time with them.
• You could email the social worker, their team manager, your granddaughter’s Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) asking how to move this forward and highlight the benefits for the baby of more natural contact with her prospective carer and grandmother.

I hope that your assessment goes well and moves forward in a timely way.

Best wishes

Suzie

Another question for some advise please.
Because I did not pass viability part 1, appealed and progressed to part 2 and now currently going through an SGO.

I have not been able to have unsupervised contact with my granddaughter while she is in foster. (Other family members do) I received a phone call from SW to say she will look into this on the 3rd June. She mentioned she needs to look through family time recordings and speak to the SW who is doing my kinship.

I have emailed, text her and called her for updates with no reply for an update. It is now the 11th July with still no news.

How can I get an answer, would it be worth emailing the independant reviewing officer? Or the cafcass ? I feel I'm constantly bugging her but she never replies.

What can I do? Please help

Dear TYT5Y3

Welcome back to the kinship carers’ forum. Thank you for your further post.

You are querying how you can pursue your request for unsupervised contact with your baby granddaughter who is in foster care. Her social worker agreed to look into this over a month ago but has not responded yet which is frustrating.

My understanding is that you may be having contact with your granddaughter, but it is supervised at present, so you are wanting to progress to unsupervised contact while you are being assessed for an SGO.

Children’s services should make arrangements for a child in care to keep in wider family members. But this does not necessarily mean unsupervised. When they have temporary parental responsibility for a child under an interim care order children’s services often insist that contact is supervised.

Have your full DBS checks come back yet? If children’s services are satisfied that there is no risk and where the relative is potentially going to be the child’s permanent carer there is a very good argument to make that the time spent together could be unsupervised. As discussed in my previous post, you may want to emphasise the benefit for the baby too of more natural contact with you.

As you have waited patiently for the social worker to come back to you about this, you could send a further email to the social worker copying in their manager and the IRO to ask for an update. If they do not agree ask for reasons why not. You could also discuss with the Guardian as you suggested.

I hope that you do hear back soon and that the situation moves forward.

Best wishes

Suzie

If my daughter has said she doesn't know how she feels to SW about my granddaughter coming to stay with us. Would this just be a case of they will say no and not positively assessed for SGO.

I guess it depends on if she raises any real cause for concern rather than being unsure how she feels. The views of your daughter will of course be taken into account, but the main decisions are driven by what is considered best for the child, not the parent. Children's Services and the courts are are well aware that some birth parents will throw all sorts of rubbish about proposed carers in the vain hope it will stop the placement, and sometimes to punish their own parent/sister/brother/aunt etc for what they perceive to be errors made in their own upbringing. Rather like divorcing parents who throw untrue allegations against their estranged partner in order to 'win' the child.

Children's Services will also be very aware of the difference in outcomes between permanently placing children within the wider family rather than with strangers. ,

TYT5Y3 wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 9:44 am If my daughter has said she doesn't know how she feels to SW about my granddaughter coming to stay with us. Would this just be a case of they will say no and not positively assessed for SGO.

Dear TYT5Y3

Thank you for your question.

I cannot give a definitive answer to it, but your daughter said she does not know how she feels which is not the same as saying that she does not want her child to live with their grandparent.

In our good practice guide about assessments and in our tips for social workers undertaking assessments we outline ‘considerations’; conclusions etc that might be drawn by the assessor. Ultimately the court, guardian, social worker, or other professionals will consider all views/comments and a decision will be made that is in the best interest of the child.

Best wishes
Suzie