Avoidant behaviour - from the council

[deletedkatkat10]

So long story short - there is a Child Protection Plan case open as the previous council lied and said I stopped engaging with a Child In Need Plan there (despite me having the closing reports, all letters saying no safeguarding concerns at all etc).

This council have been trying to put off getting me an advocate for nearly a year (I am disabled). Finally have one. She liased with the social worker for the next conference review date so that the advocate was available.

As soon as that date was provided to the social worker, the council switched the social worker that day and did not inform the Advocate at all!

Now we are meant to have a conference this Monday morning without my Advocate ever getting to speak to the new social worker. The new social worker has never met me nor the children yet is presenting the case against me at the conference? And I have still not received an invite for this conference on Monday morning despite the Advocate saying I absolutely am entitled to be there.

Why would the council
a) change the social worker as soon as a conference review date was agreed?
b) purposefully not send me the video link invite so that I cannot attend the conference review but invite everyone else, including the advocate?

[KatKat10]

Hello bb&c

It could be that your original social worker has left the Local Authority and they have replaced with a new one. Have you communicated everything in writing about attending the meeting, will this be done remotely or in person? If you are able to get a solicitor then please do, someone who is experienced and accredited in children's law.
KK10

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

So long story short - there is a Child Protection Plan case open as the previous council lied and said I stopped engaging with a Child In Need Plan there (despite me having the closing reports, all letters saying no safeguarding concerns at all etc).

This council have been trying to put off getting me an advocate for nearly a year (I am disabled). Finally have one. She liased with the social worker for the next conference review date so that the advocate was available.

As soon as that date was provided to the social worker, the council switched the social worker that day and did not inform the Advocate at all!

Now we are meant to have a conference this Monday morning without my Advocate ever getting to speak to the new social worker. The new social worker has never met me nor the children yet is presenting the case against me at the conference? And I have still not received an invite for this conference on Monday morning despite the Advocate saying I absolutely am entitled to be there.

Why would the council
a) change the social worker as soon as a conference review date was agreed?
b) purposefully not send me the video link invite so that I cannot attend the conference review but invite everyone else, including the advocate?

Dear bananabiscuitcakes,

Thank you for your further post.

I am aware that the review child protection conference was scheduled for this morning but I hope that the following advice is helpful.

Your advocate is entirely correct to say that you are entitled to attend the conference and that you should have been sent the video link invite. Anyone with parental responsibility should be included fully in the child protection process. It may be that this was a genuine mistake on the part of the admin team or the social worker who should have sent out the invite, rather than it being a deliberate omission. However it is still not acceptable that the link was not sent to you and you may wish to speak with the social worker’s manager about this, or if you are still not satisfied then you do have the option of making a formal complaint.

You also say that there has been a sudden change of social worker and that they have never met you or your children and have not spoken with your advocate. You were not given a reason as to why the social worker was changed. Hopefully this was discussed during the conference this morning, however if you are still unclear then I would suggest that you contact the social worker’s manager in writing to ask them to explain this. There are various reasons why families have a change of social worker, however this should be communicated clearly and in a timely fashion to parents. Again if you are dissatisfied with the response then you do have the option of making a formal complaint.

We have information on our website HERE about the child protection process which may be helpful for you to read through.

I hope that the above advice is of some help. Please do post again if you have further queries or you are welcome to call our free, confidential helpline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday – Friday, 9:30am – 3pm).

Best wishes,
Suzie

[benion]

My experience of SS is that there is a high staff turnover, workers leave all the time. SS are perfectly entitled to put a new worker on the case.
You say that they "purposely" withheld the online invite when you do not know that it was on purpose. It could merely be an admin error.
You state in your post that the social worker is "presenting the case against me at the conference". That is not true. The SW will present a full report of the children's welfare, which should include positives as well as negatives.
I hope the situation improves for you.