Incorrect Social Care notes

[CY23]

Hello, I have been through the formal complaint process and Ombudsman to complain that my council did not class the child as Looked After. I am taking my complaint to Judicial Review. I now have Social Care notes. A lot are redacted. However, I now see why I was not successful in my complaint. I don’t believe that the case notes are entirely accurate. We had a meeting where the Social worker asked us to care for the child. No care arrangements were mentioned or financial responsibility. The SW has recorded that my partner asked about the care arrangement to clarify. He most certainly did not. He has ADHD and it would not have occurred to him to ask this. It is recorded that I asked about a Special Guardian Order and that she told me to obtain legal advice. None of this is true. I had no knowledge of any care arrangements, I definitely didn’t know anything about SGO at that meeting. We do know have a SGO. 18 months after this meeting, I was told by the Judge that SGO would be the more appropriate order. I did not know what it was and argued against it. But the Judge ordered the assessment. I wrote to the court asking for a hearing as I had applied for CAO and didn’t know what a SGO was. They gave me a hearing and the Judge very kindly explained and said that it would be better for us as he said we would get support, as we had not had any yet. I am very cross that these untruths have been recorded as facts as I cannot fight them. Although, birth mum was in the room so I guess she could be asked for her recollection. Also, birth mum cried in meeting because she said her mum had disowned her for giving up care of child. My partner hugged her and said that we could speak to her mum to try to reassure her and smooth things over as she may feel better that child was coming to us rather than strangers. We did go and see her mum and step dad. It was a Sunday morning. They had hangovers and didn’t really want to speak. All her mum was concerned about was birth mum losing the child’s benefits as she owed her money. It was brief and we left. Social care have recorded this as a family meeting where birth mum attended and we all privately discussed us caring for the child. This was not the case at all. Birth mum was not there. Why have they written facts that are not accurate? This happened in the Section 7 report. I was given a letter by birth mum in Dec but they wrote it was given to me on the day child came to me.

If this has affected the complaint and Ombudsman process, it will affect the Judicial review process in the same way and they will say it was a private fostering. I have managed to obtain evidence from school records and Child in need meetings minutes to show that they did not explain the care arrangement at the meeting, only afterwards. There is evidence from a meeting 18 days after the child came to live with me that this is where the SW talked about the private fostering for the first time and gave me a booklet. It is recorded that she said she had to talk to mum about transferring child benefits to us. It is also recorded that the Headmaster queried why it was a private fostering arrangement. He made comments that said,’ in his opinion, social care had encouraged this placement’. In response, the SW shouted at him and they had a big row ( well she did, he was very respectful) It was very uncomfortable and I got upset and was taken out of the room. I felt at this meeting that the narrative had changed from the conversation in the meeting. Birth mum never asked us to have child. Social worker did. She said, social care will support you, she would try to get us funds, and to keep receipts. I did read that incorrect information could be challenged. I am not sure if this is true. It feels extremely unfair to see incorrect facts written when you know it is not true. Can anyone advise?

[Robin D]

All I can advise is that it's a situation I and many have come across. We ended up cross examining a senior social work in court in about 2010 about the inaccuracies in the file. The judge then effectively summoned the director of children's services to appear to explain why the inaccuracies were allowed through, and had been repeated, and therefore the LA were not 'assisting' the court. As a result, an independent investigator was appointed to go through the files, armed with the concrete evidence of some of the inaccuracies that I was able to provide from our own records. A much more complex case than your's although I doubt it doesn't feel anything but complex to you.

Going forward I always advise that when a social worker says or does something verbally, to ask for it in writing, and in the absence of that, you write to them with 'your understanding' of what was said. If they disagree, it gives the opportunity to explain what was actually meant, or even that you may have misunderstood. If they fail to respond to that letter than you can produce you letter as evidence later.

Suzie (the FRG advisor will no doubt be along after the bank holiday with some further advice.

I wish you luck. Best wishes .... Robin

[CY23]

Thank you Robin, for sharing your story. It helped to know that this happens. I felt sick when I read it as I knew it was not true. I expect you felt the same. There is some I can prove is incorrect but not all. So, I will just do my best. When I look back there were so many instances I thought were strange, like the social worker inspecting the child’s room and writing down,’ the child has a ready made bedroom with his own bed that he uses.’ I thought it strange she said that but I don’t like to correct people. I always think, I know the truth as it was my granddaughters bedroom when she stayed but here was the social worker writing down things that suited her agenda. I will always be vigilant with social workers now and that is a shame in some ways. Thank you for your reply. I don’t feel so alone in this situation. Best wishes also.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear CY23

Welcome back to the kinship carers’ forum. This is Suzie, Family Rights Group’s adviser. Thank you for your updating post.

You explain that you are now proceeding to a judicial review as unfortunately the outcome of your complaints to both Children’s Services and the Local Government Ombudsman were unsatisfactory. You are now pursuing a court application as you have exhausted the other options available to you. You have worked very hard to try to get the circumstances properly looked at and as I said in my last response you have shown great tenacity in seeking redress.

You don’t say if you are legally represented in the judicial review process; hopefully, you are. As the concerns you raise about inaccurate records produced by children’s services are relevant to the judicial review, I hope that your solicitor if you have one can help you address this in the case. There is not much further I can suggest, I am afraid, other than letting the court know the errors you have found so that they can consider this carefully.

Another kinship carer who has experienced similar issues with inaccurate information in the past has offered their advice and experience which I hope has helped a little. It is good to know that this helped you feel less alone.

I wish you every success with your application. Please update the board if that is appropriate as it is useful for FRG advisers and kinship carers to hear the outcome of the diligent work you have done to highlight flaws and poor practice and to seek better support as a kinship carer.

With best wishes

Suzie

[CY23]

Thank you for your reply and good wishes. I was not able to find a charity or fund a solicitor for the Judicial review. I have found a person who helps with housing and benefit/welfare rights. He has legal training and has assisted people in Judicial Review in those arenas as a Mackenzie Friend. He has offered to help and assist me. I will update in the future as it is important to share. Thank you.

[CY23]

I am just following on from my last post. I had a chap, legally trained to help with my Judicial Review. He didn’t seem to have much urgency even though I told him that my JR deadline was 21/4/26. I gave him all my information about the case and sent everything over. I began to wonder if it was a scam. I started to panic a bit nearer the deadline date. His answers were always very vague. Anyway, he sent the council the PRE proceedings letter on 17 April 26 but he said that the case had ‘ongoing harm’ so there wasn’t a deadline date. This worried me so I read and researched. Everything I was reading was telling me three months deadline. He insisted it was different for ongoing harm. I couldn’t see it. By 20 April, I was panicking so much. I believed that I knew the deadline was three months so I kept contacting him. He reassured me that he knew what he was doing. I didn’t want to be a nuisance so I told him that I would send the form in. I printed it off but I could not fill it all in as there were bits I could not understand. I messaged him again. I was having panic attacks as I kept thinking- what if he makes me miss my deadline. I thought of writing to the court. He replied quite bruntly- ‘you do nothing, unless I tell you too. If you can’t follow my instructions, let me know’. I had to make a decision to say ok, and trust him as he is legally trained and I am not. However, I felt like it was all wrong and I was worried about not applying in time. I have seen a further email he wrote on 21 April - I must have missed it- it explains that there is no deadline as it is ongoing harm and the duty is owed ongoing. But I don’t think this is correct as the council do not owe a duty ongoing as I had to make an emergency application to Family Court for CAO when birth mum took child and absconded with him, whilst on a contact visit. This was granted and so I have PR. Surely there is no ongoing duty now? Although, if the council had considered Looked After, I never would have had to safeguarded child by going to court. Social care refused to check on him despite only a few months before saying he was not allowed to have unsupervised contact with his mum. I think my legal advisor has got his facts wrong and now I have missed the appeal deadline for Judicial review. I even sent him articles and caselaw on the deadline but he said he knew what he was doing and I could not continue to argue with him. I also felt that I could not go behind his back as I felt he knew more than me and I did not want to upset anything. I don’t know what to do now. I could not afford to have a solicitor. I don’t know if I could use my council letter as the deadline date- but that still makes it 25 April and it is four days past that. Is there anyway the Court of Appeal would accept a late application? I am trying to research it now. I have messaged the legal advisor but he has not got back to me yet. I feel devastated that I might be out of time. Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you.

[Robin D]

I don't believe it is a deadline per se, rather the court will want explanation as to why it was late and can then refuse to hear it if they think you have prevaricated. I suspect from what you have said that you have adequate evidence that you were following advice. Just make sure you keep all emails etc showing your attempts to move it along.

I feel for you, but know that doesn't really help!

Best wishes .... Robin

[CY23]

Thankyou. I do also have lots of emails showing I tried to access legal help aswell. It’s just difficult navigating the higher legal aspects. Thank you.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear CY23,

Thank you for your further post and I am so sorry to hear how worried you are about the 3 month timeframe which has now passed.

I’m afraid that your question falls outside of our remit at Family Rights Group as you need legal advice which we cannot provide. There may be grounds to request an extension for a judicial review but I cannot advise further about this and can only suggest that you seek advice from a legal expert.

I am sorry not to be able to help further. As I said previously, please do update us if you would like to and I wish you every success with your application.

Best wishes,
Suzie