Urgent advice needed

[Grandma63]

My partner has been charged with domestic abuse of his ex. There is a lot of background to this his ex. Has PTSD due to childhood illness and is very protected by parents. She is 26. There is no court dates set and no child offences involved. I have two children from a previous relationship and have been contacted by social work to say my partner is a substantial risk to my children and they are going to go down child protection route. We live in Scotland. Can they do this. He is not known violent, has been charged but nothing set. They are visiting on Wednesday!.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Grandma63

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear about the difficult situation you are in.

As you live in Scotland, I will provide you with details of a number of services who may be able to advise you. Unfortunately, we only advise on children’s services involvement in England so your query is outside our remit. The law and child protection procedures in Scotland are different to England so you need advice from a service in your area:

Scottish Child Law Centre
CLAN Child Law .

However, as the concerns are around domestic abuse, it may be a good idea for you to get some support from a specialist domestic abuse service. As your partner has been charged with domestic abuse of his ex-partner the professionals involved are concerned that may put you and therefore your children at risk too. I will provide some links to services below:

Scottish Women’s Aid
Safer Scotland .

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie

[LP5G12]

I was living in England and have just moved to Scotland and I am currently 17weeks pregnant social services tried getting involved in England but since moving here I haven't heard anything does anyone know if social services any better in Scotland? They all corrupt in England

Thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear LP5G12

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suze. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I hope that you are keeping well.

You have moved from England to Scotland and are wondering about children’s social work operates in Scotland. We do not advise on Scotland, but you may find this NSPCC information about Scottish children’s social work helpful.

You may be able to get advice in Scotland from the Scottish Child Law Centre or CLAN.

And as you are pregnant and living in a new country it might be a good idea for you to access local services for support . You can find out more about support in Scotland from Children 1st Parentline or perhaps Home Start Scotland can offer you some help.

It sounds as if your local children’s services in England wanted to do a pre-birth assessment of your unborn baby’s needs. Therefore, it may be that children’s social work in Scotland will also want to do so. It is always best to engage with health care, children’s services, or other professionals in an open and positive way to address any concerns. I understand that a parent may be worried about this if they have had a previous difficult experience with children’s services but avoiding or not engaging with services can make matters worse.

I hope this is helpful.

Please contact one of the Scottish services linked to above if you need further advice about social work involvement in Scotland.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Decante]

My partner has been charged with domestic abuse of his ex. There is a lot of background to this his ex. Has PTSD due to childhood illness and is very protected by parents. She is 26. There is no court dates set and no child offences involved. I have two children from a previous relationship and have been contacted by social work to say my partner is a substantial risk to my children and they are going to go down child protection route. We live in Scotland. Can they do this. He is not known violent, has been charged but nothing set. They are visiting on Wednesday!.

Hi grandma63,

Social services as I'm aware have a duty towards any children that maybe involved or around your partner, although there is no charges against children. There could be a slight risk, due to the child previously may have seen or heard the DV from your partner and his EX.

As he is now with you, they do have a duty to protect your children they can put your children on child protection if they think they could be at harm or future harm, that doesn't mean that they will remove your children, they will assess situation and how you understand to keep them from harm. They can do am assessment on him around the children, but it can be a difficult one if he has been removed from the previous home where there were children.

Someone with PTSD can be unpredictable at times and can feel like walking on egg shells but this will also test him, I'm unsure how long you have been together with him but if it is a short time then it can be abit more difficult, there could be alot more to it than meets the eye although social services can only mention certain details, they can't go into full details of the previous unless they gain consent from your partner and his EX.

I hope that everything does go okay and they give a little clearence as to why they are concerned my advise would be to listen to them, and do what ever is asked. Understand that your children aren't The only ones at risk and you could be too. He may not have shown anything yet but again this will be a test for him.

[Decante]

I was living in England and have just moved to Scotland and I am currently 17weeks pregnant social services tried getting involved in England but since moving here I haven't heard anything does anyone know if social services any better in Scotland? They all corrupt in England

Thanks

Hi there,

Is there any reason as to why social services in England wanted to get involved? If you've had children before that have been removed then they most likely would do an assessment, and then go from there.

But as you've moved to Scotland and if you haven't informed anyone if maybe a while before it's flagged, but it could be on maternity notes that social services were going to be informed of your pregnancy it is the duty of the midwife to inform social services if you've had them involved before reguardless if you've had children removed or not.

Again it all depends on why in England they were going to get involved.