Child Protection plan

[Girlmamato5]

Thankyou so much. Because of your help, I am going to be fighting it all the way and I will be questioning every move they make. I have even started recording every conversation because I know how much the system lies and manipulates and even now they’re still trying. They wont give me the original copy of the child protection medical report and have said they sought legal advice and I can only have a copy of the report after the peer review/second opinion. Is this correct? Online it says I can request and receive the original report as a peer review isn’t mandatory for me to have the original document.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Girlmamato5

Welcome back to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your further posts.

Thank you for clarifying that your ex-partner is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a child. Children’s services role is to assess the risk of harm to your children and to safeguard them. The children have been made subject to child protection plans as it was decided at the multi-agency conference that they were suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

Child protection is a statutory process that does not require parental consent. However, when you were working with children’s services under a child in need plan that was voluntary. The social worker should have explained to you that you could withdraw your consent at any time but that if that made them more concerned for your children’s safety then your children’s situation could escalate to child protection enquiries and to a child protection conference.

It is good to hear that you and your ex-partner have cooperated with the process. It is a serious matter when children have a child protection plan so please continue to engage fully in the process, even if you are involved in a complaints process.

You state that you are now recording conversations. It can be very helpful to have a record of discussions rather than waiting for minutes and to be able to challenge errors or omissions in reports. I understand that you are worried that you are being set up for failure. But I hope that you when recording you are doing so openly with the knowledge and consent of the professionals involved and in line with the local authority’s policy on recording. Covert recording is not the best way to work in partnership with professionals and agencies.

You have a query about getting a copy of a child protection medical report. A child protection medical is conducted by a specially trained paediatrician at the request of children’s services or the police. As you have not mentioned a child protection medical in any of your previous posts, I don’t know exactly what this refers to or what the outcome was.

You say ‘they won’t give you a copy of the report until there has been a peer review/second opinion’ I am unclear if you are referring to children’s services or to the hospital where a specialist paediatrician examined your child.

If you mean that children’s services are not willing to share this report based on their legal advice then I would suggest that you write back to children’s services (your social worker, their manager, the conference Chair) to:

• Ask for a copy in writing of their policy on sharing child protection medical reports and that they clarify where this confirms that that the report must be peer reviewed/second opinion provided before it can be shared with you.
• You can say that you found conflicting information online and provide a copy of the online information that you refer to, for their information.
• If you are dissatisfied or unhappy with their response you can contact the Information Commissioner (ICO) explaining your query and asking them to investigate. Please see this link for the ICO’s contact details.


• You could ask the hospital to provide you with a copy of their policy on sharing their medical report on your child – if you need advice about hospital procedures you can consult with PALs.

I hope that this is helpful.

Please contact the advice service again if you have any further queries. You can get advice from an experienced adviser via one of the following options:

• Posting back on this forum
• Calling our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm
• Sending an advice enquiry form
• Using our webchat facility.

Best wishes

Suzie